Mountain Bike Oregon Day 3 and McKenzie River Trail
The crew in Oakridge Oregon have been putting on a Mountain Bike Festival for over 10 years. Their formula has been incredibly successful which is a testament to their dedication to the trails and to ensuring that you have a good time.
Day1 Ride – Lawler Hardesty || Day 2 Ride – Middle Fork || Day 3 Ride – Alpine || McKenzie River Trail
Day 3 Alpine Ride
In Oakridge we had a park by the river all to ourselves. The town allows camping here for the festival. Its quite nice with the river right beside for after ride dip.
Alpine is a classic in Oakridge with sustained steep downhills through old growth forests and exposed side hills. You descend 5000ft on this ride. From this ride you can make it even longer by adding the additional loop of Tire Mt and Cloverpatch. Check the above links for details. We did a variation of this loop when we were here in 2010.
The first part of the ride is more interesting with some spectacular views to the Sisters and Bachelor to the east as well as very interesting singletrack to keep you on your toes. The second part of the ride gets much more average as it becomes the standard IMBA fare of long straightaways followed by hairpins to bleed away contours. Necessary I suppose but boring. Apparently the long hot dry summer hasn’t treated OR trails well at all since there was quite a bit of wear in some of the switchbacks which had dried out.
Our campsite
Beer Garden and Food Trucks
Mini Bike Entertainment
Loading up for Alpine
Fast and Flowy
End up in town near a store with BEER!
Track includes the shuttle and the Alpine Ride essentially paralleling the shuttle. The track heading off West is the ride we did in 2010. You can see the Tire Mt and Cloverpatch trails on this map.
McKenzie River Trail
The McKenzie River trail is a must do ride in Oregon. We stayed at Belknap hotsprings and shuttled to the top parking lot past Clear lake to start our 36km 5.5hr ride. The ride is long since you need to stop along the way to check out the water falls and blue pool. Also its a popular hike so you do need to be respectful of other users on the trail. At the intersection above Clear lake if you head left, as we did, its more technical, the right side is more buff.
Trailhead
Clear lake is very clear and blue and surrounded by Lava
Sahalie Falls
Koosah Falls
Techy Lava Trails
Blue Pool
Fast and flowy through the old growth
Obligatory beer break along the way
Hanging out in the hotsprings
