Field Reports
route launches, stewardship campouts, events, and other musings.
First Thru Rider of Washington’s Colemonti Crossing: Dustin Raisanen
I got to spend 17 days in the wilderness on my bike. Life can’t get much better than that. Every sunrise and sunset, some really incredible descents at last light. But mostly the kindness along the way, and all of the wonderful conversations with strangers.
A glimpse at what’s to come—Claim your map now
“Can I ride Orogenesis yet?” The answer is finally yes, at least parts of it—we’re ready to share Orogenesis with the world.
Klickitat Sisters—an ancient upcountry portal
The Klickitat Sisters Trail is an ancient upcountry portal into another way of life. There are stories from oral tradition and eyewitness accounts that for millennia the people of the Yakima, Klickitat, and Columbia River have passed through these ridges and meadows as trade routes and during annual huckleberry harvests. Its reawakening provides a trove of treasures for those who seek.
Ride of the Month: Lost Cannon Canyon
Continuing our Fremont theme from last month’s Ride of the Month, we’re excited to share this remote Sierra high country gem. This loop climbs 2,500’ through lush stacked meadows, interspersed with aspen copses before topping out at almost 9,000’ and then descending along the banks of Mill Creek—a fast, narrow, and rowdy descent that sees very few tires.
Ride of the Month: Charity Valley
Believe it or not, Charity Valley is the route General John C. Fremont and Kit Carson took crossing the Sierra’s Carson Pass in 1844—in a mid February blizzard no less. Hopefully we’ve gotten smarter since then, and are now recommending you ride this route east (downhill) instead of west, using a mountain bike instead of a horse pulling a cannon, and definitely not in February.
Finding Lost Trails: The Basics
Lost trails, ghost trails, historic trails—whatever you call them, these relics of the golden age of trail building are an intriguing treasure hunt for us today. Aside from the intrigue, why do we care?
Ride of the Month: Lost Sierra Bikepacking Route
The Lost Sierra Route is a 250-mile gravel bikepacking loop starting and ending in Truckee CA. The route dives straight into the backcountry of the Lost Sierra Region, known for its rugged landscape and gold rush history. Combining Tahoe, Sierra, and Plumas National Forests, the diversity of this route is deep in history, and beauty and filled with surprises and challenges!
Recap: Cispus Chainsaw Collaborative
Earlier this month we had the pleasure of traveling to Randle, WA for the 3rd annual Cispus Chainsaw Collaborative. Over three days, students learned the basics of saw maintenance, appropriate safety gear, the physics of binds, hazards, and of course got plenty of trigger time too.
Cispus Collaborative Chainsaw Training - 2024
Do you love the smell of bar oil in the morning and waking up next to your sweetheart, Stihl? Make a date with your bestie chainsaw to attend the 3rd Annual Cispus Collaborative Chainsaw training hosted by the Upper Cowlitz Valley Trails Coalition (UCVTC).
OROGENESIS, A year in review
As we leave the darkest days of the year and enter a new one, we like to reflect on the people and places we’ve gotten to know better over the last 12 months. And woo-boy, if it isn’t a long list!
Route Refinement Workshops
If you’ve been a contributor to the Orogenesis route thus far, we’d love to invite you to a workshop to refine and suss out the best of our current options. These sessions are scheduled throughout October, and are split up by chapter. Hope to see you at one or more of them!
Orogenesis Visits Washington DC
Last week with a looming government shutdown we joined the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA), Bikepacking Roots, and other mountain bikers from across the country for a visit to Washington DC to talk to our legislators about the importance of the Bicycling On Long-distance Trails (BOLT) Act.
Klickitat Sisters Stewardship
Last year, a rockstar group met high above Packwood and logged out about half of the 17 miles of the Klickitat Sisters Trail, an ancient indigenous trading route between the Klickitat and Cowlitz people. Last weekend we returned to finish the job.
Beetle Kill on the Oregon Timber Trail
One last stop on my journey home—a very special place indeed. Back in 2016 when I was leading the development of the Oregon Timber Trail I fell in love with this rugged and lonely landscape, and was excited to return to see old friends and work on logging out one of the more notorious sections of jackstraw beetle kill.
Corral After Caldor
Nearly everywhere I rode after two months in California had been affected by wildfires, and Tahoe was no exception. In 2021 the Caldor Fire ripped through the Tahoe basin, luckily sparing most homes and infrastructure, but the forest was not as lucky.
Returning to Pinecrest
After having explored the amazing granite riding of Pinecrest several years prior, I was excited to return and get my hands dirty. While much of the high country was still buried in snow, we discovered a few lower elevation gems and met the local riders and builders.
A Chance Encounter in Jerseydale
I was attempting to get some work done while posted up on a ridgeline with a good cell signal, but instead I opened Trailforks. Wait, I’m literally sitting on top of a trail network?
Yosemite’s Hidden South Gate
Oakhurst and Bass Lake are most known as the main jumping off point for tourists heading into Yosemite Valley, but the trails and terrain right outside of town are destination-worthy in their own right.
Tehachapi Trails
Another, more direct entrance into the Paiutes than Jawbone Canyon, is Tehachapi. This small community has partnered with a local cement company to build a robust and ripping trail system right on the edge of town.
Jawbone: Gateway to the Southern Sierra
For the most part, Orogenesis has been designed within a contiguous swath of public lands that loosely follow the mountain ranges that give Orogenesis its name. But several large swaths of private land present problems—the Mojave Desert, the Paiute Range, and the Tehachapi Mountains make up one of these.