Maps are cool. After studying and tracing routes we finally came up with a plan. Start in the small town of Prospect, OR, and ride up into the mountains past the Rogue River and out to the Middle Fork Trailhead that leads into the wilderness. Our ride was 27 miles with 2437′ of climbing.
For this ride we took our gravel bikes because we weren’t sure what to expect but there looked to be a lot of pavement so we felt reasonably confident. Good choice. We started in town at the park and rode out Red Blanket Road for around 3 miles before making a left onto National Forest Road 37. This is a narrow paved road that gets you up to the wilderness trailheads. It’s great for cycling because there is very little car traffic. We rode on a weekday as usual, and only had 3 cars pass us.
A short bit into this is where the significant climb of the day starts. The climb goes for about 4 miles and you gain a bit over 1,000′. It is a nice shaded climb thankfully, because it was a hot day in the mid 80’s. An unexpected bonus was a sweet bridge crossing the Rogue River that seemed too good to be in the middle of nowhere.
After this climb we turned left onto FS 3790 and rode the gravel out to the end of the rode at the Middle Fork Trailhead. The Middle Fork Canyon was carved by glacial ice and we could here the river far below. Large stands of hemlock and fir dominate the forest and the trail leads to the Sky Lakes Wilderness. I’ve heard about a wolf pack that roams this area and indeed, a sign at the trailhead warned of aggressive wolves that would eat you. HAHA
This is where we turned around and headed back to the start. However, FS 37 kept going and there is more out there to explore. Our maps shows possible routes to go all the way to Fish Lake!
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