Sage

dirtbike riding roadracer
Mar 28, 2001
621
0
well, what do you guys think? with no rain & all the forest closed till??? on my side of the mountain, I pinging to ride and thought a N.W. meet at a good (wet or damp) riding area would be cool. Anybody in? and where should we meet?
 

Sage

dirtbike riding roadracer
Mar 28, 2001
621
0
China Hat has plenty of room if its open in oct, all the riding areas around here are closed right now, lack of rain. Wheres browns camp?
 

kawicrump

Member
Apr 24, 2000
19
0
Northwest KDX

I can't remember where brown's camp is. I can ask one of my friends as soon as I see him tho. He goes out there every weekend. Its supposed to be really good. Marked trails and everything.
 

Oregon Trail

~SPONSOR~
Aug 2, 1999
263
0
Sage, Well I'll be up that way in a few weeks to do some vintage racing at Madres. We're hurting over this way for open riding areas too. Only trail riding I heard open is somewhere near Bandon. :think
 
Last edited:

kawicrump

Member
Apr 24, 2000
19
0
Pinchot looks pretty good. Kindof like China Hat

Brown's camp is about 20 minutes outside of forest grove. it is more on the coast. Probably too far for most.
 

jimicarl

Member
Aug 7, 2001
102
0
YES!! AWESOME!!!

Hey; Emerald Trail Riders Association, Eugene. Our little "KDX Klub" sub-club of a half-dozen would certainly have representation at a NW meet. WHAT A GREAT IDEA!! Although..., I wonder how to administer such a ride. Poker run, maybe? Then, who would do the organizing? COMAC? I'll bet that a loosely organized "come-one come-all message over the internet" would net a ****-load of riders, which would almost certainly attract the attention of the forest service. I dunno. Maybe not.

Something to think about.

Whoever said that Gifford Pinchot (GPNF) is like East Fort Rock (EFR) has rocks in his head. Where EFR is flat, fast & dusty..., GPNF is exceptionally steep & rugged, generally slow going, mostly deep woods and above-the-treeline. Honest-to-god (10"wide) single-track on AT LEAST 100% side hill. Blow a turn and you'll spend a couple hours hoisting your bike back onto the trail. Some of the switch-backs are so steep and sharp that you must dismount and lift your bike around the turn, (then immediately scale a 3' vertical wall with only about 5' of a run). If you don't have a good map & compass (or GPS) and somebody who knows it to ride with..., you'll almost certainly get lost first-time out. Take your eyes off the trail to absorb the unbelievable scenery, and risk disaster (not just off-the-trail disaster, but tumble-down-a-300'-rock-cliff kind of disaster. My last ride there (which was my first) included a group of 8, and required all to hoist the bikes over a 6' diameter windthrow across the trail, and work the bikes over an un-bridged large extremely rocky creek (like a small river fer cryin'out lout). And all this after committing group suicide bulldogging off a steep road-side to follow a trail of ribbons that we THOUGHT (thankfully, correctly) was a newly hewn trail.

It's KDX country for sure. But does NOT compare AT ALL with EFR. It apparantly stays open because of the amount of rainfall they typically get. I believe it's open right now! I'd love to go back this year..., but need to think about the season. I hear that they'll get snow, very early. We went in, about 1 1/2 hours north of Hood River, through White Salmon.

Brown's Camp (and many other similar staging areas) are in the Tillamook State Forest, roughly between Portland and Tillamook. It's embedded in the coast range along the Wilson River Highway (Hwy 6). Also relatively steep, rocky and rugged. ETRA is doing it's annual Till-U-Puke ride there, in a couple weeks. Believe me..., it really is "'till you PUKE". There are several riding areas there, that stretch down to Willamina (Upper Nestucca). Fun riding. Expect gouges! Your new plastic, unscuffed frame and new tires will look very different after a weekend there.

The area near Bandon..., is known as "Winchester". It's about 15 miles south of Coos Bay, on Hwy 101, on the Coos County Forest. I've ridden it only on my mountain bike. It's very tight deep woods, infested with slick exposed roots. And, it's relatively short. I think you'd be done with it in a half-day. Another punishing place to ride, I'm told.

