Central Oregon Trail Progression

Posted: Feb 24, 2009

Central Oregon has long been known for its buttery smooth epic XC trails; well the times are a changing. It wasn't long ago that myself and a few friends sat on the side of a butte in Central Oregon, building illegal pirate trails, wondering if we would ever be able to build legitimate freeride trails, and receive respect from our cycling peers. There has been a shift in leadership, eyes have been opened, and new blood has stepped up to the plate!

About 2 years ago, while investigating a new trail project here in Central Oregon, Nick Braun ran into two other local trail building volunteers, Seth Gehman and Dave Seeley.



Within their first few months of building and riding together, the trio realized how much they had in common, and made a decision to be more proactive in the mountain bike community. They saw that there was a need for more progressive freeride trails in the area, and that no one was stepping up to the plate to do anything about it. Many riders in the area had lots to say about what needed to be built and what sucked; but no one was being proactive in getting the approval to build legitimate freeride features.

Central Oregon has a few sweet DJ spots, but no trails with sweet TTF's(technical trail features); so the trio got to work on building their reputation as hard working, dedicated trail builders with the local bike advocacy group, Central Oregon Trail Alliance(www.cotamtb.com). During their first year of being proactive, they had helped Sam Pinner to finish up the Lair Jump Park:



Built a massive jump feature for the Wham Bam Jump Jam at the Lair for Redbull:



Adding a new member to their building crew, Ryler Sturm(www.cofreeriders.com). The close knit biking community quickly realized how dedicated these guys were to building and progressing the types of trails in Central Oregon. Shortly there after, COTA board members came to the group with the most mind shattering news! "We've got a spot for you guys to build some legitimate freeride trail and features". The only catch was we had to follow some Forest Service guidelines. In five months, we had flagged and roughed in a mile of trail and built over 200 feet of elevated wooden features:

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Winter, and snow kicked us out late in December, so we moved to the lower elevation of Phil's Trailhead, to start building a bunch of log rides that a wind storm had left us on New Years Day. We built a zone of log rides right along the road to the trail head in hopes that this would introduce this type of riding to those who haven't experienced it before, hoping that when they see new TTF's on the trail, they won't be freaked out:



We have not yet received any negative feedback from the locals, and the community is still egging us on to keep building more. So kiddies, instead of sitting around complaining about what we don't have to ride, or that what we have sucks, you should get out and be more PROACTIVE! Support your local trail advocacy group, attend meetings, and make your voice heard. Those who show up, are often listened to. Talk is cheap, but hard work is priceless.

We'd like to thank the following:

Transition Bikes
Central Oregon Trail Alliance
The Gear Peddler
Magura
Bend Cyclery
CO Freeriders
E.13

-nastynick42.pinkbike.com/