Oregon Desert (China Hat) Camp/Ride Report
 

I spend ~95% of my knobby time attempting to conquer the fun single track that we are spoiled with in the Oregon coastal range. It's only an hour or so from my house and it's what I like the best.

That said, one of the cool things about living here is you only have to drive 3-4 hours to experience high desert riding; way more open and flowing and completely different than "the norm".

Even though a poker run was being held as well as an ISDE, we decided to head out to China Hat (aka East Fort Rock) for a Friday - Sunday getaway. After a chat with the forest service folks, we figured we could avoid both routes by camping at the southern end of the park and riding in the opposite areas the various routes were planned - worked perfectly.

Loaded the truck to the gills Thursday evening and headed out first thing Friday morning after one of the usual suspects made his way to our place and unloaded/re-loaded his bike and gear. We'd coordinated with all the guys with the intent to have three of us show up around lunch time Friday, another buddy around 4:00, and the last brave soul Friday night. Love it when a plan comes together.

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Camp setup and ready for the weekend, we planned to knock out ~40 miles or so that would put us back at camp when another buddy showed up. All was going perfectly until a certain rock intersected with a certain front tire...back to camp to swap out a flattened tube.

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Swapped the tube out and it ended up being perfect timing as our buddy showed up a little early. Everything situated on the bike and his camp gear, we bombed out for another ~30 miles. Although it was dusty, the weather was perfect and we only came across two other riders the entire time we were out (couple of guys riding the ISDE loop). It was epic riding to say the least, though after 70ish miles I was definitely ready to come back to camp for that beer and some grub.

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Our last buddy arrived just in time to enjoy the fire and a bit of the good stuff; and trask-rider had a buddy ride out to join in the camp fire laughter.

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The next morning came way too early and it was pretty frickin' cold...lol. Crammed some grub down with good hot coffee, and planned a route that would take us away from where the poker run was going. The goal was to knock out 30-40 miles and then head back to camp for lunch and re-fuel, then head back out for another 30-40 miles. It worked great, I think we did close to 45 miles in the morning loop and had an epic time on some of the trails. I think my favorite new trail out there is Trail 80 - what a blast - like a roller coaster with banks and spectacular scenery.

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After our lunch break, we headed south to check out the ice caves - what a cool area to explore. Lots more riding on some trails that were interesting to say the least - wooped out stuff on Trail 81 and then a crazy rock garden on Trail 38. Tons of fun, if not fast...lol. We pulled back into camp with just over 80 miles logged for the day...and all of us were whipped. Built a giant fire and kicked back with more good stuff.

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There was talk of riding Sunday morning before packing up and heading back, but that pretty much died after waking up...lol. It's too bad too as the showers from the night before probably knocked a big chunk of the dust down. But, the ISDE was going on and the possibility of getting in the way of that combined with being tired and sore won the argument - loaded up and headed back.

Epic 3 day trip to the Oregon desert. Just over 150 miles of riding in 2 days was fantastic; and there's nothing like getting out with the guys for a couple days of camping and being away from it all.

I've only been able to go through a little of the video I shot; here are a few of the better clips.

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Awesome report Brad! Looks like you guys had an epic man trip.

We almost came over on Saturday to join you, but thought that there would be too many people with the ISDE. Guess we missed out:mad

Didn't look too dusty either.

How'd the 200 do in the open stuff? Have it on the pipe some?

Love the KDX with the fork conversion. I did one of those back in the day. Fun bike.

I love that southernmost area of EFR. We camp at that area just below the gravel pit/pile.

My boys call that area Disneyland. Love trail 80 and all of that southern stuff. So fun.


We have our man trip planned for mid-June at morrow Co. Can't wait.

My favorite shot.......picnic table!!!! Wow looks epic!