Bert Hui

Bert Hui

Mountain Biking the Deschutes River Trail

10/25/17

My wife and I ride our mountain bikes along this trail often when we don't feel like riding singletrack but want to ride our mountain bikes. Beginner-firnedly route for sure, and in agreement about the Harris Ranch being a good spot to stop, picnic, and turn back around. The one addition I would make is one of preparation. If riding during the summer, bring lots of water. It's very open and very exposed to the sun. It can also get really hot. Secondly, my wife and I have ridden this trail dozens of times in our mountain bikes. Had never had problems with flat tires here previously. We had recently purchased bikepacking bikes and were taking them out for their maiden voyages recently along with associated panniers and racks and both sustained flat tires due to goat heads. Nasty little buggers. We didn't have spare tubes nor a pump, stupidly. We also had flats 11 miles in as we were leaving Harris Ranch. We started hiking our bikes out and were luckily picked up by a fish and wildlife employee on his way out from doing work in the area. If that guy hadn't come by, we would've been hiking our bikes out for several hours.

4.0