In order to cater to the novices & lower skill levels, I think that EFR is a good bet. EVERYBODY can have fun there, and it's really central to the State. Newbies at GPNF could easily get themselves into a bunch of trouble (emergency nights out on the trail are a real possibility, and an injured rider might be difficult to extract). The Tillamook forest is a good riding area..., but again the newbies will certainly have touble with many trails. It's a bunch of fun, but can be a bunch of work.

How 'bout the riding area near Jacksonville, administered by the rider's club in Medford (MRA)? I hear it's fairly rugged, but fun & makeable. How 'bout 4-corners, south of Prineville? A lot like EFR, but flatter? Most of the areas we ride around the south end of the valley, are heavily broken between private and public, which makes riding difficult to access.

You know..., descriptions of all these areas (with some maps) are accessible on the WWW. Search the USFS. Search Oregon State. Search OOHVA.org. Take a look at the ETRA website (ETRA.net), and hit "places to ride". Also on the ETRA website..., hit "links" for access to many of the other rider's club's websites.

Let's keep this thread going. We should be able to figure something out. Woudn't it be a gas to ride with bunch of other KDX's?

Pray for rain.
 

fishhead

die you sycophant !
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 22, 2000
966
0
I'm about 2.75 hours from Portland and about the same to Gifford pinchot.

jimicarl would you happen to remember the trail you were on? Ther is a lot of riding in the blue lake area, while some is extremly difficult there is quite a bit that is easy to moderate including a 23 mile loop around the blue lake area. blue lake -bishop ridge-council alke-boundary trail-jumbo peak and the infamous devils stair case comprise a 70 mile advanced loop but terrain selection is a concern so pick a spot.

I suugested GPNF because there is quite a bit of info on the web site on the trails.
 

acutemp

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Sep 4, 1999
197
0
I'm up for a KDXfest:)
Browns camp is a great place with lots of mapped and marked trails, but it is very busy on the weekends. It's great for me as it's only 20 minutes from my house but the crowds might spoil the fun.
fishhead, where in G.P. are ya thinking? It's been years since I've been up that way. Couldn't pass up a trip to the Ape caves on the way to see Mt St Helens a couple years after the blast. Beautiful area.
Sage, any central Oregon hotspots?
I am about 20 minutes west of Portland and am always up for a good adventure!!--Dan
 

jimicarl

Member
Aug 7, 2001
102
0
GPNF

Hey Fishhead;

Sounds like you have a bunch more experience in gifford than me. The one time I rode there, was out of Council Lake. We rode several loops on that weekend.

One was a 25 mile loop that intersepted several small lakes and included a view-point. Any novice could negotiate that trail and have a great time.

Then we rode the Yozoo trail to the north (toward Goat Rocks). Ended up on a promitory(sp?) with a commanding view of Adams, Goat Rocks & St. Helens. It also was relatively easy. The novice with us on that ride was slow but did the trail without mishap. We cut off from the rest of the group and finished up at about 40 miles.

And..., we rode a loop of about 85 miles to the west that included a wide range of difficulty. Much of it was steep & narrow side-hill. Some of the hill-climbs were challenging. There was much where a novice would have much difficulty and slow the group down significantly. Jeez..., it was 10:30 p.m. before we returned to camp as it was!

You gotta understand that our club has some movers-&-shakers who revel in inflicting humiliation on the unsuspecting. To them..., Hard = Fun. More difficult = More fun! Hence our Till-U-Puke and GPNF club rides.

Travel time's not a huge issue for me. GPNF is only about 1 1/2 hours further than EFR from Eugene.

If this group will be comprised of experienced intermediates to experts..., then (according to my experience) GPNF would be a gas. You wouldn't need to talk real hard to convince me to travel up there.

But if the group would include a bunch of novices..., then I'd think that EFR would better cater to their fun. Wouldn't take much to talk me into that, either.

Hey Sage...; would it be worthwhile for folks to indicate their interest via email, to get an idea of number & skill levels?
 

Sage

dirtbike riding roadracer
Mar 28, 2001
621
0
Re: YES!! AWESOME!!!

