First the Dry Ride. Loose over hard. Windblown bluster. Trying to get the pressure just right. It has rained but is not currently raining. The green-up has browned over. Trail legs have yet to find their mojo. I am trying some new tires. Brian tells me 'There is no good Syncline tire.' I am inclined to believe him.
Now the wet ride. Chocolate duff. Petrichor and shiny rocks. Weeping mossy basalts. Rolls but not quite slabs. Finally gapped the Buteo gap. It's a baby gap, but just my size. So satisfying I did the line again. Twice. Then after twelve years I finally went to the old school drive-thru ice cream place in Cascade Locks. It made me realize Cascade Locks embodies the moody atmosphere and small town quirk of Twin Peaks much more than Twin Peaks itself. No slight on Snoqualmie and North Bend, but Cascade Locks still looks like it's 1976.
Tygh Valley is a soft landing in rugged country, an idyllic gateway to Oregon’s wild side. Monolithic volcanoes dominate a skyline of rolling oak-dappled foothills, ponderosa pine, and blackrock canyons. It is semi-arid, but not quite desert, elevated but not exactly mountainous. To call it hill country would be a step in the right direction. As a basecamp for adventure, Tygh Valley hits all the right beats—sunkissed gravel backroads, shady creekside campgrounds, and backcountry doubletrack for days. Just don’t forget to bring your bike!
Explore the Wild & Scenic White River watershed with its glacier-fed basaltic river gorge and delightfully untouristed 30,000-acre wildlife conservation area. Mid-May balsamroot and lupine detonate across the hillsides. Gold. Violet. Everywhere. And the riding? Absolutely resplendent. A satisfying mix of rambling gravel, seldom-ridden descents, quiet canyons, and rolling farm roads offer cinematic sightlines across the Columbia plateau into the Cascade high country and beyond.
Did we shake it out at the @cycleoregon Gravel weekend? You betcha. Equal parts meditation, merriment and moondust. 12 out of 10, would go back to Tygh Valley and shakeout again for further exploration, backcountry sidequesting and gametrail factfinding along the fringes of the sparsely-peopled SE quadrant of the Mt Hood National Forest.
#cycleoregon #gratefulshred #gravelriding #omtm
FAR 01 | Bellingham | Saturday, May 30th
This past Saturday, we did a full recon of our upcoming FAR. We’re excited to share some of the images from that ride and invite you to join us!
With its stunning proximity to Kulshan (Mt. Baker) and the Salish Sea, Bellingham offers a spectacular setting for an unforgettable day on the bike, including big gravel climbs, deep forested trail networks, and smooth valley roads.
Knobby tires, climbing gears, a spirit of adventure, and the determination to persevere are all prerequsites for this ride. Bring these and this promises to be a day you won’t soon forget!
Exclusively for RCC members, FARs are days to discover your limits, and keep going!
Space is limited, so reserve your spot today.
Link to details & RSVP in bio.
While it is true that @cycleoregon GRAVEL bonanza is taking place this upcoming weekend in Tygh Valley, OR—that was already on your radar and well-established as part of the plan. It’s just what we do this time of year. What you may NOT be aware of is that as part of the weekend’s expanded menu of activities, I will be leading a Friday Shakeout ride. What is a ‘Friday Shakeout Ride’ you ask? Well, I will just say it is something that has NEVER been done before—we are in uncharted territory here, so we’ll feel it out, make it up as we go along and above all else, ensure a good time is had by all.
Think of this as your socially-focused course preview—11.3 miles of mixed gravel, dirt roads, pavement, and rolling golden, oaky rainshadow hillcountry. This is your opportunity to lock in the perfect PSI, snack strategy and sock combo prior to the main event.
Expect cinematic sightlines across the Columbia plateau, blooming balsamroot, and the perfect introductory primer on the Tygh Valley backcountry.
The Details:
📍 Start: Wasco County Fairgrounds
🗓️ When: Friday, May 8th @ 5:00 PM
🚲 The Ride: 11.3 miles / Casual
#RideCycleOregon
#OMTM
#GravelCycling
#gravelbike
Out into the good stuff. Grateful for the Monday morning mist. Empty forests, damp to the touch. Everything dripping. Trickling. Running. Gurgling. Fragrant resinous pine on the nose. Climbing, climbing, climbing just to have something purposeful to push against. I am the only person out here. Up here. Through here. Over here and down there. Push back up and try the other line. Now the left one. Down the cascading roots and rocks, over embedded slabs. Cedar nurse logs breaking down into pillowsoft corners like moist cinnamon chocolate cake. Stumps, booters and chutes. A lines. B lines. C lines. All the way down through beargrass meadows, talus fields, dark duffy second-growth. Through the jarring, scarred, patchwork character of industrial timberland back into proper forest on the other side. Down into greener, wetter, steeper, lusher drainages. Blankets of moss and roaring creekwater.
