Carl and Mike's Oregon Adventure!! -by Carl Shelton

Just got back from a week long road trip to southern Oregon. 2,300 miles total driving. First day was all day drive from Temecula to Medford. The Medford Motel 6 gets points for having a very nice park next door with bike path and a BMX-pump track open to the public. The next few days we camped at Toketee Lake on North Umpqua Trail where there are some real nice campsites along the river. Monday we did one of the most epic rides I have ever done: an out and back attempt from Toketee Lake to Lemolo Lake on the hot springs/ dread and terror section of NUT. We did not complete the end section to Lemolo and turned around after 4 hours of riding and HAB. ended up with 7.5 hours total and only covered 26 miles. We must have gotten on and off the bike 200 times. The highlight of the ride was a near death experience on some exposure where I managed to hang on to the hillside but my bike tumbled off a 40 foot cliff and almost into the river below. The river, waterfalls, green ferns and moss everywhere, just unreal scenery is worth doing this ride. However, the rocks, mud, and large penalty for failure type exposure, made for a very slow going- 3mph average. Tuesday we drove to Bend and had a "rest" day: drinking beer and riding Phils trails. A polar opposite of NUT. Smooth, dusty, XC trails. We stayed at the Riverside Inn which I would recommend- be sure to get a river view room with balcony. very nice. comes with kitchen. Wednesday we hit McKenzie River trail shuttled by Mountain River Resort. This 26 mile shuttle took a little longer than expected and we ran out of water at the last 5 miles. The upper section takes a bit of work and HAB due to large amounts of lava rock in the trail and stops for pics at the many waterfalls. The bottom 14 miles of seemingly endless flowy single track is quite possibly my favorite type of riding anywhere. next few days we stayed at Salmon Creek falls campground in Oakridge. Had another "rest" day drinking beer and riding Salmon Creek trail. The south side marked black diamond is no joke and should not attempted after several strong IPAs. The public house bar and resturaunt is a must-do and has great food, beer, and locals. last day of our trip we shuttled Alpine, possibly my favorite day of the trip. Next time I do an Oregon trip, I think I will sign up for MBO. Oakridge was really fun. On the way home we did the Crater Lake drive into Shasta area and got thunderstorms on the way to Weed. Funny, the end of the rainbow was in Weed. NUT pics to start:

There are a bunch more great pics worth checking out here: Carl's STR report