Washington - Oregon - Idaho - Utah - Colorado 2007 : Day 8

Day 8 - OakRidge - Waldo Lake Mountain Bike Ride (Oregon)

We both had to wear earplugs the previous night as the hotel had very thin walls, and the traffic on the main road was relentless, we decided to go across the road and get breakfast at a place called Mannings and had some large pancakes. You wouldn't want to eat such huge pancakes everyday without plenty of vigorous exercise otherwise you'd get huge as some local wildlife sat near us were demonstrating 8-)

The weather looked as though it was going to be great, and we decided over breakfast to go ride round Waldo Lake. So we headed back to the Motel and loaded up our bikes and drove along the 58 to the Waldo Lake turn off.

Waldo Lake mountain bike trail to Betty Lake

We parked at the Shadow bay boat slip car park , there didn't seem to be any mosquitoes around so we didn't bother with any insect repellent (A bad choice as it turns out), and rode off towards Betty lake, a route which climbed gradually up away from Waldo lake. We'd chosen this route as some locals had said the climb and descent from the Twins was much better than riding along side the lake.

The trail was very good, nice dry singletrack. As we rode it started to warm up nicely.

Waldo Lake mountain bike trail (The sisters trail)

The trail up to the twins started to get pretty steep, but was all ride able, in a grit your teeth and grind away type of way 8-)

When we got to the junction with the twins peaks, we decided to go up the spur trail to the twins to see the views, the trail became unrideable due to the loose rock, and as the rocks were trashing our cycling shoes we didn't go all the way up to the Peaks, but saw some great views all the same.

One we had finished taking in the views we headed back down the way we had come, the loose rock made going down quite fun. Having a gravity dropper seat post made the descent a lot easier.

Clare didn't find the descent so easy , and had to push her bike down through the loose rock. We then got back onto our trail and climbed a bit more before we started to head down hill.

Video Clip 13MB

The downhill was fantastic, with lots of twists and turns , well worth the long climb up, so far we had only seen 1 hiker. And it felt as if we were the only riders out on the trails. We didn't take too many pictures as the trail was such a blast.

Waldo Lake mountain bike trail to Charlton Lake

All good things come to an end, and the trail leveled out, and return to being a mostly flat undulating trail, and we arrived at Charlton Lake.

Waldo Lake mountain bike trail Northern end of Lake

From Charlton Lake the trail gradually descended towards the Northern end of Waldo lake, it took several attempts for us to find the right trail from Charlton Lake to Waldo lake.

The trees at the Northern end of Waldo lake had mostly been burnt down by a wild fire, and the trail was quite sandy and loose. It was also quite hot without any tree cover.

We liked the amusing trail rules that had were posted, in particular the section about Hikers having to leave the trail when bikers came past 8-) , we didn't see an llamas though..

Clare had a small crash as we headed down a slope , as her wheel slipped out in the sand, but only grazed her knee. There were quite a few wild flowers growing along side the trail.

As we came out of the burnt section we came across a very nice pond, there were loads of Frogs, Dragon Fly's and water boatmen. We stopped here and had some food, it was a idyllic spot.

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It was here that we both picked up our first mosquito bites - and boy did they itch..

Waldo Lake mountain singletrack bike ride

The trail dropped down close to the lake at one point so we took the opportunity to get down to the lake shore.

We then got back on the trail which got interesting as it climbed steeply in places and it contoured high above the lake.

I didn't like to hang around too much taking pictures in this area as there were a lot more mosquitoes flying around, but the views were so good I had to stop to take pictures, here I picked up another 2 bites waiting for Clare to ride past 8-)

There weren't too many trees down on the trail, if my memory serves me there were only 3 places where we had to carry our bikes.

Revenge is sweet I managed to kill a mosquito, but the bites i'd already got were swelling up about 1 inch across.

Waldo Lake mountain singletrack bike ride Dead Skeeter

Waldo Lake mountain singletrack bike ride - Skeeter Bite

There was one last good climb on the ride as there were so many mosquitoes around i didn't hang around waiting for Clare, and she almost took a wrong turn when she didn't see me off in front, I was waiting at a small beach for her to turn up, and eventually back tracked until I met up with her again.

In total we rode around 30.5 miles, I got bitten 8 times and clare 2 times, although Clare's bites swelled up more than me. The mosquitoes had bitten through our clothes in places. It had been a great ride.

Email me for garmin GDB file

After loading the bikes up in the SUV we went down to the lake, and I decided to go for a swim, the water was refreshing but not too cold.

Clare wouldn't go in the lake as she was too cold, I had a good old swim around it, although I did whack my leg on a sunken log at one point. Eventually I got out and changed and we then sat on a bench by the lake , it started to get quite windy and cooler as the sun went down.

Click to play Video (11MB)

We then drove back to Oakridge, and bought some fast food at the Diary Queen, before heading back to the Motel.

DAY 9