Hands down, this is THE most demanding and challenging ride I have undertaken in awhile. The trail is by Oakridge, just a little under 1.5 hours from Bend. It's a shuttle unless you get a really eary start and have some really, really good legs. The ride we did was around 25 miles and get this....4200' of climbing WITH 8000' of descending. That's what the map says and I am not shocked to know it was that much. Totally insane. The trail is very primative in areas and you can't even see the ground through the overgrowth. Lots of places the trail gets lost and you have to make some guesses. It's soo steep in some places that all you can do is hike up, while other times I was riding down such steep switchbacks and chutes that my chest was resting on my saddle I was so far back behind it. It's very rough and slow going with rocks, logs, bark, moss, bunchgrass and loose stuff in sections, and other times you are hauling ass along sweet singletrack. I will be back for sure.
I have a gazillion pictures and these aren't even counting the ones Eugene took that are wayyyy better than mine.
You can't go anywhere in Oregon without getting a bridge and river picture.
You can barely see the road off in the distance across the way...that's what we drove up and we started at the peak to the left of the picture.
I know my face is blocked, but this was the first section so overgrown that you couldnt' see the ground.
Go Ridemonkey!
One of the MANY meadows we traversed.
Are we almost there?
Nope, that's our end point between the two trees in the middle...that little city waaaay down there.
We went through the burn at one point, the Warner Fire swept through the area.
I know this one is a bit blury, but I like how you can see all four riders.
Dana powers up.
If you've never tried it, bunchgrass is really hard to ride through. It's just that, bunch grass. The second your tire hits it, it's like hitting a wall. So, TRY to stay on the "trail". Can you see it, it goes up by the rock to the right. Good luck.
The grin on Cate's face would come and go depending on different sections of the trail.
Pretty flowers.
Weird green thingies
Ben powers through after a death defying gigantic descent that felt like it was straight down. When you consider the trail stats, some descents literally were almost straight down!
There really wasn't ANY place on this trail to just relax. you had to always be on it, or you'd be a few miles down the side of the mountain.
I think Eugene told me that this actual section of the trail is actually called "Derek's death switchbacks". They were seriously steep. i didn't get a good picture of them, but I know Eugene did. I could only ride about 3 of them.
Just a wee bit of moss, eh?
I thnk Jaba the Hut is somewhere in the picture.
This was going to be dinner if we didn't get a move on.
Rainbow Trout and me.
Dun dun dun dun
Would I do it again? Yes. It totally rocked.
I have a gazillion pictures and these aren't even counting the ones Eugene took that are wayyyy better than mine.
You can't go anywhere in Oregon without getting a bridge and river picture.
You can barely see the road off in the distance across the way...that's what we drove up and we started at the peak to the left of the picture.
I know my face is blocked, but this was the first section so overgrown that you couldnt' see the ground.
Go Ridemonkey!
One of the MANY meadows we traversed.
Are we almost there?
Nope, that's our end point between the two trees in the middle...that little city waaaay down there.
We went through the burn at one point, the Warner Fire swept through the area.
I know this one is a bit blury, but I like how you can see all four riders.
Dana powers up.
If you've never tried it, bunchgrass is really hard to ride through. It's just that, bunch grass. The second your tire hits it, it's like hitting a wall. So, TRY to stay on the "trail". Can you see it, it goes up by the rock to the right. Good luck.
The grin on Cate's face would come and go depending on different sections of the trail.
Pretty flowers.
Weird green thingies
Ben powers through after a death defying gigantic descent that felt like it was straight down. When you consider the trail stats, some descents literally were almost straight down!
There really wasn't ANY place on this trail to just relax. you had to always be on it, or you'd be a few miles down the side of the mountain.
I think Eugene told me that this actual section of the trail is actually called "Derek's death switchbacks". They were seriously steep. i didn't get a good picture of them, but I know Eugene did. I could only ride about 3 of them.
Just a wee bit of moss, eh?
I thnk Jaba the Hut is somewhere in the picture.
This was going to be dinner if we didn't get a move on.
Rainbow Trout and me.
Dun dun dun dun
Would I do it again? Yes. It totally rocked.
