Mountain biking is happening in Madras!

First off, we have become an official COTA Chapter. This recognition helps us to move forward with building more trails in Jefferson County, with the East Hills Trails Project first up.

What’s the East Hills Trails Project?

The Madras East Hills Trails Project is an outdoor recreation project to the east of Madras. This area offers beautiful rolling hills with about 1,000 ft elevation change per 10 miles, and is ideal for trail runners and cross-country style mountain biking. Also because it sits at a lower elevation - about 2,250 feet above sea level - it’s a great area for winter and summer use. The soil is slightly clay-based, allowing for solid trails year round. 

The East Hills is owned by a few primary players including Morrow properties, Bean Foundation, City of Madras, and USFS/Crooked River National Grasslands. All four primary entities have a strong history of supporting recreational use of lands, and the private entities have donated lands to the city and/or county in the past for parks and open spaces. 

Our intent for this project is to build a multi-user trail system in the East Hills that will eventually spread into the Crooked River National Grasslands. To begin, access points need to be created from Juniper Hills Park into the East Hills. From there we have a lot of options for trail design. There are numerous amazing viewpoints, and some awesome natural features to work with.
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​What’s the first step?

The City of Madras owns a piece of property that is slated for the city to develop over the next 25 years. It currently lies mostly unused. Last year COTA proposed building a demonstration trail system on this property. The concept is to build a system of trails for community use, while developing and designing a connected trail network into the Grasslands as the city grows. Further, as the demo trail system property becomes utilized by the City of Madras for city expansion over the course of the next 25 years, a handful of these trails would remain throughout the property for continued public use and Grasslands trails accessibility. The City Council of Madras elected to move forward with this project in 2017.

Want to get involved or keep up to date?
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Join our Facebook public ‘Madras Trails’ group and keep up to date here. 

Interested in getting involved with trail works in Madras? Email the Madras team here.

​A successful community meeting of the Ochoco Trail User group took place on September 20th. Over 60 community members showed up to hear the proposed trail plans and included representatives from Landwatch, Oregon Wild, OHA, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, COTA, OET, BCHO, and ODFW.  Overall the response was very positive and the feedback received will be immensely helpful in moving this project forward.  

See proposal trails on complete map here. Offer your comments and feedback via email.

The 2018 Oregon Mountain Biking Coalition Summit is fast approaching so save your seat!

As you may know, in 2017 a group of like-minded, let’s-make-it-happen mountain bike advocates throughout our great state of Oregon came together and kicked off the 1st annual statewide summit in Bend. They’re at it again this year, determining goals for the OMBC in 2019 and beyond, stewardship collaborations, and advocacy priorities.

The Summit is free, but you must pre-register here> 2018 Oregon Mountain Bike Summit registration form.

Learn more about the OMBC/Oregon Mountain Biking Coalition here.

The OMBC Summit on Saturday follows the Thursday/Friday Oregon Trails Summit, which focuses on ALL trail users: hikers, horses, mountain bikers, OHV riders. More information that can be found here. 

We're excited to get everyone together to collaborate and make our voices heard as Oregon continues on its path as a top-notch mountain biking mecca (for residents and visitors alike).

See you in Bend!
 
OMBC Steering Committee

Jenna Berman - Team Dirt
Adam Craig - Oregon Timber Trail Alliance (OTTA)
Nick Gibson - Trans-Cascadia 
Woody Keen - Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA)
Jeff McNamee - Salem Area Trail Alliance (SATA)
Chris Rotvik - Northwest Trail Alliance (NWTA)
Matthew Weintraub - Northwest Trail Alliance (NWTA)
 
AGENDA for Saturday, October 6th, 2018
 
8-9am – Coffee/breakfast social

9am – Welcome and opening remarks
- Nick Gibson
 
9:10am-10:30am – Panel Discussion: Regional public land managers and mountain biking: A look into the future and how a statewide organization could facilitate additional riding opportunities:
 
