McKenzie River Trail (Oregon): 26-mile single-track mountain bike ride

Had a GREAT ride on this epic trail along the McKenzie River. It's couple hours from Salem. Have ridden it before, but it's been a few years. Between me and couple of other people that had ridden it before we guided the rest of the group without getting too lost along the way.

It's a 26 mile trail, and we did about 20 miles of it. There's about 1,000 feet of climbing and 2,000 feet of decent (over the entire course). I think the hardest climb was maybe a mile long for 400 foot gain (so not too hard).

Here's GPS profile of our actual McKenzie River Trail route (I captured with my Garmin GPS MAP60CSx and uploaded to MotionBased.com - they even layer in weather data for the time you are riding). Cool new site someone just pointed out to me earlier - great for training!

Felt great to just ride for the pure fun of it. Listened to iPod the whole way - Modest Mouse mostly. I was dead tired by the end of it, but can't wait to get out and ride again soon. Wonder how this bike with handle on the Black Rock trails? This bike will be great for "Super D challenge" event that hopefully someone organizes for 2007 - a Super D is combination of downhill and cross-country style "race".

Trailhead for McKenzie River trail... (that's my new all-mountain bike for doing long cross-country type rides like this one)



Here's the group from Salem I rode with.. (front to back: Todd, Felix, April, Travis, and Rich) This was taken on the bridge at south end of Clear Lake...



Sahalie Falls along the route...



This is what the trail looks like when you're flying along at 20+ miles an hour along the single-track... (actually this was just a blurry picture, but that's what it reminds me of).



Bikes loaded up for shuttle back to van at the trailhead and then home... (mine is the second one from the left)...



Picture gallery of ride.