Originally posted by jimicarl
GPNF is exceptionally steep & rugged, generally slow going, mostly deep woods and above-the-treeline. Honest-to-god (10"wide) single-track on AT LEAST 100% side hill. Blow a turn and you'll spend a couple hours hoisting your bike back onto the trail. Some of the switch-backs are so steep and sharp that you must dismount and lift your bike around the turn, (then immediately scale a 3' vertical wall with only about 5' of a run). If you don't have a good map & compass (or GPS) and somebody who knows it to ride with..., you'll almost certainly get lost first-time out

- committing group suicide bulldogging off a steep road-side to follow a trail of ribbons that we THOUGHT (thankfully, correctly) was a newly hewn trail -

Wow!! this place has my vote!!

Originally posted by jimicarl
- How 'bout 4-corners, south of Prineville? A lot like EFR, but flatter? Most of the areas we ride around the south end of the valley, are heavily broken between private and public, which makes riding difficult to access. -

As for this area and EFR, if you guys are coming to my house then I can take you down some better trails than the local tourist traps, not that EFR is bad, but when its open your better off riding on a weekday, way to much traffic. anyhow, everything around here is closed till we get some rain, and the only way to ride any of the trail systems around here this time of year is in a rain storm. I kinda like the GPNF idea after all I've heard, if I'm going to drive 6 hours then I'm going riding, not fartin around on fire roads.
 

Sage

dirtbike riding roadracer
Mar 28, 2001
621
0
Re: GPNF

Originally posted by jimicarl
Hey Sage...; would it be worthwhile for folks to indicate their interest via email, to get an idea of number & skill levels?

If the group is ok with it, I'll make a email address for us to use as a mailing list? is this what you were thinking? A "NWKDXOG@sagesdirtandstreet.com"? I don't have fancy software for a automatic mailing list, so me or some other voulnteer would have to man the email account. Or we can keep it here and in time fill up the forum with our thread??

If you guy's want a Northwest KDX owners group email address let me know, it will only take a few minutes, This way we can set up rides for different skill levels. I have one mailing list already but that has a lot of sportbike guys on it and people outside of the Northwest, so I'd rather not use that one.
 
Last edited:

jimicarl

Member
Aug 7, 2001
102
0
JOIN

Hey;

and so it's done. i've officially joined the NW KDX Owners Group, at nwkdxog@sagesdirtandstreet.com. be a bunch of fun to see where it goes!

like..., to GPNF. or EFR, or Tillamook, or any of the other areas around oh-ree-gone, or warsh-in-ton, or wherever.

maybe a good first run might be the Ghosts & Goblins Poker Run at John's Peak near Jacksonville? It'd be a helluva drive for some in NW Oregon. but i think that anyplace would be a helluva drive for somebody.

and i don't think that "winter" would be such a limiting factor at John's Peak, as it might be at GPNF.

Then get something planned at GPNF for summer, 2002?

just a thought.
 

kawicrump

Member
Apr 24, 2000
19
0
NW KDX

I was just thinking. What about running the Goldendale Races in October? The weather is usually nice and the course is really fun. I can't exactly remember the dates but I know they are in October
 

OregonKDX

Member
Sep 15, 2001
1
0
Count me in on the mailing list, I live in Corvallis. I did ride a poker run at Browns camp had a blast. Done a little time at China hat and some local areas here.
I'm just getting back into dirt riding after five years with out a bike. Use to race enduros , hare scrambles in No.CA (B level) now who knows??? Bought this old KDX as it fit my budget! its not a racer but sure is fun.
1987KDX 200
1983 XL600 my road bike
 

Sage

dirtbike riding roadracer
Mar 28, 2001
621
0
IT RAINED!!!!

Just got news from the forest service that at midnight 9-25-01, all areas that were closed in central oregon are now re-opened!!! who hoo!!! I'm going riding.
 

mototravis

Member
Sep 26, 2001
14
0
Check out McCubbins Gulch

Hi everyone. I'm a newbee. I love my KDX.

Anyway, recently a buddy of mine with a yz426f, and I went to McCubbins Gulch, which is on the side of Mt.Hood. Pretty decent place. Lots of woods, narrow and mid, and some wide gravel roads connecting all the woods. The only drawback was the amount of baseball to volleyball sized rocks in the trails. But other than that, it was very fun.

If any of you are close, I'd check it out.

B.T.W., has anyone been to China Hat and McCubbins, I'm wondering which is better, I've heard good things about China Hat.
 
Top Bottom