The ride to and the scenery at Indigo Lake was serene. In the hindsight, it might well be the best part on the long ride. It was a long ride indeed. MFT in its entirety is a long ride by itself. The top section (down to Sacandagas Campground) is full of challenges like loose and steep tight switchbacks, unrideable creekcrossings, and rocky ledges, etc. It was the worst in the segment before Sacandagas Campground because it was really hard to get a flow going. But, it was interesting, in a tough way.

When we arrived at Campers Flat Campground with 20+ miles behind us, there was only about 12 miles ahead of us on MFT. We decided to add the Moon Point loop to the ride, a 20 mile loop. Oh how I regretted on that forest road climb — 9.6 miles of it. If you know me, you know I don’t mind climbing. Actually, that 10 mile climb on Downieville Classic XC course was one of my favorite climbs. But this climb?  It was so monotonic it was absolutely mind numbing! Was the 7.6 mile descent and the expansive view at Moon Point worth it? Hmmm… let me just say I would not wish this climb upon the worst of my enemies. We both ran out of water on the Moon Point loop, but already late in the day, we started quickening our pace.

We really pushed hard on the lower segments of MFT and were making a good pace, but wow, that section just kept going while the day light kept dimming. By the time we reached the campground where Dave had parked our car next to their camper, we could barely see in the woods where it was the darkest. But, we managed to make it back without having to pull out our lights. We happily chatted with our friends while enjoying their ice cream and cookies before we retreated back to our motel room in town.

The next morning, we received a visit from Shelly and Dave when we helped them resolve a computer issue before we had to check out and head home. So, the MFT+Moon Point ride turned out to be our last ride on this road trip. I was glad that we ended the trip on an epic ride.

Indigo Lake

View from Moon Point

For my GPS track, click on the Trip Details below.

For people who do not care for hike-a-bikes, I would recommend riding MFT from Sacandagas down toward Sand Prairie Campground. I also have seen people ask online how MFT compares with NUT (North Umpqua Trail) and MRT (McKenzie River Trail). These are three famous river trails in Oregon. We’ve been riding NUT segments from the western end out and back and have not finished the entire trail yet. We rode the entire McKenzie River Trail (MRT) out and back in one day. And we only rode MFT one way. With these differences in mind, I would say MRT is the easiest in its entirety and NUT is the best. The water falls and emerald pools on MRT are stunning. NUT is most well marked, has interesting and challenging sections on almost every segment we have done so far, and yet, it was mostly rideable offering a good continuous progress on the bike. The upper part of MFT has a lot of hike-a-bikes that sometimes are a bit too much. However, all three are very worthy a visit in each own. Maybe ride them all and see for yourself. Please let us know how you would compare them.

The shuttle drop off was not at the top of the Alpine Trail. Being a type A person, I had to do the top part to call it complete, so at Kate’s Cutoff, we said goodbye to all other fellow shuttlers and turned uphill while others started downhill. As it turned out, the top section (~3.5 miles of singletrack) was very much worth the extra climbing. Because it was less traveled than the rest of Alpine Trail (down from Kate’s Cutoff), it was more wild. There were sections that were a little overgrown that made riding more interesting. That extra 7 miles or so loop cost us about an hour and then we were on our way down the same path that other fellow riders had gone down.

We flew…

And Alpine Trail really allows riders to fly down. There were so many sections where one could just let off the brake and rip. There were also sections where a trail was tacky and straight, yet it was right above a steep cliff side. I tried hard to focus on the trail, not the void on the side, but I couldn’t help but remembering the words I read somewhere about the ride – “vertigo inducing.”

I was having so much fun ripping down the trail that despite that we had planned on doing an out and back on Tire Mountain Trail, I blew past the trailhead without seeing the turn off at all. After a long and fast downhill where the trail popped out on a forest road (near Buckhead Shelter), I pulled out my map and realized that I had missed the turn. Now the question was: where did Erik (he was riding behind me) go? Did he turn on to Tire Mountain just as planned or did he continued down Alpine Trail after me? I decided to ride back up to look for him. The fun descent was not so fun when climbing, but it was not too bad either.  After about 0.7 miles uphill before I reached the turn off, I saw Erik coming down. He did ride out on Tire Mtn Trail ways, but decided that there was no way I had kept going without having waited, so he turned around and continued down Alpine Trail. Indeed, we always regroup at every intersection … unless we don’t see it. Should we both ride up to the intersection and ride Tire Mtn as planned? Erik suggested against it because his bike was having shifting problem and he hoped to get down soon to get it fixed in preparation for our next day’s big ride.

