After the past week of mild weather, avid mountain bike riders are probably of a mind that the trails at the Maston, for example, are dry and mud-free. Think again. The Maston trails are still extremely muddy in sections from the daily freeze/thaw cycles that are drawing up all the moisture from deep in the ground and depositing it on the surface.
So the riding at Maston isn’t ideal, and worse, the number of ruts being carved into the muddy sections of trail are going to take a long time to smooth out once the weather either gets colder and a freeze occurs, or when the trails finally dry out come spring.
A suggestion is to give riding the Maston trails a rest for at least a week, or if in the area, go to the north trailhead and ride east on the “red road” and south when you come to the gray cinder road for a nice, and not muddy, out-and-back trip.
Apart from the Maston, mudfest riding is also the name of the game at Horse Ridge and Horse Butte. Daily freeze/thaw cycles are yet again the culprit.
However, the Peterson Ridge trail system in Sisters is riding well according to Phil of Phil’s Trail fame, who rode there on Thursday afternoon.
So head to Sisters for the best mud-free riding and, if possible, keep off the other popular winter singletrack so they won’t be deeply rutted and not much fun to ride when conditions get back to normal.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.
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