Shotgun Creek (OR) Report 22-Feb-14

[liv2day]

Let's see, temps in the 50s with blue skies and plenty of sun...perfect day to be out in the woods

Loaded the GG and headed to my buddy's house as we were all going to drive down together. Another buddy had to do a bit of back-tracking to meet us, but it still made more sense than heading out separately. We were on the road by 7:30, made a quick stop for fuel, then arrived at staging shortly after 9:00.



It was a little cool to start things off, but not too bad. My plan was to try and do a loop that connected the trails in the western part of the park with those in the east. All was going well until we couldn't find trail 14, which was a bummer as that's one of the few single track trails out there.

We started off on trail 1A and had a good time riding up to the new staging area; they did an awesome job putting this area together. Great views and a perfect beginner trail for newer riders to hit. We headed back down after missing the turn off for trail 28, but found it and that was a fun little piece of trail.

I was a little worried about finding downed trees in the way, but the folks from BLM cleared anything that was down. The trails were in pretty good condition, though it's crazy how slick that clay can be if you're trying to climb. A number of monstrous puddles and deep ruts kept things entertaining.

After messing around on all the trails we could find in the western section, we stopped for a bite to eat. Had the riders we saw in staging come riding by, but those were the only riders we saw out on the trails all day.





Failing to find trail 14, we headed back toward staging in the hopes of finding trail 15 off one of the logging roads. Wasted 8 miles going up and down and since time was getting short, we just hit the trails to the east of staging.

The only trouble spots were trying to climb trail 24 and then doing the same thing on trail 25. Trail 24 was a deeply rutted, clay filled mess of nothing but up - tucked tail and headed back down. Attempting to climb trail 25 didn't work out that well either, but at least I was running video when my buddy looped his bike...lol. Fortunately, he was ok and the only damage was the tail light flying off. Tucked our tails again and decided to loop back around and go down 25 instead.



You never know where we're going to end up with my buddy leading, so we did a complete circuit of a few trails again, then figured out we had to get back to staging so he'd be home in time to stay out of the dog house.

As it turns out, Murphy decided to throw a little of his action our way. We pulled into the staging area and were met by a couple of deputies checking permits and safety cards. Now, on the way down to Shotgun in the morning, one of my friends related how he forgot to get his new permit out of his truck and on the bike before putting it on the trailer. And to make matters worse, neither of 'em knew about the new regs requiring safety cards. I think I'm glad we look pretty oldish as the deputies were nice and told us to take care of it before we headed out again...lol.

All in all, we logged 38 miles and didn't have any issues. Great day down at Shotgun, always fun to rip around that area. Tons of video to follow