# Ride Report: Bend, Oregon on a Tandem



## Okayfine (Sep 7, 2010)

Stolen from my own post on DF:

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My stoker and I typically plan our vacations around trails we want to ride, and
this year was no different. Bend, Oregon, was our desination this year, due
mostly to all the press it has received in my collection of BIKE magazines. 
This will be long.

The City

A few words about Bend, itself. It is billed as a great bike town, very bike
friendly, has won "awards" for same, etc. IMO it's not really a bike "friendly"
town. Sure, lots of people ride bikes there, and there are plenty of bike shops
(probably more of both than in my entire county in SoCal). But the city itself
isn't friendly to bikes, even if they have a bike path laid out on the
expressway, there aren't bike-only paths through town. Traffic is pretty heavy,
especially in downtown, and none of the signals have pads to get tripped by
bikes, such as Chico, CA, does. While the town people that drive likely are
aware of bikes, being such a touristy town there are more than enough people
driving around, looking at stuff or for shops/restaruants/places to park, that
it wouldn't be a place I'd want to regularly ride in/through.

We were in town in mid-August, apparently the hottest time of year. Almanac
says the average temp in August is 81°, but it was reportedly about 90° during
our stay. Bank thermometers reported low 80's, but my point is that it never
felt that hot. There was always a breeze in the trail system and the dry air
really took the bite out of the temperature, whatever it was. Eariler in the
year and you're likely to encounter rain/thunderstorms, which apparently don't
last long and make the trails very ridable afterward.

The Map

And we drove to Bend for the trails. And we found them. Before our trip we
purchased an Adventure Map (http://www.adventuremaps.net/) for Central Oregon. 
The map is centered around Bend, but includes trails all around the area. It
also suggests various rides with directions to the trailhead, route, and brief
description. We used this map for all our rides in the area and, for the most
part, it was accurate and quite usable.

Once in town we also stopped by WebCyclery, home of the tandem team of Henry and
Amy (and co-stars of the triple-tandem video posted here a few months ago). 
Henry suggested some rides to hit, some to avoid, and some to modify for
tandems. Local knowledge ended up being key, as I'll describe below.

The Trails - Phil's

Phil's trailsystem blew us away. I don't know the history but it seems to be
Forest Service land with mountain bike trails throughout. Not multi-use trails,
though there were hikers and everyone but motorized users were welcome, but
trails built by and for mountain bikers. This, itself, was new to us, coming
from California where just about everything but Mammoth Mountain is built for
muliple uses.

The trailhead (or, ONE of the many trailheads) for Phil's is located just out of
town. There are paved and off-road paths from town to the trailhead(s). We
drove, as we were camping five miles north of town.

Within Phil's trail system there are many, many different trails criss-crossing
the area. Most have names, and the locals call 'em the same as is listed on the
map above. What's more (and crucial) is that there are typically junction
markers (posts with numbers) at all trail junctions. Even better is that the
junction numbers are also listed on the map. Easy to plan rides, easy not to
get lost. Not ALL junctions have markers, though, so you still have to know
where you are and where you are going.

I haven't even gotten to the trails yet! For the most part they are smooth and
laid out like miles-long snakes and have little elevation gain (a couple hundred
feet over a couple miles). The trails are built with single bikers in mind, so
some trails are quite twisty and have either log crossings or trails between
narrow-spaced trees, or both. Very few roots, or rocks. Trail makeup is mostly
fine dirt/pumice (Bend is in a volcanic area) in August. Rains would help tame
most of it, but we were cleaning our chains every day.

To avoid this turning in to a novel, I'll only detail one loop we made up. This
loop was ~27.5 miles and covered area beyond Phil's system. We started at 1,
the Phil's Trailhead, and rode west towards junction 4 where we took a short
connector to junction 5, Ben's Trail. We rode Ben's through junction 16 and 17
to junction 24. To this point the trail was relatively snakey, tight in spots,
and climbed somewhat. IMO not the best tandem trail, simply due to the
tightness of some of the curly-que trail meandering. Still fun, and quite
different from what we're used to.

At junction 24 we were at the bottom/end of Lower Whoops, which is a one-way
trail (down). We took FS road 310 up to junction 29, then branched north on
Skyliner's Trail. This trail elevation stayed about even as it skirted a
ridgeline and exited Phil's system. It junctioned at a Sno-Park parking lot and
we took Tumalo Ridge trail and climbed. There were some rocky switchbacks that
we didn't clear, but the trails here pretty much mirrored the trails in Phil's. 
Smooth, clear, good traction, and views, views, views as we climbed. We made it
up to a winter log cabin shelter maintained by the nordic community for a
well-deserved rest and snack, then back on the bike.

There's a chunk of private land between where we were and where we wanted to be.
Fortunately there's a trail, Sector 16, that flows around the property lines. 
And, as before, this trail was tight, something you could rail on a single but
something that requires a slower speed and setting the bike up with the rear
brake on a tandem. Sector 16 leads you back to Phil's system and, the point of
the whole loop according to my stoker, the top of Upper Whoops. Doing this loop
is the only way to the top of Upper Whoops without riding a few miles on FS Jeep
roads. Upper Whoops didn't have many whoops, but it was a much faster section
of trail and while it had many twists and turns, they were better-sighted
corners and allowed me to stay off the brakes more. Upper Whoops led to Lower
Whoops and, given the signage at the junction, was where the fun was about to
start.

