Foster Creek Ride
I feel like I type the same things each ride these days. As I’ve stated, the area around Crater Lake, and the Rogue River have countless options for gravel and moto trail rides. We have been incredibly lucky to spend time here and explore the area. This post is for our last two rides which were both hard but fun.
First up was 22.6 miles with 2847′ of climbing. Starting from the same place we started the other day for our National Falls ride, we took a moto trail 65 which parallels Highway 230 and connects to the east side trails/area. Here we hopped on Foster Creek Road/National Forest 297 which follows Foster Creek. The road is great gravel and climbs for about 4 miles and 1300′ of gain. We rode mountain bikes because we incorporated some pretty gnarly moto trails into our loop.
Trail 27 was VERY rugged as were sections of Trail 2. This isn’t pristine trail…there are big chunky rock sections, loose steep chutes, lots of vegetation and thick duff. It’s exploration dreamy. The day was steamy and hazy so our few of Rabbit Ears wasn’t crystal clear but that’s ok, we’d seen it up close and personal on our Hershberger Lookout Ride. This ride seemed harder than it looked like it would be on paper but it was amazing. For the close to 3+ hours we were riding we saw exactly nobody. Crazy.
Crater Creek Exploration
This ride was 27 miles with 2293′ of climbing and I’d ride it again in a heartbeat. The thing that stands out about this ride was the beauty of the forest, and the quiet gravel roads that seemed to go on forever. Again, we rode mountain bikes due to the nature of some of the ohv trails we connected on.
This ride had it all. Long gravel roads, twisty dirt trails, Crater Creek and Wizard Creek, interesting rock formations, long climbs and even a bit of getting lost. I don’t have much different to say about this ride, they are all starting to blend together in my mind as our time in this area comes to an end. I love this area for its rawness. Trees of all sorts, rivers, creeks, and no people. It’s special but not for everyone because it takes a lot of work to research and explore routes and to be ready to fail. We got lucky on every ride. It worked, we made it and lived to tell about it. These aren’t impossible routes in that they are for the most part, solidly under 30 miles.
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