ScenicCurves

Home / Routes / Minnesota / Troy and the Chatfield Ridges

Troy and the Chatfield Ridges

Troy and the Chatfield Ridges is 26.2 miles of loop riding through Fillmore and Olmsted Counties in Minnesota — Bluff Country, the Root River valley, the Mississippi bluffs and the ridge roads above them. Moving time is about 31 minutes; allow 45 with stops — a quick spin. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 35 corners, 106° of turning per mile, 1,220 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.

Curviness
CS-3Spirited · 1.33/mi
Distance
26.2 mi31 min riding
Corners
3549% sharp · Tight
Climbing
1,220 ft47 ft/mi · Steep
Shape
LoopQuick spin
Roads
Backroads100% county & local
Traffic
681vehicles a day, median
Speed limit
55 mphtypically 55
Open this route in the app

About this road

This short loop in the Chatfield area samples the typical Fillmore County mix of ridge and valley without extreme length. It serves as a good introduction to the local road character and the Root River upland around Troy and Chatfield. Settlement history follows the familiar Scandinavian and mixed European farm-community pattern. As a half-morning ride it still delivers authentic Bluff Country feel and the characteristic rhythm of the land. Traffic is light; services are available in Chatfield. Ideal when time is limited or when a gentler day is needed between longer, more demanding routes. Also a practical shakedown for riders new to the region’s ridge-and-coulee pattern before committing to the fuller Root River or Mississippi corridors. Short, true, and easy to fit into almost any itinerary.

How it rides

35 corners over 26.2 miles — 1.33 a mile, and 106° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 49% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.

What it climbs

The road climbs 1,220 feet in total, 47 feet per mile, between 1,012 and 1,342 feet — 330 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 204 feet over 2.6 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 7.3%. By Driftless standards that is steep.

Surface, speed and traffic

Paved end to end. 100% of it is back road rather than highway. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 72% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 31% of the miles — the median is 681 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 0.0 with 1,876.

Where to stop

1 of the towns on this road has somewhere to stop — 1 fuel, 2 food.

Longest stretch without fuel: 26 miles. Worth knowing before you set off if your tank is small.

Listed alphabetically, and chosen by us rather than rated by anybody. The order you reach them, and the mile each one sits at, are in the app.

Worth knowing

Turn-by-turn directions and the spoken guidance are in the app. Every figure on this page is measured from the route itself — corner counts and gradients from the road geometry, elevation from the national elevation dataset, traffic from the state transport departments where counts exist.

Nearby roads