Another Epic Mountain Bike Route: Deer Creek--Turah--Allen Creek Road--upper-Deer Creek Road--Pattee Canyon

In studying the maps for the Miller Peak ride I described in my last post, I notice Allen Creek Road (Forest Service 355), which comes up from Turah and reaches the divide at the point where the single track begins on the Miller Peak route. Since I had figured out the route from upper-Deer Creek Road to this point on the divide, I knew that there was another big, fun loop to do, coming up 355 from Turah and descending down to Pattee Canyon.

Unlike Miller Peak, this route has no single track, until you enter the Pattee Canyon trail system, but it also has almost no pavement. It's a fine ride at near 40 miles and 5000 feet of climbing. Here is my Strava route, and below is the route beta.

Warning: this description is vague and comes with no guarantees. Also, it is extremely easy to get lost on the middle sections of this ride, so be very careful if you try it and take a friend.

1. ride out Kim William to Deer Creek Road, climb up the hill, pass the turn off for the Deer Creek Sneak, descend to Deer Creek, and after the sharp right, take the logging road on your left all the way to Turah;
2. once in Turah, after the pavement starts, the road T's, turn right and a mile or so later, right after the road turns to gravel, look for a gravel road on your right with a Forest Service 355 sign down the road 20 yards;
3. settle in for a long (~10 mile, 4000+ ft) climb, staying on the road most traveled until near the top where you'll see the saddle up and to the left and at a three-way intersection (~8 miles into the climb) you'll take the left fork that heads toward it;
4. at the saddle there are two options I've used to get to Pattee: (i) take your first right and at the first bend in the road (after 50 yards or so) get off your bike and hike up the faded trail on your left straight up a clear cut slope to a logging road, where you'll turn left and ride for about a mile, looking for a stack of sticks with flagging, at which point you'll turn left again and follow an old jeep road/trail down the treed ridge; or (ii) head straight over the other side of the divide and immediately turn right onto an old logging road, which you'll ride to it's end, then get off your bike and hike up the steep old road grade (or skid track) on your right until you see the jeep road/trail mentioned above on your left, just below the stack of sticks with flagging mentioned in option (i);
5. descend on the jeep road to it's end, where it turns to single track, bears right, and quickly joins a dead-end road, where you'll take your first left, and within half a mile you'll join upper-Deer Creek Road, which is a gentle descent all the way to upper-Pattee Canyon.

PS: I did this ride again with Jen a few weeks later. It seemed even harder than the first time. Also, I think option (i) in part 4 of the description is the easier way. And finally, for the adventurous, note on the Strava route, the alternate route down part of Upper Dear Creek Road.