Oregon suggestions - 4wheeling, camping & mountain biking - Page 2

pjpvi · 01-13-2010, 09:08 AM

Thank you all for the fantastic information!

Jack, thanks for posting the trail maps. I really appreciate taking the time to pull it all together.

Phil

Joel · 01-13-2010, 11:54 AM

If you ever need crash space in Eugene, feel free to ring me up. I've only got on-street parking but we're on a dead-end road. Spare bedroom, hot showers, and a sloppy bulldog. Just have to let me poke around your rig!

pjpvi · 01-13-2010, 12:04 PM

Thanks for the offer Joel. I'll let you know if we come by that way.

Phil

BC · 01-13-2010, 04:51 PM

Piling on late here but Aldercrest has it right. Particularly if bikers, focus your time in and around Bend, with McKenzie River trail not too far away, then Hood River. As someone said, May is still on the cusp with snow in some higher elevations outside Hood River but some good relatively remote camping+riding nearby. Google Surveyors Ridge Trail, Dog River Trail, Gunsight Ridge, all of which can be accessed from dispersed camping areas inside the Mt Hood Nat'l Forest (Barlow District). If you really want to get away, I have a few spots you can drive into with the SMB that are literally surrounded by federally designated wilderness on all sides, like Badger Lake.

In Bend, Phil's Trail complex as mentioned, but also Deschuttes River Trail to Benham Falls, Mrazek Trail and many more. I'll probably be in Bend that first weekend in May with riding buddies doing combo road and mtn stuff, feel free to pm me would be happy to guide/show you some of it.

Aldercrest · 01-14-2010, 04:09 PM

BC,

This may be considered hi-jacking, but what can you tell me about Badger Lake? We drove Bennett Pass road in the SMB and stayed at Bonnie Meadows over Labor Day weekend. I really wanted to go to Badger Lake, but it was dumping buckets and we headed for dryer areas.

May is probably too early in the season for Phil to hit Badger Lake, but I would really like to go there later in the summer. How's the road?

BC · 01-18-2010, 11:07 PM

Badger is nice if for no other reason than you are basically inside a wilderness boundary but for the road going in. Nothing too hairy but high clearance is nice to have with some moderately narrow spots and trees close to the edge. I have an EB and had no issues, but a Voyager top may <will> encounter some limbs along the way. Guessing you are used to that if you live in NW and do any off-road. 4-hi nice to have coming up and out but could do it in 2WD. Trickiest part is deciding how to get to the lake road, there are a couple of different ways off FR 46 and if you've ever been back in there or anywhere in the Barlow Ranger District, you know it can be a maze. Have good maps and preferably GPS too.

There are a few small dispersed camping spots just up from the Lake, and then a few closer to the lake but but we went back up in the woods a bit. We did not fish but there are fish in the lake and you can fish from shore. We saw only two people the whole time, day timers, and basically had the whole place to ourselves. Nice trail around the lake and access to more if you want to make this base.

deminimis · 02-08-2010, 12:56 PM

Former roommate of mine co-wrote this and its good investment for the Hood River area (A bit dated, but trails is trails): http://www.amazon.com/Singletrack-Antho ... 0966328817

pjpvi · 02-07-2012, 06:46 PM

Glad these posts don't expire. We ended up doing the Hwy 395 corridor last year, but are now looking at reviving the Oregon idea for this year. Probably mid-May again.

I figured I would resurrect this thread in case anyone has some new information to offer up. There was a lot of great information provided last year. If anyone has any additional remote camping, 4wd trails or mtn biking recommendations to make in Oregon I'd love to hear from you. I think we are shooting for a 6 day trip this year.

Thanks,
Phil

JoeH · 02-07-2012, 07:07 PM

The trails in Oakridge will not disappoint. Alpine gets all the press but Moon Point-Young's Rock down to Camper's Flat probably makes my top 10 list. Camper's flat is a small and very nice campground about 20 miles s-se of Oakridge on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. The McKenzie River trail is also a well known ride which I found a bit underwhelming but very pretty. the downhill on King's Castle near McKenzie is stellar.

I'd love to hit Umpqua and all the Bend suggestions already posted in this thread. But in that area the loop around Newberry Crater near Bend was pretty cool with a great downhill at the end. There's more info on our trip to Oregon here: http://forums.mtbr.com/arizona/july-tr- ... 39522.html

pjpvi · 02-07-2012, 10:14 PM

Thanks for the link to your MTBR trip report. Very informative and great photos. You seem to do a good job of balancing the trip activities to keep all the family members happy. That can be a challenge sometimes. Funny how the report turned into how great Sportsmobiles are for a while.

Seems like I have a fair amount of bike trails to chose from, how about some good 4-wheel drive trails to get away from it all for the evenings? The trip is part about biking, part about 4-wheeling, part about photography, part about eating well and at least one night of drinking too much then regretting it the next day.

Phil