Deception Butte Trail, OR (9.15.12)

Throughout all the years I've been biking the trails in Oakridge, there is one specific trail that has always eluded me, mainly because it's so hard to put a crew together to ride it. This trail, Deception Butte, has a bit of a reputation, which started back in the day from folks who stated that it was overly difficult & dangerous. However, more recently, I had heard of people riding it and saying, "yeah, there are some spots you need to be a bit careful, but it's a great trail and worth doing". With such conflicting information, I really wanted to find out for myself.

Like I stated above, it's tough finding a crew for this one, and after sending out an email early in the week, the only bite I got was from Emily, my wife. The plan was to ride on Saturday, and Friday night I got pretty excited about the whole affair -- I love doing new rides about as much as I like doing new runs in kayaking, especially when things may get a little adventurous. After looking over the maps and doing some brief research online, the plan was to park at the MF Ranger Station, ride west on hwy 58 for 2 miles (which I figured would be the scariest part), then climb up the gravel road #5847 for about 5 miles, and finally, traverse/climb ~3 miles on road #549 to the upper trailhead and the start of the singletrack.

The morning of the ride we got a somewhat late start (for various reasons), but we weren't too concerned since we knew we only had about 15 miles worth of riding, and most of it on roads. When we pulled into the parking lot at the ranger station, it was around noon, and we were the only car in the lot. The sun was shining bright, with projected temps of around 80 degrees, so I was glad that a majority of the climb would be on a north facing slope where we'd have more shade. After gearing up we headed off down hwy 58, where Emily was convinced we were putting our lives on the line by sharing the road with crazy drivers that would likely be drunk or playing with their cell phones. Somehow, we survived the ordeal and made it to the start of the climb, near Shady Dell campground.

The climb started off on a paved road which quickly turned to gravel. We each settled into a pace, with Emily way out in front, which would be the story of the day until we reached the trail. The climb itself was actually quite pleasant, a bearable/sustained grade with shade for a majority of it. Em and I regrouped a few times along the way to confirm our path and ensure that we hadn't missed our turn onto 549. Between the couple GPS units and the map, we weren't too worried, and before long we made it, at a very obvious Y junction.

Emily, ready for some climbin'!

Nice weather for the climb

Plenty of shade too

Emily checks our coordinates to ensure we're still on track

The 5845 / 549 intersection

At this point we had climbed about 1,500' or so, and I wasn't quite sure how much more we'd be doing on 549 vs. the trail -- what I did know was that we would end up climbing about 2,400' to the summit and topping out at about the 3,400' above sea level. The road actually flattened out for a bit as it traversed toward our destination, but before long the climb started back up, once again at a manageable pitch. Finally, after about 3 mile and ~600' of additional climbing, we reached the trail, where I knew that my curiosity would soon be quenched!

The trailhead!

Everyone that I had talked to that had done the trail said there was a pretty brutal hike-a-bike section up a steep hill near the beginning. Sure enough, after about a 1/2 mile of trail, it ran into the base of a hill and quickly climbed up a pretty steep set of switchbacks. To be honest I didn't find it all that bad, and have certainly done worse, especially in BC. Probably the hardest part was trying to get traction on the loose dirt with plastic soled elf shoes... After a few short breathers along the way, we finally reached the top of the climb, where a spur trail spun off, traveling a short distance to the summit of Deception Butte.

Emily starts the hike-a-bike. For the record, it feels much steeper than it looks in the photos.

Navigating some roots

Taking a breather partway up the hike-a-bike

The view from the top was pretty nice, but only really opened up to the south. Although not thick, smoke from the Pole Creek forest fire (near Sisters, OR) diffused the light a bit as we sat and enjoyed some lunch. After eating, taking some pictures, and making sure our Facebook friends were abreast to the details of our day, we headed back down the trail to do what we came for, see what this trail was all about and shred some downhill!

Emily takes in the view, which was a bit hazy from the Pole Creek fire

Enjoying a delicious Subway lunch

The first part headed down the mountain at a steady pace along a winding trail that was partially covered with leaves, pine needles, and pine cones, giving it a somewhat obscure feel. Soon enough, the first steep section started, with some tight switchbacks and some narrow chutes lined with thick vegetation of ferns and salal. Since we didn't know the trail, and based on the rumors, we proceeded with caution on the way down, stopping here and there to do a quick scout prior to dropping in with our bikes. Eventually we reached a noted spot, where the trail enters some sketchy exposure before making a sharp right hand turn. You'd really have to be bombing down the trail and not know where it's at to run into trouble. That said, you certainly don't want to take a tumble here, as it would probably lead to a pretty nasty injury, or worse.

Em rounds one of the first switchbacks of the ride

Dropping down one of the steep bits

Thick vegetation lined a good portion of the upper stretch

Emily leads the way

More fun switchies

Em poses at the exposure at the sharp right turn. For the record, it drops off pretty far.

After the exposed corner the trail traversed its way down the hill with a few switchbacks and steep drops along the way. Although I was able to ride a few of the drops, and they were fun enough, the dirt was pretty loose, making them more sketchy then they really would have been had it been packed down. We also walked a few, including one root drop that would have required a manual/wheelie drop to not mash your chain ring, and of course it had a loose run-out.