 Zach Jarrett – Recreation Program Manager, USFS, Region 6 
 Cailin O’Brien Feeney – Director, Office of Outdoor Recreation, OPRD            
David Moore – Recreation Planner, BLM
Randy Peterson – Recreation Program Manager, ODF
 Jeff McNamee - Moderator
 
10:30am-10:45am – Break
 
10:45am-11:15am - Oregon Mountain Biking Coalition history and accomplishments 
- Gabe Tiller
 
11:15am-12pm – Advocating for access: The importance of lobbying and how we can begin to affect change on a statewide level
- Matthew Weintraub
 
12pm-1pm – Lunch
 
1:00pm-2:30pm – Oregon Mountain Biking Coalition governance format presentation
- Chris Rotvik, Jenna Berman, Woody Keen  
 
2:30-3:30pm – The next steps: Where we go from here as a network
- Adam Craig, Matthew Weintraub
 
3:30-5:30pm – Let’s go ride bikes!  
- Ride options and locations to be announced
 
6:30pm – Drinks at Seventh Mountain Resort Bar 

The big news in Crook County is the upcoming Trail Planning meeting in Prineville – this is the unveiling of the first draft of a non-motorized trail plan for the Ochoco National Forest.
               
When:  September 20th; 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Where:  Crook County Library, 175 NW Meadow Lakes Drive, Prineville
 
This Trail Plan was created by the Ochoco Trail Strategy Group – an ad hoc group convened by the Prineville Chamber of Commerce and the Ochoco National Forest and includes representatives from COTA, OET, BCH, hikers, ranchers, and the local business community. 
 
Included in this trail plan are possible re-routes on Lookout Mountain, a trail that completes the Round Mountain - Lookout Mountain loop and eliminates the road ride, and trail networks that will include Scotty and Cougar Creek trails.
 
Come check out the trail proposal and let the voice of the mountain bike community be heard loud and strong in its support of more biking in the Ochoco National Forest.

Beginning Monday August 27th, the Deschutes National Forest will be closing sections of two trails immediately west of Bend in the Phil’s Trail System area.

Upper Storm King Trail will be closed for about 1.7 miles from its junction with FS 4615 to its junction with FS 4615-200. Grand Slam Trail will be closed for about 0.9 miles west of its junction with FS 4615-200 to its junction with Storm King Trail. Trail users on Grand Slam Trail can use a temporary reroute along FS 4615-200 south to reconnect with the Storm King Trail. In addition, portions of roads FS 4615-800 and FS 4615-810 will be closed to all use. These trails and roads will be closed Monday through Friday, with access reopening at 5:00pm on Friday through Sunday evening. Trails and roads will also be open on Federal Holidays including Labor Day. Closures on these trails will likely last through fall.

The public is reminded that operators are working with large equipment cutting and moving trees and cannot see people or dogs walking through the area and may not be able to prevent an accident. During logging operations, woody debris can be flung over 500 feet from equipment, presenting a danger to the public within the closure areas. For both public and operator safety, please respect all signed closures.

While the closure is in place Monday through Friday, the public is encouraged to plan ahead and ride in other areas.
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Please check the online interactive map for the latest closures within the West Bend project area here.

The most westerly section of ​Grand Slam is closed from the FS 4610/4604 junction to Storm King Monday - Friday for the foreseeable future. Please avoid for your safety and logging ops can be completed.

Trail Love on the Deschutes! On July 16th we had a whopping 65 volunteers come out for trail work - on a Monday night no less - in a joint effort with Footzone and Central Oregon Runners Klub (CORK).

COTA provided the tools, crew leaders and project oversight (which started with scouting missions days before) while the volunteers provided the elbow grease and can-do attitudes. Volunteers braved the heat and a good dose of hungry mosquitos for some sections, but all had fun. There were a great mix of trail runners and mountain bikers (many who do both) to get a large section of this beautiful trail back into tip-top shape.  

Together we focused on brushing back the wildest overgrown sections of trail,  tread improvements and water management.

The afterparty was at the new Outfitters Bar at 7th Mountain Resort.

One of COTA's new 2018 goals is to add a 3rd large trail work party, in addition to our Trail Love Spring & Fall Editions major events. Thanks again to Footzone and CORK for helping us make this happen. This was a great collaboration!

