Oregon Road Trip: Spotlight on the Harvest Trails, AKA the Gully
location: Springfield, Oregon
posted 7.9.06

Recommended skill level: Intermediate to Advanced

After an urban session on the U of O campus and downtown Eugene, we headed back to the cars and drove to a market to stock up on energy drinks and gatorade. I was delighted to find that my new favorite energy drink, "Von Dutch" was on sale for a dollar a can. I debated on whether I really needed to buy a case and settled on 4 cans and 2 bottles of powerade. We picked up a bag of ice for the cooler as well, and followed Sheldon and Levi to a church parking lot down the road from our destination. We packed our gear and proceeded to pedal down the road to the trails.

Its like heaven. so pretty.

The trails are also known as "the Gully" for what you'll see are obvious reasons if you get the chance to ride there. As we climbed back up and rounded the corner of the trail we were greeted with the following view: rows and rows of shaded jumps, hidden in the trees, safe from the wind.

so many sweet jumps..

Sheldon boosts the step up

And the step down

the author working on the 7-pack.

The guys had rented a pump just days before and used it to water the jumps down using water from a nearby river. The bigger line still needed to be reworked, but the 7 pack of jumps on the left was good to go. After walking through and checking it all out, we got ready to ride.

This is where I made a big mistake. Earlier in the day I had opted to follow our tour guide Sheldon through the jumps by the railroad tracks in order to correctly gauge the amount of speed I would need to clean the section. This was an excellent strategy, and one I have employed often in the past. I should have done it here.

Instead, I came up short and, as I still can't really run yet (lingering issues from my broken foot from last year) sprained both ankles on the step up. I should have been pedaling my ass off, and I didn't. A few minutes later I was back on it and charging. When you're having this much fun, a minor sprain won't hold you back.

In the meantime, this made for a good time to fire off some photos. We had ridden almost all day, riding from spot to spot, all over Eugene. It was super fun, and hauling a heavy camera bag around was the last thing on my mind. This place just looked so good I had to record it for the site.

As the afternoon wore on, a few more of the guys showed up, and the session grew.

It was a bit of a bummer the other line wasn't ridable, but we had a good time riding the 7pack, as well as the step-up, and step down.

This spot was so fun, and ithas so much potential...

Eugene and Springfield area riders have to be stoked to have this super fun spot in an awesome location. If I moved back to Eugene, I would be here all the time.

If you're passing through the Eugene/ Springfield area, and want to check these sweet trails out, log on at huckit.net and I'm sure the guys would be happy to hook you up. They're a great crew, and a good bunch of guys. I can't wait to come back up, and to ride with them some more.