I'd figure that this section would be killer on a single bike or a tandem teamed
by crazy people; it would also be much less stressful right after the rainy
season. The trails throughout, as mentioned, were soft and in places were like
sand pits. This was compounded by the 1.7 miles of berms and jumps on Lower
Whoops. I don't want to imagine the speed necessary to attain air there on a
tandem!

Lower Whoops ends back at junction 24. We had met a group of middle-schoolers
with a few local leaders back at the ski hut, and we caught up with them at the
bottom of Lower Whoops, to their astonishment. We got some local trail-side
advice to hit Phil's trail, a short jaunt of fire road 300 to the south.

Junction 25 began Phil's trail, which led, eventually, all the way back to
junction 1. We would later ride Phil's again, along with a couple stints on
Kent's trail, and I couldn't decide my favorite between the two. These are my
kind of tandem trails. Twisty, turny, trees, but more open, more big-ring
flying which is my most favorite type of riding.

I have only touched the surface of the Phil's trail network here, and we only
scratched the surface of the entire system during out stay.

The Trails - McKenzie River Trail

We'd initially booked a shuttle to do the McKenzie River Trail (MRT), as it has
landed on various 10-Best Trails lists. A ~27 mile section of trail following
the McKenzie river, it seemed like one of those epic rides you come to the Bend
area for. In the end, local knowledge from Henry at Webcyclery suggested that
the upper half wouldn't be fun on a tandem. Lots of lava rock trails, some
crazy decents, and tight switchbacks awaited. Instead, we cancelled the
shuttle, parked at the bottom of the trail, then rode up halfway to Trail Bridge
Reservoir. This would give us an eight-mile introduction to MRT, with the
return mileage to show us what we learned.

Fantastic scenery is what we learned. Most of the lower half of MRT seems to
lead through a rainforest, such is the darkness, moisture, and plant life. 
'Cept a rainforest with redwood trees. The trail was twisty again, but
emminitely tandemable. Various bridge crossings and a couple of rocky tight
turns between narrow trees got us off the bike from time to time. The only bad
part, IMO, about this section of the MRT is the frequency of pedal strikes. 
This probably has to do more with my unfamiliarity with the technique required
(given our usual haunt of SoCal trails), but I hit my stoker's pedals on more
rocks, roots, and things I don't even know what they were on 16 miles of MRT
than I have in the rest of my time on a tandem. I even managed to hit my own
pedals on a few things. This was somewhat frustrating to me, but my stoker
wisely assaged by ego by telling me that familiarity with the trail would
improve things, and we hadn't actually destroyed a pedal anyway.

This may also be only a function of my own, but I was mentally exhausted by the
end of our MRT out-and-back. It's a river trail, but it seemed SO technical
when we rode it. Keeping track of where the trail went, where the rocks were,
where the roots were, where the riders were (especially when we went "up" since
it is usually shuttled "down"), where to shift, where to brake, where not to
brake...

With all the (deserved) press MRT has gotten, my stoker and I still, and
overwhelmingly, prefer the Phil's trail system. We went back to it the next
day.

I could write more, but as no one has likely read this far, I'll stop for now. 
Definitely a place to go if you're in the area, or looking for an excuse for a
road trip. I could also pass on some local camping and B&B tips for interested
teams. We'll definitely be back.

Cheers,
Julian


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## moodray (Aug 21, 2010)

I'll just chime in regarding the MRT and the North Fork/ Flagline trail starting at the top of Phil's Trail sytem. 

My wife and I are from Spokane, WA, so we're used to rocks, ruts, etc, and we tend to take some pretty technical trails as a rule.

Based on Julian and Web Cyclery recommendation, we started the MRT at the Mckenzie River Ranger Station and did and out and back. We rode almost up the the Blue Pool and then hiked about 10 minutes to see the Blue Pool, which was absolutely AMAZING. You won't believe your eyes.

The trail got progressively tighter as we went up the trail, but we managed alright despite the twisty, turny trail which got quite technical in more than a few spots. We did hit pedals a couple times, but our experience at home really helped out. I can see how Julian from SoCal would be out of his element on this trail at times, as I've ridden quite a bit in SoCal myself. Overall, the scenery was awesome, the trail was fast and smooth on the bottom and got tighter up the trail, and we enjoyed it to no end.

The next day we took the 'North Fork/ Flagline" loop (which starts at the top of the Phil's Trails system) from the trail map in Web Cyclery, which, apart from the scenery, we thought rivaled the MRT. The trail started at Tumalo falls (gorgeous) and climbed steadily up Tumalo Creek. The trail was in perfect condition as the area received rainfall the previous week. We really lucked out to have such pristine conditions (80 degrees and clear both day). The creek had tons of falls on it and the trail was out of a fairy tail, so picturesque and so very well maintained. The climb was strenuous in spots, but doable if your in good shape. The way back down Flagline was fast and fun, tight, and bumpy/ rutty, but we still enjoyed it. 20+ miles in total, a great workout, and a beautiful, beautiful trail we put on the top of our Tandem Trail list so far (but not scenery-wise; the MRT and others beat it in that aspect).


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