Bend is only a 100 mile drive from Oakridge but a world
away. It’s over the Cascade Mountains and on the Columbia plateau at 4000 ft
elevation, hence classified as high desert. Due to this, the rainfall is much
less than the west side of the Cascades. Bend has been one of the most
successful towns in Oregon in the last 10 years and is a popular place to live,
due to the low rainfall and many outdoor activities, there are snow sports very
near town. The town itself looks prosperous with trendy shops and a
micro-brewery for every day of the fortnight. The picturesque Deschutes River
runs through town and has great rapids if that’s your thing. Unfortunately the
camping here is limited to RV parks, the one we stayed in was between two major
roads and relatively noisy compared with the solitude of Oakridge.
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| Deschute River Trail |
Like Oakridge there is 300 miles of maintained singletrack.
It’s claimed if you come here for a riding holiday there is no need for a car,
just ride to the singletrack. Reading between the lines this is only if you are
a cross country whippet and ride a 29er 20lb carbon race bike. The locals drive
to the trailhead. Luckily we arrived just as a fire that had closed trails for
a week was extinguished. Unluckily a cold weather system came in as well and
the heater promptly came out from under the RV. Most mornings were below 5ᵒ and
the days were lucky to hit 15ᵒ. One morning I shuttled up the hill and it
snowed for an hour!
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| Deschute River Trail |
Fiona and Symi were happy to get a bit of town time in and
spent a few hours wandering around the town looking at the shops and having
coffee and hot chocolate. We did indulge in a meal out in Bend, we don’t have
many. We went to an Italian place that was okay but nothing to write home about.
We rode our bikes around and realised we are quite fit when the hill out of the
town and back to the RV park did not phase us at all. We were also quite enthralled
with the prairie dogs we saw when we were pedalling in and out. Well that’s the
end of the short break from mountain biking blogging – back to Rob, who it may
be coming apparent to you, has had an indulgent time with the mountain biking
recently!
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| Lava rock |
The riding consisted of exploring Phil’s world, lower trails
here are very mellow and require pedalling but have amazing flow. Trails get a
black rating very easily here. First ride I stayed on the lower trails,
initially disappointed to see dry and dusty soil (pumice) but quickly realised
the grip was endless. The next day was a family ride on the Deschutes River
Trail, very picturesque and mellow. After a rest day (body was tired) consisting
of a fantastic outing to the High Desert Museum (see the blog written earlier
by Symi), it was time to shuttle. First day was a ride down Swede Ridge, Sector
16 then Upper to Lower Whoops. Lower Whoops was a 3km downhill with countless
berms, ramps and big tabletops. So good it was straight up for a second run.
Next shuttle was on the south side of the 46 and I rode Tiddlywinks (Lower
Whoops on steroids), climbed Funner then Tyler’s Traverse (more of the same). The
descents were long and smile very large. That afternoon was a family ride starting
with a run
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| Lower Whoops |
down Lower Whoops. Fiona and Symi then did the gradual downhill to
Phil’s trailhead, while I grabbed the opportunity for another Whoops run (completing
six hours riding for the day!) before driving down the hill to pick them up. The
day before someone had been telling us how much mountain bikers look like deer
to cougars (when they are bent over riding). Fiona had a heart stopping moment
when she and Symi were riding and out of the corner of her eye she saw a large
black animal sprinting across the undergrowth towards them. Turned out to be a
dog – with no owner to be seen – definitely a relief although in needed yelling
at to stop chasing us. The next day it was time for the short drive to McKenzie
River, meaning there was time for another two runs of Lower Whoops in the
morning (I liked this track!!).
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| Tyler's Traverse: typical Bend high desert scenery and flow |
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