From that point, it was all down hill, crazy downhill. Crazy not in the sense of it being technical, but in the sense of its speed. There would be a Super D race on the trail this coming Sunday. I can’t imagine how fast the locals would go, being familiar with the trails and being in the racing mode.

Okay, now I can see why the trail is called the Crown Jewel of Oakridge riding. I can’t wait to return to this trail and include Tire Mountain as well as North Fork Trail. That would make a very sweet singletrack combination.

For my GPS track of this complete Alpine Trail, click on View Details below.

Salmon Creek in the dwindling light.

We stumbled on to the fish hatchery.

Riding at St Helens does not have to have a high BS factor, especially if you just do Ape Canyon to Plains of Abraham, and turn around when the going gets rough, it can be a very pleasant ride with spectacular views that cannot be matched by most other rides. When I planned the Ape Canyon – Plains of Abraham – Smith Creek loop, I had expected the ride to be tough from what I had read or heard; the ride turned out to be even tougher than I had prepared myself for.

The climb on Ape Canyon was quite nice under the trees. No mosquitoes bugged us. We then marveled at the view of St Helens and the moon-like terrain at Plans of Abraham. But the further we went, the looser the ground became. Sometimes, the ground was so sandy that our tires could not get any traction at all and we had to get off the bikes and push. It was slow going. When we arrived at Windy Ridge, I was so excited that I hopped curbs while going into the parking lot (so nice to be on firm ground again), and I knew while hopping that I made a mistake — sure enough, I got a pinch flat when the rear tire hit the curb. It didn’t take me long to swap tubes though and in the mean time, we got to listen to the presentation by the ranger.

Next, we would take Smith Creek Trail back and make it a loop. OMG! I didn’t remember ever having ridden in deep powder for so long. We were going down steep hill side, but I couldn’t go fast at all. Often times, I was dragging one foot on the uphill side while sliding down the trail across the hill side, and sometimes, I had to walk my bike downhill! Argh! I’m sure someone who is experienced with this stuff can make good speed (although I doubt that many can made the tight, loose, and off-camper switchbacks), but not me — I came from the Bay Area! I was so happy when we finally got to the creek in the valley. There were still loose spots, but at least the rideable stretches got longer. Actually near the bottom, we reached a corridor lined with alder trees where it was really peaceful and wonderful. I almost felt that that section made up for the BS sections earlier on, but it was just “almost”.

According to the official map, there was one singletrack (Trail # 184) that would lead us back to the car from Smith Creek Trail. The trail post said it was “Open to Hikers”, which made me wonder if we were supposed to ride it, but at the ranger station, the ranger lady told us excitedly that “oh, I heard that there was a ladder on the trail. Some bikers may have put a rope there so you can haul your bike up.” She didn’t say anything about not riding that trail, so we turned on that trail — Lave Canyon Trail (#184). Big mistake! Gigantic mistake! We saw the ladder alright, about 50 feet tall, dead vertical, but that was definitely not the hardest part on the trail when it comes to mountain biking. Oh, there was not a rope at the ladder. That trail was not designed for mountain biking. As a matter of fact, it was rated Black Diamond for hiking! When we finally got to the bike path only 1/4 miles away from the car and was finally able to pedal continuously, I had a heightened appreciation for smooth pavement. For people who go out to do the same loop, one piece of advice I want to give is: when you get to a the bridge on Smith Creek Trail, cross it! It doesn’t matter where it takes you, just do not take Trail #184.

I do not regret having done this tough ride, but I will still call it a ride with the highest BS factor!

