Mountain Biking in the Mt. Hood National Forest

We’ve been doing a lot of mountain bike riding in the Mt. Hood National Forest lately. Most of the lower elevation trails are closed due to extreme fire danger or too crowded with summer vacationers getting their last riding in before school starts and the rainy fall weather sets in. There are many excellent trails and forest service roads to ride, scenic and challenging for any level rider.
One of the longest and most popular trails is Surveyors Ridge Trail. Roughly twenty four miles, round trip from the lower trailhead, Surveyors Ridge has plenty of climbing, fast singletrack and technical trails.

When you get higher up into the Cascade Mountains, forest service and logging roads connect the singletrack trails. You have to know where you are and where you’re going, it’s easy to get turned around and lost here. Bike rides to this area are often more than four hours long and over thirty miles of off road riding, you have to carry everything you need; spare tubes, bike tools and plenty of water. We carry a full three liter hydration pack as well as a large water bottle on the bike.

Another popular trail is Knebal Springs Trail. Knebal Springs is about nine miles long and mostly singletrack. The parts of the trail that are in the trees are in pretty good shape, but most of the trail is dusty and dry. Still worth riding.

Surveyors Ridge Trail is the main attraction here. The riding is great and the views of Mt. Hood are the best anywhere.

It looks like the wind is going to calm down for the next couple days, so we are going to be headed out on the Columbia River to do a little kayak fishing. It’s been very windy lately, we haven’t had much of a chance to do much kayak fishing, sure hope the fish are biting.