Dirty Freehub
Favorites Sign In Search
  • Search
  • Donate
  • Gravel Routes
    • Explore by Region
    • Explore by Type
    • Explore by Collection
  • All Access®
  • Stories
    • Bike Life
    • Culture & History
      • Central Oregon
      • NE Oregon
      • Bend Trails
      • Death Valley
    • People & Places
    • Lands
      • Arizona
      • Central Oregon
      • NE Oregon
    • Love Where You Ride
  • Events
  • User Guide
    • Route Types
    • How We Rate Routes
    • Using the Map
    • Loading a GPX File
    • Glossary
    • FAQs
  • Inside DF
    • The Team
    • Our Missions
    • Impact Reports
    • Press
    • Sponsors
  • Store
    • Gravel Guides
    • Merch
  • Donate
  • Cart
  • Sign In
  • Favorites

Keating with Love & Virtue!

5 Star Route / ~ Baker City, Oregon / Published: Feb 2024 / Directions
Save to Favorites Remove from Favorites
Leading out! / October 2022
Ruckles Creek Canyon
Beginning of the Keating sector.
Near Keating
The Powder River
Beginning of the rough & rugged.
The top of the climb.
A short, burly section.
Love Reservoir
Wallowa Mountains in the distance.
Almost back!
Ride metrics.
The parking area.
*
Route:
Lollipop | 46 mi
*
Gain:
2,700 ft
*
Surface:
~ 90% gravel, 10% paved
*
Technical Difficulty:
Moderate
*
Max Gradient:
+11% / -6%
*
Sustained Gradient:
4% over 4 miles
*
Climb Ratio:
0.6
*
Effort:
3 (out of 5)
*
Navigation:
Straightforward
*
Locale:
Rural
*
Tire Suggestion:
40 mm+
*
Options:
Shorter

This is the longer option of Keating with Love. It attaches a stick to the loop to form a lollipop course. It includes the Virtue Mine expanse and has a super cool start at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Something you should budget into your day, maybe an hour or so after the ride. We think the Interpretive Center is worth the extra ride distance.

———-

Embark on an adventure and witness the rugged beauty of Eastern Oregon! This route will take you through the challenges faced by pioneers of the Oregon Trail, showcasing the desolate and remote terrain they conquered.

The Oregon Trail is 2,170-mile journey from the Missouri River to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Not a road in the conventional sense, this trail was simply rutted paths across the prairies, deserts, and mountains. From the 1840s to the 1880s, brave souls set out westward with only their belongings and supplies, shaping the American West forever.

Get ready for open grasslands, rolling hills, and stunning vistas as far as the eye can see. The journey is vast and awe-inspiring. But don’t be fooled by the seemingly easy first half of the route. The real challenge begins at mile 24, so gear up for an adventure!

Read More
Map
Brown = gravel / dirt road
Blue = single track
Red = paved road
Purple = paved bike path

Highlights & Remarkable Spots

Virtue Mine District / Mile 1 to 5

Virtue Mine, near Baker City, Oregon

In this area, there were a number of gold & silver mines in the late 1800s and early 1900s including the Flagstaff, Virtue, and Friday mines. The Virtue mine reached 1000 feet deep and a length of 10,000 feet. The total production from the mine is estimated at $2,189,000. In the year 1897 the yield of gold from 313 gold mines and claims in the area, in all stages of development, was estimated at $3,000,000. [Western Mining History]

James W. Virtue

James W. Virtue coin

“As early as 1871, James William Virtue—one-time sheriff of Baker County—was recognized nationally for his expertise as a miner when President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him U.S. centennial commissioner. His charge was to help plan “an international exhibition of arts, manufactures, and products of the soil and mine,” to be held in Philadelphia in 1876 as part of the centennial celebration of American independence.At one time, Virtue was considered the richest man in eastern Oregon, but he suffered financial disaster when his bank failed during the Panic of 1893.” [Oregon Encyclopedia]

Wallowa Mountains / ~ Mile 8

Wallowa Mountains

The Wallowa Mountains are known as the “Alps of Oregon”. They are composed of metamorphic rock and granitic rocks of the Wallowa Batholith. The Batholith formed when huge blobs of magma were injected into the rocks of the exotic terranes about 130 million years ago. Because the magma was injected many miles below the surface, the molten rock cooled slowly, allowing the characteristic coarse salt and pepper crystal texture of granite to form. However, the hills around the valleys surrounding the high-Wallowas are made up of Columbia River Basalt. [Cycle Oregon]

Keating / ~ Mile 14

Keating Valley Ranch

Keating and the Keating Valley are home to productive farms and ranches today. The “town” is named for “Uncle Tom” Keating, a former British sailor and early settler and investor in land. A post office opened December 1880 and remained active until January 1975. In 1870 there was an attempt to alter the course of the Oregon Trail by leaving the traditional route near Durkee and cutting across the hills to the Lower Powder River valley (near Keating) and thence to Pondosa and Telocaset. (If you have know of more historical information, please drop us a note.) [Wikipedia]

Widman Hunting Preserve / ~ mile 30

Keating with Love - Widman Access Area

The Widman Access Area is a cooperative program between a private landowner and the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. The goal is to maintain public hunting access on private lands and increase access to public land. The lands provide habitat for deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, Hungarian partridge, chukar, and quail. The ranch has also been active in habitat improvement projects aimed at treating invasive annual grass and re-establishing perennial grass. [on-site kiosk]

Love Reservoir / ~ Mile 32

Keating - Love Reservoir

Walter S. Love’s sons homesteaded land between Kelley Creek and Ritter Creek. He built the Love Reservoir around 1900 to furnish irrigation water for this land. This reservoir was fed by ditches that brought water from Love, and Ritter Creeks. When full, it covered 120 acres, but now with the higher dam, it covers 160 acres. [Baker County Oregon Geneology and History]

Ride Details

When We Like to Ride This

Spring and Fall, when temps are more moderate. Very exposed. When windy and hot, no go! If do this in the summer pick a “cooler” day or get an early start. In the spring and fall, the afternoon light is just gorgeous.