Between cleaning the tracks in my GPS and the crash of my netbook, I’ve lost our GPS track for this ride. Bummer! (Esp. for someone like me who feels that a ride is complete only if it’s recorded.) However, I wouldn’t recommend this route to anybody anyway, so maybe it’s not too big of a deal. As far as I can remember, it was about 36 miles.

The bridge on Smith Creek that we should have crossed but did not cross (we crossed and then de-crossed).

This ladder was not the worst part on Lava Canyon that we encountered on our mountain bikes.

A lot of water falls on Lava Canyon Trail, a beautiful trail but not bike friendly.

P.S. I know I had said I would not recommend the loop (we did) to anybody. Actually, I think there were moments on the ride when I thought I myself would not return to that loop again. But after having had some discussions on MTBR and now having a pretty good idea how the loop should be done, I can’t wait to return to it. If you want to do the Ape Canyon – Plains of Abraham – Smith Creek loop, be sure to check out that thread if you need beta.

Just like at Capitol Forest, the riding here was almost in a deep forest. I enjoyed switchbacks and berms.  I ran into two riders who looked to be on their lunch break rides. It would be nice to be close to a nice riding area.

I did have my adventure on this ride though. Despite having detailed guidance from the bike shop, I managed to turn on the trail that, instead of leading me cross under that highway to Grand Ridge,  led me up to the high land to my right. And it seemed that I kept picking the wrong trail at every fork that led me down some eerie path that got more and more overgrown as we went further. More than one time, my face plowed into a spider web strewn across the trail and I would frantically try to wipe it off while trying to navigate through the dense leaves covering the trail. Finally, the path got to the end. I mistakenly thought the correct trail was right above me, so I started to climb the steep hill side with my bike. The effort turned out futile as no trail was found when I got higher. The mistake was corrected only by me retracing my track that dropped me basically back into town so I started all over again. As it turned out, the bike path going to Grand Ridge was just too obvious for me to notice. Ha!

After Erik got out of work, we drove back to Seattle. I had always heard about this bike park under I-5 called Colonnade Park and wanted to check it out. Oh, it was so much fun! We spent more than an hour (while waiting for Tom to get off work so we could go out to dinner together) playing there. Talk about a playground, this place is even more so than Post Canyon in Hood River. I almost want to move to Seattle just for that park!

For my GPS track from Issaquah to Grand Ridge, click on Trip Details below:

Beta:
Based on Tom’s recommendation, we all went to Tamrind Tree for dinner. It’s a Vietnamese restaurant, tucked in the back of a little rundown and trashy market. It’s quite upscale inside though and we sat out on the patio. A little rat scared off a table of guests from New York next to us, but we just joked about rats and continued enjoying our food. We ordered Seven Courses of Beef off the menu besides some other dishes. Everything we ordered was very tasty. I’d recommend it.

There is a huge map at the trailmap, of which I took a picture that turned out to be very helpful later on. Over all, the trails are well marked. There is one fork where we sorta ignored the stick that lay across one trail and took it, which took us off Green Line #6. It took us down a singletrack (muddy at spots) that ended on some forest road. Following the map in my camera, we took some forest road riding and eventually found our way back to Green Line #6. If we had followed the correct trail, the entire route should have been pretty much all singletrack. When we rode it, some sections were dusty so I had to wear a bandanna across my nose when I followed Erik, but over all, we were mostly in a dense forest and the riding was very meditative (not very technical). Erik said it reminded him the woods he grew up in.

The trails seem to be very popular with equestrians as there were many horse trailers parked at the trailhead when we arrived there on Sunday afternoon. But on the entire ride, we only encountered one horseback rider and no other mountain bikers. There was a rifle range close to the trailhead so we could hear gun shots, but that was really nothing to worry about.

For our GPS track (including the off route section), click on Trip Details below:

You can find information on Post Canyon online. Once you get to the trailhead, you can find a big map posted. If you were like me who just wanted to follow the most popular route, you can just follow the trail signs for 100 to 116 and finish the loop that way.

I wish we had something like that where we live!

