Drainage patterns are created where watercourses follow the lead of the landscape’s geological history, features and contours. Characteristics of the underlying rock, steepness of slope, faults and joints in the Earth’s surface, the specific shape of particular geological formations, and the soil’s susceptibility to erosion are among the factors that affect the pattern established for the flow of water through a particular place.
Following the Molalla River upstream is a bittersweet journey into a watershed haunted by its elemental, geological and cultural history. From the alluvial bottomlands of the Willamette Valley, the Molalla basin can be traced far upriver into the rolling uplands of the Table Rock plateau. The river in fact, has no single, definitive source, rather it is the accumulated drainage of a broad and vascular network of springs, creeks, streams and minor watercourses. Its north and south forks define the boundaries of the Table Rock Wilderness, converging into the mainstem Molalla near the site of the Old Bridge trailhead, thus creating the largest unregulated tributary feeding into the Willamette.
The Molalla finds its form beneath the transitional foothills of Gawley Ridge, having incised steep, narrow canyons through Columbia River basalt flows, Pleistocene-era bedrock, Miocene and Oligocene volcanic tuff, andesite and breccia, leaving behind columnal pillars, dramatic outcrops and circular rosette formations — geology as iconically Oregonian as it is alien and severe. The Molalla landforms feel characteristically similar to those of the Columbia River Gorge having been forged by the same dynamic intersection of ancient volcanics and flowing water.
Ancestral Trails
Trails along the Molalla River have existed for millennia as part of a sprawling circuit of trade routes and seasonal foraging encampments used by Northern Molalla, Crooked Finger Molalla and Santiam Band Molalla peoples. Kindred spirits with the Klamath peoples, the Molalla’s seasonal highways connected their homelands in the Willamette Valley to the Western Cascadian high country and beyond to Warm Springs and south to the McKenzie River drainage.
The best documented aspect of Molalla culture is the language through which it was transmitted. From the mid-nineteenth century into the twentieth, a succession of scholars transcribed samples of spoken Molalla from a people known to anthropologists as the Northern Molalla and known to themselves as the Latiwi or Lati-ayfk people. Molalla was formerly classified as part of the so-called Waiilatpuan language family, together with the Old Cayuse language (the language spoken by the Cayuse people of northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington in the early nineteenth century). Linguists have since concluded that Molalla shares a remote common ancestry with other languages of the same region, especially with the neighboring Sahaptin, Nez Perce and Klamath languages.
Crooked Finger
Loshuk, a Molalla Chief also known as Crooked Finger, lived in an upland valley in the foothills of the Abiqua basin. The area is called Crooked Finger Prairie to this day. Loshuk is said to have received his American name Crooked Finger when as a boy he was playing with a rifle and it went off, disfiguring his hand. In his time he was renowned for speaking against the American settlement of his land and set about to harass settlers and homesteaders whenever he could as partial retribution for the losses his people were sustaining.
Beachie Creek Fire
In August of 2020, at the peak of a brutal summer heatwave, lightning ignited a wildfire in the heart of the remote and rugged Opal Creek Wilderness, home to the largest stretch of unlogged, old-growth forest remaining in Oregon. Accelerated by a historic windstorm, the Beachie Creek fire raced explosively up and down the canyons, tearing through wilderness and timberland alike, burning nearly 200,000 acres before merging with the massive Lionshead fire to create the Santiam fire complex, which ultimately exceeded 400,000 acres before being contained in December of 2020.
As with many of the 2020 Oregon wildfire zones, most of the affected areas have been closed to public entry ever since, locked away within controlled closure perimeters while salvage logging operations remove debris and downed trees as well as clearing landslides, rocks and other hazards from key arterials. That said, progress is slow and many of the affected areas are likely to remain closed for the foreseeable future.
Route Overview
The Molalla Headwaters route features a handful of anomalies. The first being that it is 100% paved. The second curious feature and centerpiece of the experience, is a 12-mile out-and-back stretch (24 miles round trip) along the Molalla River corridor in and out of the burn, which ventures inside the fire perimeter to the edge of the current closure.
Crossing the line from lush river valley into the spectral forest of a catastrophic burn is an unsettling sensation. The usual forest sounds of rustling leaves, birdcalls and rushing water seem somehow muted by an overwhelming presence of ash, rock, dust and charred debris.
One may also notice seemingly odd temperature inversions. The northernmost section of this out-and-back line runs through a narrow, densely forested canyon with steep walls which reflect and insulate a corridor of cold air coming off the river, but incidentally the roadbed diverges from the river as it climbs, crossing to the east bank at the burn perimeter. Distance from the river, coupled with an abrupt lack of shade or insulating vegetation will oftentimes cause microclimatic spikes and drops in temperature. Our accounts registered 42 in the canyon jumping to 62 as we crossed into the burn, and vice-versa on the way back out.
We will stop short of claiming the Molalla River is haunted, but there is definitely some peculiar mojo back in this valley. A series of freshwater springs noted within the route flow directly out of the hillside at mile 37.8, providing plenty of natural water refill. As with certain other routes within this series, rather than starting from a common point, the different variants are distinguished by their start/finish locations.
While we opted to keep the Molalla River Headwaters a fully paved ride, those looking for a bit of a deeper adventure would do well to note the extensive and fully bike-legal trail system which runs along the west side of the Molalla corridor. Rather than call out specific trails or lines, we’ll simply note that they are there if folks feel like exploring a little deeper and further afield.
EXTRA-LIGHT
47 MILES
3699 FEET
ROUTE FORMAT: LOOP with out-and-back tail
SURFACE: 100% PAVED
TIRES: 28c road tires
SERVICES: FOOD AND DRINK OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN molalla
ROUTE DETAILS
STANDARD
86.1 MILES
6404 FEET
ROUTE FORMAT: LOOP with out-and-back tail
SURFACE: 100% PAVED
TIRES: 28c road tires
SERVICES: FOOD AND DRINK OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN molalla
ROUTE DETAILS
ENDURANCE
110.9 MILES
7829 FEET
ROUTE FORMAT: LOOP WITH OUT-AND-BACK TAIL
SURFACE: 100% PAVED
TIRES: 28C ROAD TIRES
SERVICES: FOOD AND DRINK OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN PORTLAND, MOLALLA AND BARTON
ROUTE DETAILS
Terms of Use: As with each adventure route guide published on OMTM.CC, should you choose to cycle this route, do so at your own risk. Prior to setting out check current local weather, conditions, and land/road closures. While riding, obey all public and private land use restrictions and rules, carry proper safety and navigational equipment, and of course, follow the #leavenotrace guidelines. The information found herein is simply a planning resource to be used as a point of inspiration in conjunction with your own due-diligence. In spite of the fact that this route, associated GPS track (GPX and maps), and all route guidelines were prepared under diligent research by the specified contributor and/or contributors, the accuracy of such and judgement of the author is not guaranteed. OMTM.CC, its partners, associates, and contributors are in no way liable for personal injury, damage to personal property, or any other such situation that might happen to individual riders cycling or following this route.