Terrain & Riding

The roads. A mix of maintained gravel county roads (with a little pavement) and dirt BLM roads. The terrain. Farm and ranch lands. Rolling hills. Valleys and distant mountain ranges. Grasslands and sage.

Sector 1 / Stick of Lollipop / Virtue Flats & Ruckles Creek / Miles 0 to 10
Downhill at 1 to 2%, hard-packed, double lane road, some washboard. Hunt for a smooth line. Rolling hills, grasslands, Ruckles Creek and a small canyon.

Sector 2 / Keating / Miles 10 to 24
This is what we call the north loop. From the highway to Keating back to the highway. Rolling hills through farming and ranch country.

Sector 3 / Widman Ranch & Love Reservoir / Miles 24 to 38
Rugged, exposed (the most demanding terrain of the day). Views that go on for miles and miles. With the longest climb of the day (4 miles, 900 feet, average gradient of ~ 4%). Expect some loose river rock and river rock cobblestone.

Sector 4 / Stick of Lollipop / Virtue Flats & Ruckles Creek / Miles 38 to Finish
The reverse of sector 1. Surprisingly, this sector is not as demanding as one would expect. A 1 to 2% uphill grade, with the steepest climbing being back up to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

The Start

Lat / Long: 44.813692, -117.727169

Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Paved parking lot. Water. Flush toilets.

Food & Water

  • None
Notes & Options

Route Notes

  1. Please ride with respect! Portions of this ride are through rural working ranch and farming country. Please give way to trucks, tractors, and combines. That may mean stopping as a group and letting a large combine pass, or it may be as simple as riding in a tight single file line when an oncoming truck with trailing is approaching. To help alert you to traffic from behind, we recommend a rear-looking radar detector like a Garmin Varia. Also, give a listen to our podcast with a local rancher who talks about the challenges cyclists create for them and how we can be better visitors.

Route Options

There is a shorter and longer option. The shorter option, Keating with Love, starts at the alternative parking area, just off Highway 86, at mile 11 of this route. This option is a loop of 30 miles with 1800 feet of gain.

The longer option is the “Rough & Rowdy (GPX File)” version. It tackles a segment of dirt road that is more primitive and demanding, starting at mile 25. 58 miles and 4000 feet of gain. Go prepared!

Comments

Have you ridden this route? Got a question? Join the discussion!

Love Where You Ride! Learn More

Oregon Trail wagonsIf you have any feel for history whatsoever, the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is well worth an hour of your time (located at the start of the ride). Situated on a hill overlooking the historic Oregon Trail, there is just something about it. The models of wagons, carts, mules, horses, buffalos and coyotes are so realistic. The Center tells the story of Oregon Trail pioneers, explorers, miners and settlers of the frontier west. The 500-acre site includes remnants of the historic Flagstaff Gold Mine, actual ruts carved by pioneer wagons, and magnificent vistas of the historic trail route.

Videos

The Ride! Keating with Love & Virtue

A quick 2-minute video of what to expect on your ride!

Life on the Oregon Trail

What was life really like on the Oregon Trail? Learn about the risks and dangers of being on the trail, what a day in the life of a pioneer was like, and what equipment and supplies were used. This video is really worth 14 minutes of your time!

Podcasts

Tractors, Bulls and Lycra

In this podcast, we talk with Daarla K who is a rancher and farmer in northeast Oregon. She and her husband operate a 1000-acre farm that has been in his family since 1886. Learn how to safely pass by big tractors and combines, how to get through a cattle drive, and what aggressive behavior [...]

Be Informed!

Cows in the road

Cows!

This route crosses through open grazing lands where you may encounter cows and cattle. Learn how to handle this situation the right way. Whooping and hollering are not it!!

Read More »

Keep it Local! Learn More

The Trailhead Bike Shop

The Trailhead Ski & Bike Shop

The local bike shop in Baker City, The Trailhead, has put together a great local, Baker City centric, list of places to eat and stay. And in you are in need of any bike help, parts, or accessories, they have it all.

Ridden and Reviewed by:

KevinE

KevinE / Team Dirty Freehub

He should have “Never Stop Exploring” tattooed on his chest! He loves adventures on bikes and is a Co-Founder of Dirty Freehub.

LindaE (aka Gravel Girl)

LindaE (aka Gravel Girl) / Team Dirty Freehub

She loves a good day of gravel, like most people like a good book. She’s always amused by the outdoors and the wild adventures. Gravel Girl is a Co-Founder of Dirty Freehub.

Explore Similar Routes:

3 Days In Baker City Baker City

Sign Up for the Dirty Freehub Newsletter

info@DirtyFreehub.org
Terms of Service Privacy EEO Policy Our Values
Dirty Freehub is 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
©2025 Dirty Freehub :: All Rights Reserved :: Website Design
Cleantalk Pixel

We Need Your Support!

Dirty Freehub is a 501(c)3 nonprofit funded by generous donations from riders like you!

  • $25 Keeps the lights on (web hosting, technology tools, insurance, etc.)
  • $50 Keeps lights on + up to date route conditions
  • $100 Continued route development
  • $200 Fully documented route guide
  • $200+ Gravel Girl giggle of gratitude

Donate Today