For GPS tracks, click on ride details below:

We parked by Fifteenmile Creek Campground. Did the big loop (with a nested loop) to the left first. This part featured a Demo-isque downhill singletrack (Trail 450), a vista point (at FR 4410&4420) with 4-volcano view, a 3.6 mile continuous singletrack (Trail 639)  with lots of swoops, whoops, and tight twisty turns, and a 5.6 miles long singletrack (Trail 450 to 456) that mostly climbed gradually up berms after berms that inspired a pleasant mental image of myself flying down the same trail freely.

That loop alone (about 22 miles) would have made an excellent ride by itself, but we wanted more!

After replenishing at the car, we did the upside-down lollipop ride along Fifteenmile Creek. The climb and descent on Trail 457 was pure fun. The extension (called optional in the book) was wild for its dramatic and constant change in the ecosystem along the trail. If you don’t mind being whipped constantly by the interlacing soft branches that cover the trail (some people may even enjoy it), it was really an adventure. And even the climb back on that section (3.25 miles one way) was very fun too. We’d say to anyone who decide to do the loop along Fifteenmile Creek should do the out and back on the extension. If you can handle the climb back (Trail 456) on the loop, the extra climb on the extension is insignificant; if you can’t, well, not doing the extension would probably not change it anyway. Oh, that climb on Trail 456! Just when you start to feel good about yourself because you are flying up a climb in your middle chainring, suddenly, the gradient steepens, and it does not let off until about almost 3 miles later. How steep? Think 25%. As if that was not enough along, a few rocky ledges are thrown in too. I didn’t clean all of it, but did ride most, if not all, of the steeps on the dirt. The rocky ledges hit my weakness though. WOOF! Hard, but I liked it.

When we got back to the car, I offered to Erik that he should go ride down Trail 450 (that we climbed earlier with lots of berms) and I would pick him up at the bottom (on the way back to town anyway). He declined and then counter offered. I took it without a pause. It was getting late, so I rode away without refilling my empty water bladder and I was already feeling hungry. After a climb of about 2 miles on roads, I got to the trailhead. I flew down the trail just like how I had envisioned earlier with a huge grin on my face. What a way to end a long day!!!

Beta:
- Camping: Tucker Park on 281. Only 10 minutes out of town. $18 for tent camping. Showers. Cellphone reception. Quiet. By a river. Laundromat on the way into town (behind Shari’s).
- Breakfast: Bette’s Place at 2nd & Oak. 5:30am to 3pm. Free Wifi. Good service. Excellent food. During the stay, we ate our breakfast there three days in a row, and I had the Fresh Dungeness Crab Omelet three days in a row. It was that good! Finally, I decided to take a picture. (On the right side was Erik’s Fresh Dungeness Crab Benedict.)

- Dinner: Hood River Taqueria at 13th & B St. Excellent burritos. Or Shari’s. 24 hours. Free Wifi. Food was not bad (I had Wild Salmon).
-Mountain Biking Guidebook: Kissing the Trail: Northwest and Central Oregon Mountain Bike Trails. Good info. Almost all you need for riding in the area. Be ware that because trails are constantly extended and added, some information (e.g. trail numbers and mileages) in the book is out-dated.
-Our Ride: Link to page with all GPS formats, GPX, Photo Album

We didn’t get to Hood River until past 10am and went to Bette’s Place for a brunch (excellent Dungeness Crab omelet and free Wifi). Some more time was passed in a couple of bikeshops. By the time we started riding, it was 2:11pm. Where did the time go???

The first loop we went for was called Knebal Springs. It was supposed to be 9.3 miles long. But by the time we finished the loop, I had 12.8 miles on my GPS. We missed one turn off and was lost for a while. If you stay on the right trails, this loop is mostly singletrack. I’d say probably 90% singletrack.

The second loop may be called Five Mile Butte or Eight Mile Loop (as the signs show) is a 6.2 mile smooth 100% singletrack.

P.S. Okay, I’m now showered ($2 at the Hood River Aquatic Center at 17th & May, and they have Wifi) and am ready to eat Mount Hood, but Erik is talking bikes with his buddy on the phone. I can understand. Maybe I’ll just research into tomorrow’s ride. I hope we will start earlier than 2:11pm.

