Bend. Home of Hero Dirt

Finally had the chance to spend a little time in the Deschutes National Forest right outside of Bend, Oregon. Although I finally came across rain while on the trail (first time this whole trip!), the trails were pretty incredible. And like the title says, everything was hero dirt. Except of course the log rides and rock gardens. Hero dirt is what us mountain bicycle riding folk like to call the dirt that, no matter what you do, is as grippy as dirt can get. No matter how fast you go or how hard you turn, the tires stick to the ground like a cat on carpet (or your leg depending on how nice the cat is). It does a good job giving you confidence and an even better job making you go faster than you meant to. Put simply, it's awesome! Unfortunately, I only spent a day with all this hero dirt, but I certainly made the best of it, putting in nearly forty miles on basically every trail I had access to from one trailhead. This included Funner, Tiddlywinks, Larsen's, Storm King, and just a little bit Tyler's Traverse.

Good rides in Deschutes followed by good food and beer at Deschutes!

Funner is probably the funner of the trails in the area in my opinion. A few cool log rides, one with about a six foot drop at the end. Most of the terrain is very natural feeling and is extremely fast with a happy mix of flow and somewhat technical sections. My only complaint is that it's short! It only took me seventeen minutes to do a top to bottom run my first time on the trail. And that included stopping to check on someone who fell and to do a log ride I screwed up a second time to clean it. But, I did thoroughly enjoy the ride. It is an extremely well built trail!

Next up was Tiddlywinks. This is like a miniature A-line! It was extremely fast and a ton of fun, but did seem a little small, even for XC bikes. Once again, the trail was hero dirt from start to finish. So yet again, you could go fast on this trail. Really fast. 38mph first time down actually. This is certainly a trail I would recommend to anyone in the area and is yet again, an extremely well built trail! The people up in Bend definitely put the time and money into their trails which results in great systems. Good job y'all!

All in all, my Bend experience was short and sweet. It was definitely a great place to spend my last day of riding on the west coast! I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the trails and will certainly be back at some point in time to experience more of the trails in the area!