Oregon Desert (China Hat) Camp/Ride Report

[liv2day]

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.









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.