P.P.S. Wow, while working on my computer at the Aquatic Center, I got to learn that the front desk girl started riding at 9 and is the 5th in the Nation for cyclocrossing. Of course, she races mountain and road too. I’m talking to an expert here!

Link to a few photos.

If you read my previous post, you would know that Erik didn’t put his bike together until the night before we headed out for our trip. I did say something like “I wish you had a chance to do at least one local ride before you take the bike on the trip.” I mention this just to show you how well I’m at jinxing things.

Sure enough, as soon as we started riding right before 11am (the late start was due to the fact that we are soft, i.e. being wimps), he realized that he had a problem. The rear tire rubbed on the chainstay whenever he had to pedal. After a couple of attempts to fix it, he found out that the rootcause was two chainstay spacers were missing — they must be lying around somewhere in the house if they haven’t been eaten by the kitties. Because the chainstay was super flexy now, the tire rubbed and the chain skipped when he pedaled, and it was worse when he had to pedal hard. Just like those segments we rode two years ago, this one on North Umpqua River, Marsters, has a lot of ups and downs. Some ups are pretty steep and his chain would skip badly forcing him to step off, so I rode ahead. On the way back, after a long stretch of climbing, I stopped at a nice shaded bridge to wait for him while enjoying the sound of the creek flowing down into the rushing river below. After quite a while, he showed up…with the bike on his back.
It turned out he broke his derailleur hanger. We did have a spare hanger in the car, but he decided to try to cyclocross out — coast downhill and run the bike uphill. After he took the chain off, the shifter unit was dangling into the spokes. Hmmm… another problem… So, when I pulled a zip tie out of my camelpak, Erik was visibly impressed. Hehe.

He actually made pretty good time. Now it was my turn to be impressed — he was doing the running mount from either side in all sorts of fashions. I took the following clip without him knowing it.

When we got back to the car, we both agreed that it was a fun trail to ride (if you actually ride it on a functional bike). It has varieties despite being only 3.6 mile long. Sometimes, it is in an old growth forest on hard packed dirt; sometimes it’s fully exposed and gravely. Sometimes it’s high above the river or away from it, and sometimes, it’s almost right by it.
After the ride, we talked to our Titus guy, Mike Wirth. He confirmed for us that their dealer in Portland had the part we needed in stock. One nice thing about doing a road trip without much planning is we can just go wherever we want. Yeah, we were hoping to finish NUT on this trip, but we can probably hit it on our way back down. There is good riding not far from Portland; plus, now we get to visit Erik’s good friend Nate.
Oh, I also just ordered on the phone with Gravity Dropper for a small but crucial part that he broke during his bike assembling process and it would be shipped out to his sister’s place in Washington. Everything is falling into place perfectly!

Photos: I uploaded the pictures out to our gallery.

I would have stopped my report right here, but earlier, Erik had said I should  put following conversations in my trip report, so I oblige.
1. We were in downtown Ashland. Erik said Ashland looked like Santa Cruz of Oregon. He was still digging through his piles of stuff in the car to look for something (his perpetual state), so I went ahead walking towards the restaurant a block away while looking around like a tourist. When he came up to me,
-E: Did you see that couple selling buds on the sidewalk?
-M: What is a bud?
-E: Umm… (how do I explain this?)
2. I wanted to look for Calf Trailhead (where we ended our ride on NUT two years ago), but we got further and further on Hwy 138 and it felt that we had gone too far. I started mumbling that we should have stopped at the ranger station to grab a NUT brochure, but it was already too late to go back for it.
-E: Yeah, that’s really unfortunate. You should sit there and sulk.
-M: Yeah, I’m already doing it…
3. There had been a fire a few years ago that engulfed Calf Segment, so we were looking for some sign of burn looking for the trailhead. The terrain along the river is in general very foresty, and suddenly one patch appeared ahead of us.
-E: Hey, that patch looked bald. That might be Calf segment.
-M: It needs Rogaine.
4. We were still trying to look for the trailhead, but we seemed to have driven quite far from the western end and we kept wondering where we were.
-M: Hey! That sharp bend there! Do you remember seeing that bend in the river before???
-E: No.
-M: Me either.
-E: (WTF?)