Future Bend mountain bike trails
Riders hit the trail in Skyline Forest. Photo: Bob Woodward.
The 12 or so miles of trail that we knobby-tire riders enjoy once a year for the Cascade Chainbreaker mountain bike race may soon enhance the area’s reputation as a world-class mountain biking destination.
For the past 14 years, one of Oregon’s most popular and well-attended mountain bike races has been staged west of Bend’s Shevlin Park on private land historically known as the Bull Springs Tree Farm (the property has been a commercial tree farm for roughly 80 years). The spectator-friendly infield section near the finish line of the race course is the old site of a 1920s mill pond. In fact, evidence of the Pine Tree Mill logging operation still exists, including a stone furnace and the familiar piles of rusty tin cans that can been seen along the Chainbreaker route.
Currently, the 32,000-acre expanse now referred to as Skyline Forest is privately held by Fidelity National Timber, but that soon could change. The Deschutes Land Trust, a land conservation nonprofit based in Bend, is attempting to save the property from development and to preserve it as a public resource. The result for mountain bikers would be significant: the addition of miles and miles of singletrack to our trail systems.
“It’s a huge recreational opportunity,” Brad Chalfant, executive director of the Deschutes Land Trust, told me last week. “It’s off the charts.”
Imagine starting from Bend and riding singletrack on a developed trail system all the way to Sisters — or vice versa.
If the deal to purchase Skyline Forest goes through in the next few years as land trust supporters hope, the reality of such a far-reaching trail connection may not be far off, said Chalfant.
For years, Skyline Forest landowners have allowed equestrians and other users recreational access to the property, and numerous unmarked trails and dirt roads already exist. Moving forward, Chalfant said, the 32,000-acre parcel — about four times the size of the lower area at Phil’s Trail, the popular trail network on Bend’s west side — is large enough that separate trails likely would be created to keep mountain bikers and equestrians from crossing paths.
According to Chalfant, the topography of Skyline Forest terrain is more aerobically challenging than the relatively flat lower-elevation trails at Phil’s Trail. What’s more, additional riding trails at Skyline Forest should help ease the demand currently placed on heavily used trails in the Phil’s area.
“We don’t own the property yet so it’s premature to plan trails, but I’ve been out there riding with COTA (Central Oregon Trail Alliance) and we’ve got concepts,” Chalfant explained. “It’s a site that can sustain a fair amount of seasonal use. There’s a lot more variation and much more elevation gain than Phil’s.”
Chalfant went on to say that he hopes an option to buy the property will be made available by this summer, which would lead to its purchase by the Deschutes Land Trust in the next year or two.
The Deschutes Land Trust’s motivation to get the transaction moving is relatively high. Already stockpiled in the bank is a $4 million grant from a federal Forest Legacy fund, which comes with a use-it-or-lose-it expiration date that goes into effect next spring.
When and if the 50-square-mile Skyline Forest is preserved for the public, it would be the largest community forest in the Northwest and the second-largest such forest in the country, said Chalfant.
“(Building mountain bike trails) won’t happen overnight,” Chalfant conceded, “but there will be riding opportunities immediately and they’ll just get better with time.”
Connecting communities by trail systems like the one envisioned between Sisters and Bend via the Skyline Forest is the kind of resource that makes the region an attractive place for outdoor enthusiasts to call home, the executive director said.
“Studies clearly confirm that people move their small businesses to places like Central Oregon,” Chalfant noted, “because of the ability to wet a fly line or hop on the mountain bike from home.”
“This,” he said, referring to the anticipated acquisition of the Skyline Forest, “is key to the long-term quality of life in Central Oregon.”
Mountain bikers can explore some of the trails that currently exist in Skyline Forest and imagine a future singletrack network there by joining the Deschutes Land Trust for an organized tour. The Land Trust plans to lead at least four of these community trail rides this spring and summer, the first of which will take place on Wednesday, May 25.
“We’re trying to get more people out there to experience it,” said Chalfant, “and to consider it their own.”
Heather Clark can be reached at cyclingcentral@bendbulletin.com.
