While visiting friends in the old stomping grounds this past week, I managed to sneak in a couple of rides while there (palm to forehead). I forget how good the mountain biking is in Ashland - probably because I was not into riding while living there....The long , steep climbs with some super fun descents make for short punchy rides. My rides did not exceed 18 miles in length, but they made up for the 'shortness' by adding some elevation punch of over 3,000ft...most of which was all in the initial 5 miles of climbing. In some ways. it is like Oakridge in that you climb up steep fire roads with little relief - it is a constant grind, but the pay off is pretty sweet too!
They were doing some logging in Ashland so a big chunk of the popular trails were shut down due to logging operations to thin out the area. I stayed on the north side towards Wagonner / Ostrich Peak and still managed to get in some great riding.
As part of the logging operations, they were also doing some controlled burns which was a little weird since it was a big enough controlled burn to make a guy wonder whether it was in 'control'...it was a bit eerie being above the burn and seeing that bad boy going. Fortunately I was on the other side of the trail system since that area was pretty well shut down due to the operations going on there...and understandably so!
Some pix of the riding:
Mt A in her glory -
the trail completely disappeared at this logging area - weird....
The goods!
Great trail conditions - super tacky all the way up to around 5,000 ft.
Mt Mcloughlin off in the distance -
Winding your way down singletrack off Hitt Road - connecting to the irrigation just above the park...all connected - very sweet!
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