Bikepacking Oregon, The Oregon Timber Trail, 2022

 

June 20, 2022 I left my truck for my friend to drive back to Sisters Oregon and started out on my 2022 Oregon Timber Trail ride.

Let me say first, that the ride I completed vs the ride as planned only vaguely resembled one another. Due to late season snow and rain and an abnormally cool spring, the upper elevations of the planned route held too much snow for riding. In addition deadfall was a big factor on pretty much all of the singletrack. 

Even my bike and setup had major last minute revisions. I cracked the frame of the bike I had intended to use for this trip less than a week before setting off. I had my new Binary Bicycles Gordita fat bike to fall back on but I had also loaned out my fat suspension fork and fat spaced 29+ wheels. I ended up using the boost spaced suspension fork and front wheel (also 29+ but boost spaced) from the cracked frame and a 27.5 fat (197) spaced wheel for the rear. I installed a 27.5 x 4" Terrene Cake Eater tire which I had providentially purchased few weeks earlier on the 45 internal ID rim. The overall diameter of the tires is nearly the same and this setup worked exceptionally well save for the little bit of tarmac where it was noticeably slower.

So how much OTT did I ride? Well, most of what I rode was the official OTT. After driving from Nevada, I went in at the town of Silver Lake and picked up the route after about 7 miles. I did detour around Yamsay mountain on Day 2 on forest roads when I ran into significant snow above 7,500 ft elevation on route forcing a backtrack. Day 3 I finished on route into Chemult. Other detours off route included cutting the whole of the Oakridge loop that includes Bunchgrass ridge and Fuji mountain. But because I reconnected to the OTT at Gold lake the actual non-OTT route was relatively short. I camped that night (day 4) in the forest near Waldo Lk. I found a breezy spot to help tame the blood thirsty mosquitos.  Day 5 I diverted again when I couldn't get around the Waldo lake singletrack. I rode Waldo road then up to Charlton lake which I have never visited before. From there down to Metolius Windigo trail which I took to Lemish Lake and reconnected with the OTT.  I cut out the Cultus Lake loop because I've done it before. I followed the route to Lava Lk and took the Metolius-Windigo route and camped that night on a breezy knoll between Lava Lk and Bachelor to help hold down the mosquitos. On day 6, I couldn't quite make it to Bachelor via the Metolius-Windigo trail due to more snow and had to backtrack to Sparks lake trail to get out to the highway. And finally, snow again prevented me from getting over the shoulder of Broken Top mountain to access the Peterson Ridge trail system above Sisters and actually reaching Sisters without dropping down to Bend. So I called my friend in Sisters and he came and picked me up at the Swampy Lakes trailhead.

Finding water was never a problem from Silver Lake to Chemult. Likely in part due to the timing of the ride and snow melt. Beyond Chemult there are abundant streams and lakes. I saw no one from Silver Lake to Chemult. And then no one again until I popped onto the highway at Crescent Lk. There was a couple of mountain bikers on Gold Lake trail then an occasional vehicle on Waldo Lk rd. I ran into one equestrian group on the Met-Win trail south of Lemish Lk and then lots of folks at Little Cultus and the Lava Lks. In fact there was a wedding photo shoot going on at the Lava Lk. resort. Leaving the resort I saw no one again until regaining the Cascade Lks highway at Sparks Lk. 

The trip was much shorter than planned for all the above reasons but I don't regret any of it. When I tried to get over Yamsay mountain on 30d slopes of icy snow it became a shit show very quickly. Later pushing through snow on Metolius Windigo trail it was softer, flatter and not scary but still very slow and energy intensive. I think for me, the crux was portaging my heavy bike through almost innumerable dead fall. You never knew if the trail was going to be rideable or not and in my case I never got very far, as in a couple hundred yards, before another tree or trees were down across the trail. I did try to pay it forward by removing as many of the smaller trees as I could manage.

The route is incredibly beautiful, the singletrack challenging, the dead fall daunting, the mosquitos voracious and the rewards incalculable. No regrets but longer would've been better. I will go back to experience the northern tiers at some point when fire closures are lifted.

Also a shout out to my friend Jeff for his help with logistics and providing a ride when I was cliffed out at the end. (Figuratively speaking.) 

At some point there will be a video inserted here so check back from time time if interested.

Silver Lake jumping off place

The Famous Cowboy Dinner Tree.

First singletrack

 

Sketchy Bridge

 

Climbing above Antler CG toward Yamsay mtn.

The way

Retreat to forest roads

First view of the Cascades ahead. Diamond Pk.

Budget Inn - Chemult

Riding out of Chemult

Little Deschutes River

Big Marsh Creek

Big Marsh Creek

Crescent Lake

Odell Lake and Diamond Pk.

Charlton Lake

Little Cultus Lk

Filtering water at Little Cultus Lk

Little Lava Lk. South Sister Pk left, Broken Top middle, Mt. Bachelor right.

Lava Lk. Souoth Sister and Broken Top.

South Sister Pk

Camped on a brezzy knoll to help hold down mosquitos, like at Waldo Lk.

Lava flows for miles

Sister pks from Bachelor

Mt. Bachelor