| |
favorite trails |
|
Courtesy of Trails.com
|
McKenzie River Trail
Landmark: Clear Lake at the top, or Paradise Campground at the bottom
Nearest Town: McKenzie Bridge
Directions: Go over Santiam Pass and take Hwy 120 South toward Eugene. The upper end of the trail starts at Clear Lake, and the end of the trail is 22 miles down the Hwy. Or, if camping at Paradise Campground, that is the beginning.
Trail Info: This trail follows the winding McKenzie River all the way. It is so fortunate that most of the old growth Doug fir and cedars were left standing all along the river. The trail is mostly uphill if starting from Paradise, and who wouldn't like to start or finish at Paradise. Truly, this is a run through Paradise as the trail meanders along the fast water of the McKenzie, through fern and fen and huge old growth timber. A few short steep climbs, but mostly a gentle following along the river gradient. This trail rocks! and just about any time of the year. Very little snowfall at the lower elevations even in winter, but the upper part above the resevoir to Clear Lake can have heavy snow in the winter. And don't fail to stop at Sahalee Falls. A great treat!
Submited By: William Johnson, wjohnson@bendbroadband.com
|
|
A half dozen came to run while a half dozen came to fulfill our civic duty by helping with the "Grin and Bear It" run on 3/15.
The runners did the Inn Loop on C.O.D. trail, beginning just up the road from the Inn, Storm King trail and the River trail. The section of Storm King across Century Drive after the chain-up area is a "must see" if you're one who likes new territory. Running around our town just gets better, thanks to our mountain bikers and their trail-making energies. -Andy
|
|
There were two group runs this past Saturday. One ran the Tumalo Reservoir area lead by Andy Schob, and the other by Roger Daniels in the Smith Rock Park. The Smith Rock run was quite long and we would like to congratulate Richard and Chris for going above and beyond the call of duty. Yes it hurts, but only for a short time... a great accomplishment. The season is just around the corner and all the ULTRA runners are using the Smith Rock and Gray Butte trails for their build-up....a perfect place. Everyone who shows up at Drake Park on Saturday at 8 a.m. gets a free ticket. - Mark.
|
|
The "Closer-to-Town Contingent" of Cork drove northwest of Bend to run at the Tumalo Reservoir. Parking where the pavement ends, we ran west across Bull Flat to the Brooks Rd where we turned south to run the single track along Bull Creek. We did a little exploring to find Bull Spring near the old archery range campground.(With this particular place name, it probably sounds like a lotta bull.) There are lots of trail miles from that spot, and there's water, so it may be a reasonable CORK Campout someday. Returning to the Brooks Rd, instead of heading north directly back to the reservoir, some ran another loop to the west for a total 13-mile run.
A run from the reservoir has it all: a 2-mile open-view trail looking at snow-capped mountains, followed by old growth ponderosa, deep forest singletrack , a seasonal creek, a year-round spring and double track in every direction. Sorry, no pics. Y'all just hafta come see fo yo sefs.-Andy.
|
|
How can any runner that lives in Bend, or who visits Bend for any length of time not run "The River Trail". This is one of our favorites. There are some runners in CORK that can navigate this route with eyes closed. For those few, Lori took some pictures to refresh your memories. Even when it gets icy, some will strap on their Yak Tracs just to see if the water is still there, and that it is flowing properly, and making all of the right sounds. I don't know...it just becomes part of you. I better stop writing about it, it's dark outside and I might have to grab my flashlight and go for another run.
So for those of you that slept in that morning, grab another cup of coffee and that jelly donut and enjoy the scenery. -Mark
|
|
Well...with no snow this would be a great time to run Phil's Trail area. We had heard rumors that you could run up to Road 300, that's a good enough excuse for us, will go any where on a rumor. Park at the trailhead, up Ben's to Road 300, left to Phil's, then back to the trailhead...maybe 11 miles. There was another group that wanted to see if they could get to the Helicopter Pad. Instead of turning onto Road 300 they continued up Whoops Trail turned left before Road 310 and went Willie Nillie direct to the Pad. This avoided a bit of snow on the north side of that ridge. From the pad we went down Phil's Trail to the parking lot at the trailhead. Who would have thought that in the middle of February we could run to the Helicopter Pad.
|
|
The Badlands...It's peaceful, quite and a rare treat to be out in such an environment. We started at the Badlands Trailhead off of Route 20, approximately 20 miles east of Bend. Our run followed Route 8 north then Route 5 west to Route 4 south past the famous Badlands Rock and then back to the trailhead. It was great to see so many CORKers run this 2 hour loop.
NOTE: The routes in the Badlands are not very well marked. Study the maps at the trailhead first.
   
   
|
Saturday's run was south of Route 20 along Horse Ridge. What a great day for a long easy run, yea right. Just off of the old route 20 we parked next to the gate that leads us to the north side of Golden Basin. We followed the road for three miles until we met the Horse Ridge Loop. This loop has a very steep hill after Golden Basin and can be run, but you can make just as much time if you walked the steep section....200'. At the top we all marveled at the view of the Cascades! Even if you have lived here all your life and see them every day, this view is spectacular. From here, it's a fast downhill, though a flat section, and then, a nice two mile uphill. Parts of this run followed Super Dave's race course in 2001.
|
About 10 hardy members ran through a dazzling hoar-frosted landscape west of Shevlin Park for 10 and 12 mile runs. What a Great Run!
|
|
They say you always remember the harsh weather runs, and this was one of them. Last Saturday, the 28th of December, The Ruff and Tough CORKers who dared to show up for the Smith Rock run, got what they wanted, rain, wind, cold, mud, and a little spilt blood. That's what we thought we would get, but after we got warmed up, the cold didn't bother us, the rain didn't, the wind didn't , nor the mud, or the blood. Up Burma, over to the crotch of Gray Butte, down to Monkey Face, where Chris left his mark on the slippery, marbled, cliff descent to the river. After two hours of fun we ended up at the parking lot with huge smiles and columns of steam coming from our clothes. After changing into dry goods we ate breakfast at the Corner Nook in Redmond. Great food. Hey! Someone saw Super Dave get on his bike after our run and retraced the route.
Have lots of fun, I'll be in Texas....Mark ......HAPPY NEW YEAR
Any more feedback on this great run?
(Lori wants everyone to know that her quads are NOT hurting!)
|
We all met as usual at 8 a.m. at Drake Park, and drove to Cline Butte Recreational Area. The temperature was a pleasant 40 degrees with calm wind. This was the first time most of us have run around Cline Butte, and not being familiar with the trail system in this area, we decided to stay with the dirt road. The road was 6.5 mi out to the north and then back, flat and fast (for some).
But the best part is to come... FOOD! Amanda lives just down the road and had previously invited the CORKers to breakfast at her house.
If all the runners of CORK knew about Amanda's cooking there would have to be some sort of traffic control in her driveway! Needless to say, it was a real treat... thanks Amanda.
|
Just to let you know of a great set of running trails - Peter.
Green mountain just 1/4 mile north of lave butte down Hwy 97. pull in off 97 just across from new weigh station or turn in just before centerline concrete dividers start nearer to lava butte. drive inn 1/2 mile or so and then start looking, mountain bikes folks have made a huge network of trails between Hwy 97 on east, Lava Butte lava field on north, railroad tracks on west. there are miles of single track loops and even more if you include at the forest service roads in your plan.
I am only encouraging folks to use it now (it's been our little secret for years) as the Forest service is going to be thinning/logging in there in a few months and we don't want all the trails to get lost, so they more they are used now the better. Great low elevation/ snow free running.
|
|
|
| |
|
