We’ve been doing a lot of mountain bike riding on the local trails lately, haven’t been writing about it too much, there are plenty of photos in previous blog posts, no sense reposting the same thing every day. There haven’t been any posts on kayak fishing lately either, that’s because it’s been very windy here in the Columbia River Gorge; great for kiteboarding but not so hot for kayak fishing so it’s been mostly bike riding for the past couple weeks.
Anyway, we’ve been riding as much as we can because we knew the trails we ride on would be closed because the dry conditions create and extreme fire hazard and the property owners close the trails to reduce the chances of somebody starting a forest fire. These are remote areas, once a fire starts, they are hard to fight and can burn for weeks or even months. News that the trails were closing came very early this year due to the dry and warm spring weather earlier in the year. Once we got the news, we headed out for the last ride on our favorite local trail; the WhoopDee Trail near Hood River, Oregon.
The word is out the trails were closing so there have been more riders than usual, so we got an early start on the last day the trail was open
The morning sun shined down on a perfect day for mountain biking
It was shady and cool in the forest
Once you ride down the trail into a valley, there’s nowhere to go but back up. The old way used to go straight up the side of a small mountain, not a lot of fun. Local trailbuilder Steve and volunteers from CAMBA and HRATS put in a new trail out of the valley called the WhoopItUp Trail. It’s still a pretty stiff climb, but it’s way better than the old way up and out of the valley.
The WhoopItUp trail winds up through the woods then emerges into open, grassy slopes nearer to the top
The upper sections of the trail are on the southeast side of the mountain and fully exposed to the hot summer sun. It’s easy to see how dry it is, these conditions are the reason the trails are closed, the potential for fire is very high
You might be inclined to take a break from climbing the hot, dusty trail and have a look at the great scenery
Kind of sad to close out the summer riding here, but we want to keep riding on this property owned by Stevenson Land Company and in order to keep the trails open, we have to follow the rules.
Unfortunately, there are a few bike riders and hikers who feel the rules do not apply to them and will ignore the trail closures. This seems especially true of people who have driven a ways to get here, they feel that they’ve driven an hour or more to get here, they’re going riding or hiking no matter what the signs say. We can only hope that these few people don’t ruin it for everybody else. As a trail user, it’s your responsibility to know and follow the rules and regulations. There are plenty of other places to ride and hike around here.
Looks like the wind may die down for a few days, we’re hoping to get out kayak fishing tomorrow. It’s been a while since we’ve been out fishing on the Columbia River, you never know what you’re going to get. We are also working on adding material to the WatermanAtwork.com website, we should have new stuff up shortly. Stay tuned….