JULY 18TH UPDATE: You can email or mail in your supportive comments here if you didn't make the meeting last night. 

Re: Big Sky Park, File Nos. 247-18-000105-CU and 247-18-000164-SP

Comments in support (or opposition) can be directed to me since I am the Planner assigned to this case. It would be helpful if the comments reference the file numbers and/or park name noted above. You can send comments via email, regular mail, or hand-deliver to our office. 

Thank you.

Cynthia Smidt | Associate Planner
Deschutes County
Cynthia.Smidt@deschutes.org

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July 14, 2018: If you're stoked about a full bike park in Bend with all the bells & whistles, you need to show up and voice your support at this public meeting and hearing by the County Planning Dept.

The first public hearing (for the needed Conditional Use Permit) was controlled by park neighbors who have a NIMBY (not in my backyard) position on the planned bike park. We need to pack the house with bike park supporters to showcase the other side of the issue and speak out on how great a bike park would be for our community. We'd love to see parents with kids, young adults, and anyone else jazzed about this to speak about what an incredible addition this would be for Bend.

PROJECT IN A NUTSHELL:
In collaboration with community partners, a new bike park for beginners to professional riders in the undeveloped areas to the west and north of the existing sports complex will offer family trails, cross country trails, cyclocross courses, a slopestyle terrain park, dirt jumps, pump tracks and kids bike play/learning areas.

Plans include a new entrance/exit that will serve as shared access for the park and Buckingham Elementary School, additional parking for 150-200 vehicles, and improved pedestrian circulation and safety.

Located at the corner of Hamby and Neff Roads at 21690 NE Neff Rd.
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A NOTE FROM BRPD:
"There’s an important opportunity coming up next week that may be of interest for your attendance and participation. Deschutes County is holding a public hearing about Big Sky Park and visitors are welcome to share input about the proposed project.

DATE/TIME: The hearing is at 6 pm on Tuesday, July 17, at the Deschutes Services Center located at 1300 NW Wall St in the Barnes and Sawyer Rooms, 1st floor.

As a reminder, the permit is asking the County to allow Bend Park and Recreation District to build the amenities that we have designed for this phase of the park development. Those include increased parking, entrance from Neff, lighting, athletic field expansion and the bike park. At an earlier meeting in June, several neighbors opposed the development plan, arguing that more amenities will lead to more traffic and congestion in the area.

If you’d like to share your viewpoint on the proposed project, you will need to sign up to speak. Testimony is limited to 3 minutes."

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT: Information, maps & schematics at Bend Park & Rec Department here.

In the Bend area: 

The Deschutes National Forest logging and mastication efforts have been completed near lower Tyler's Traverse, and so effective July 11th, Tyler's and nearby Catch & Release trails have been re-opened. There may be a few loggers wrapping things up, but we're clear to ride these trails. 

In the Crook County/Prineville area: 

Cougar Creek AND Scotty Trails in the Ochocos remain closed while Dirt Mechanics completes the heavy equipment work on these heritage trails.

In early 2018 our Board crafted our first-ever strategic plan, to help guide our organization in a thoughtful and methodical direction, set priorities, focus energy and resources, and ensure that we are working toward common goals.

To start, we refined our mission statement and developed a vision statement:

MISSION: To develop, protect, and enhance the Central Oregon mountain bike experience through trail stewardship, advocacy, collaboration, and education.

VISION: COTA envisions a robust and diverse mountain biking experience that will endure for generations.

Our five (5) year strategic plan is comprised of five initiatives, each supported by multiple objectives. COTA’s Board of Directors and other volunteers will be guided by this strategic plan to advance COTA’s mission and vision.

Initiative 1: Trail Building and Maintenance 
Initiative 2: Volunteers, Members, and Sponsors
Initiative 3: Advocacy and Collaboration
Initiative 4: Communications and Community Outreach
Initiative 5: Administration

You'll find the complete strategic plan here.

Our thanks to Travis Holman of Travis Holman Design, for beautifully stylizing this plan.