I am the only one out here.
Continental's Magnotal lands at the meaty end of the brand's reworked XC lineup. A fully reimagined tire that trades the Mountain King's legacy for a denser tread pattern, tall relief-cut corner lugs, and two compound options. We put it through the full force of PNW conditions to find out if it can truly bridge the oft-sought gap between cross country and trail.
📷: @bertrand.m.m x @omtm.cc
✨Full Review in Profile✨and✨in Stories✨
#mountainbike #mtb #gratefulshred #singletrack #cycling
Set out on a fact-finding excursion. Nestor Peak and surrounding curiosities. Highlights included lovely meandering DNR road climbs, deep duffy singletrack and chocolate cake tread. I found dustings of snow up high. It seems like the middle and lower tiers are where the action is on (and off) Buck Creek. A lot of straightline brakeburning up top. Some lovely minor ridge rolls. Even tucked into some illicit lines that were so good, I had to climb back up for subsequent laps. Lovely zone.
#gratefulshred #singletrack #bikesnacking
45 volunteers. Multiple crews. Major progress at CLIMB.
The eastern section of Peregrination is now complete, improving flow and reducing road transfers across the system. Crews also dialed in Buteo Drop, continued work on Ouroboros, and even repaired the equipment trailer that keeps projects moving.
Huge thanks to @metropoliscycles and @ridepdw for showing up with a big crew, coffee, donuts, and support.
And shoutout to @omtm.cc for capturing the day.
Climbing through sundappled white oak and shady forest this morning I hear a baby cry somewhere. Not too close but not too far. I think 'that's fun, some folks are hiking with their kids' and return to thinking about other things. The morning light. The climb. How good it feels to be back on trails after weeks away. The grippy new tires. The buttery, freshly serviced fork. About ten minutes later, I hear another baby cry. I think 'what are the chances of another baby out hiking deep on Hospital Hill?'...and then I realize those aren't babies, those are mountain lions.
#adventurecycling #mountainbike #singletrack #gratefulshred #omtm
“Tygh Valley is a soft landing in rugged country, an idyllic gateway to Oregon’s wild side.” 🌾⛰️
To kick off GRAVEL ‘26, we’re leaning into the “resplendent” riding of the White River watershed with a Friday Shakeout Ride hosted by Ron Lewis from @omtm.cc
Think of this as your socially-focused course preview—11.3 miles of mixed gravel and pavement to dial in those tire pressures, snacking strategies, and sock combos before the weekend’s bigger routes begin.
Expect “cinematic sightlines” across the Columbia plateau, blooming balsamroot, and the perfect introductory warm-up to the Tygh Valley backcountry.
The Details:
📍 Start: Wasco County Fairgrounds
🗓️ When: Friday, May 8th @ 5:00 PM
🚲 The Ride: 11.3 miles / Casual Social Pace
Check the link in our bio for the full Vibe Guide on the blog. 🔗
#RideCycleOregon #OMTM #TyghValley #GravelCycling #gravelbike
And just like that we're cautiously, optimistically back in action. At least low-risk action. And wouldn't y'know it, we went straight from deep winter to 72 and sunny, so here we are. 60 miles of some of our favorite Dalles lines: names like Fax, Ward, Adkisson, Eightmile, Wrentham Cutoff, Fifteenmile and an abandoned stretch of unnamed tarmac that shall be christened Applebench Rd. We briefly considered a side quest out to the Schutes and down Freebridge but running low on food and blasted by 30 mph headwind gusts, @howrad and I opted to play it by the book. Finish with tailgate dogs at the PUD? You goshdarn BET we did.
#adventurecycling #gratefulshred #bikesnacking #omtm
You ever go adventure-walking and the further you go, the higher you climb the crazier it gets so you keep at it just to see how gnarly it's going to keep getting if you just keep going a little further and a little higher? That was my Table Mountain adventure walk today. The snow up high made things a little dicey along the high ridge stuff for someone with a recovering shoulder injury, so didn't do the Heartbreak Ridge descent on account of chatting with a couple folks on the way down who mentioned it was super greasy and kind of like a sketchy snow-chute up high. I want to come back in a month when it's dried out a little and a bit springier. All this to say, getting to scree-ski parts of the upper West Table out n back section was worth the price of admission alone!
