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Trails >> Southern Oregon Ashland, Oregon and the Rouge Valley is home to a healthy riding scene. Ashland is one of those towns surrounded by miles of trails, where one can ride your bike from your door to miles and miles of quality riding. Many know of it from the legendary Mt. Ashland Shuttle that local bike shop Bear Creek Bicycle used to have. For $5.00, you got a ride up to the Ashland Ski Area, where you had a 14 mile ride down the mountain. There are a number of routes down from the top, many of which drop you off into Lithia Park and downtown Ashand. It's a sweet place to live; I used to ride down to the bike shop and catch a shuttle at the end of the day. I had a route that ended almost 4 blocks from my apartment. Not only is there great mountain biking, Ashland, Talent, and Grants Pass have bike friendly skateparks. (Medford, Jacksonville, and Klamath Falls also have skateparks, but they don't allow bikes at this point. That makes for 6 skateparks within an hour's drive)
Wagner Creek.
With the freedom to
police themselves, the local mountain bikers have been busy, building
stunts and adding obstacles to the trails built by the local bike club.
This entire trail network was built and maintained by mountain bikers.
In order to discourage motorized use, many of the trails have sections
barely wide enough for a 26" handlebar. It's easy to smack one's
elbows and shoulders on trees if you're not paying attention. It consists of a winding singletrack with tight twists and turns between trees, littered with logrides and stunts. It's a technical trail, with plenty of rocks and rooty sections to keep you alert. Clifford and I were on 8" travel dh bikes today, while Brandon (AKA "I don't like to spend money on my bike) was on his only mt. bike, an Azonic DS-1, set up single speed. Izaak was on his RM-6, which was close to an ideal bike for the tight, technical trails. I found myself wishing I brought my Heckler. A solidly built 5-6 inch travel All mountain bike is ideal for the trails here. Rocky downhill sections were fun on the dh bike, but the climbs weren't. Some of the switchbacks were difficult to negotiate with the limited turning radius of my dual crown fork. We began our ride with a climb up the fireroad. One of the first stunts we encountered is this ladder pictured to the left. It's not very difficult, but a lot of fun.
After doing the top section, Izaak took me on an all new trail. I believe it's was named Chip's ***(? Izk, call me and refresh me..) Anyway, this trail was sweet. Until the top section which was slower, more rocky, and technical, this new trail resembled a downhill course. I was starting to enjoy the benefits of my dh rig.
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Wagner
Creek is a ORV riding area just outside the town of Talent, located seven
miles south of Medford and four miles north of Ashland. Because of it's
ORV status, Wagner is a desirable riding area. Unlike the Mt. Ashland
Watershed, the local forest service is more concerned with motorized users,
and yocals with guns. That leaves us mountain bikers pretty much to ourselves.
It's a welcome change to greet the forest rangers as opposed to hiding
from them.
A
lot of these stunts are new; less than a year old. I'm excited to come
back and ride this trail on my Heckler. While the trail is ridable on
a hard tail or downhill bike, it just screams for a lighter all mountain
set up. The slack headtube of my down hill bike wasn't doing it here.
This
section was so fun we had to do it a few times. You come over this ridge
at speed and step down into a hip before zooming into this high speed
bermed section. Sweet!