The author dropping down a steep/loose pitch (photo by Emily Pfeifer)

Workin' to keep it under control (photo by Emily Pfeifer)

Em jumps out ahead on one of the more mellow sections

The drop that would require some lift to prevent your chain ring from catching

From here the trail continued along where we eventually hit some really tight switchbacks (many that I couldn’t ride) and a narrow benched in section that had you very conscious of your pedal placement. The final pitch down to Deception Creek was probably the most difficult, with some more loose dirt and technical rock bits. This actually reminded me of the stuff we had just finished riding in Whistler/Squamish BC, but much less bedded/packed down – even so it was still pretty fun.

Emily approaches one of the stupidly steep/tight switchbacks

Emily on one of the narrower benched-in sections, although there are sections that are even more narrow.

Catching a rare bit of light in a mostly dark forest setting

You can pretty much walk anything you don't feel like riding that day

 

The author drops into a steep rocky pitch near the bottom of the descent (photo by Emily Pfeifer)

Kickin' up a bit of dust on the run-out, which was pretty typical (photo by Emily Pfeifer)

All too soon we reached the well-built bridge across the creek. On the other side the trail flattened out dramatically, and gave no indication of what we had just come down. This section was really quite fun, a flowing no brake/pedal ride with leaves blanketing the trail -- the setting really made it feel like Fall had arrived. Apparently we did make a wrong turn toward the bottom at an unmarked intersection. We went right, which sent us on a climb up to Deception Creek Rd -- I assume we should have gone left here. After the climb we got to lose all the elevation we had just gained on the road, which I really hate doing. The road finished off quickly and we were soon back at the ranger station and our awaiting car. We ended the ride with nearly 3000’ of total climbing in ~15 miles of road/trail.

Emily crosses Deception Creek

Emily, stoked on the final bit of trail

Conclusion:
Finally I was able to check this one off the list -- it’s been a long time coming! This trail is certainly fun, and I could see doing it as a once a year type of ride. As for difficulty/sketch factor, I believe the early rumors are certainly blown out of proportion. Yes, it does have a relatively tough hike-a-bike near the start, there are some exposed areas, and of course some steep technical pitches and extremely tight switchbacks. However, this should not dissuade you from riding the trail, as the hike-a-bike is totally manageable, and you don’t have to ride anything you don’t want to – I actually like trails that have features above my skill/nerve level, since it gives me something to work on for the next time. All that said, mile for mile, it is probably the most difficult trail I’ve done in the Oakridge area, excluding ridiculous stuff like the notorious switchbacks on Bunchgrass.

In contrast to the fear based rumors of yesteryear, I’ve heard people recently say that this is one of their favorite trails in the area. Personally, I wouldn’t go that far, and I certainly wouldn’t consider it a classic --- the harder technical drops are just too trashy/loose for me to give it that kind of designation. I think that with some trail work (a little brushing and some serious armoring), it could definitely be one of the go-to trails for a lot of riders. In its current form, it's certainly rideable, but has more of an adventure feel, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Well, hopefully this gives some more information on Deception Butte and is helpful to anyone that has been curious or plans to ride it. To me it had always seemed to be one of those mysterious trails, even with the info/stories that were already out there. Obviously this write-up is only one person’s opinion of the trail, and I’m sure there are just as many as people that have ridden it. My suggestion would be to go find out for yourself. If you set realistic expectations of the ride, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed and will come away wanting to ride it again!

The tracks/stats from our ride:

Half Nelson - Squamish, BC (8.26.12)

After all the years of coming to Squamish/Whistler for our anniversary, Emily and I finally feel like we are getting to know all the different trail systems, making it much easier to plan rides. During our 2011 visit, one of our favorite days included the trails “Half Nelson”,” STP”, and “Somewhere over There”. If you’ve ridden in Squamish since the summer of 2010, Half Nelson probably needs no introduction. It has quickly gained popularity and become the flagship trail for the area, although I’m sure the locals are sick of people asking or talking about it in such a manner. It’s basically a downhill pump-track, inspired by trails like the famed A-Line in Whistler, just a bit tamed down. It was built by “Big Red” Ted Tempany (and many volunteers) and was funded by both local and federal grants, the first and hopefully not the last one to have such support. The other two trails, “STP” and “Somewhere Over There” (SWOT), will be discussed further below.

Leaving Eugene on Friday afternoon, we stayed at our friends' house (Jason & Cleo) in Seattle that evening. The next morning we planned to cross the border and reach Squamish during the early afternoon, with enough time to get in a ride. Unfortunately traffic was thick along the freeway through Vancouver, and even more so on Hwy 99, between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish. Apparently a road cyclist had gotten hit by a car during a race, creating the holdup. After finding this out, I felt pretty bad about all my bitching. By the time we made it to camp it was ~5pm, basically enough time to setup our site for the week and cook dinner before it got dark. I was a little bummed that we had lost one day of riding, but was also happy to start a week and a half’s worth of mountain biking, kayaking, and just plain relaxin'!

Home sweet home

The next morning we cooked breakfast, made coffee, and made plans for the day's ride. Since we didn’t feel like doing more driving then necessary and we wanted to start off with something we already knew, we decided on Half Nelson through SWOT. With that, we packed the car with our riding gear and headed off. We would start our ride from the dirt parking lot, about ¼ mile up from Quest University on Mamquam Rd/Garibaldi Park Rd.


From the parking lot, we rode up the gravel road to an intersection with another road that is used to climb up to Half Nelson; this intersection is at the bottom of the Half Nelson trail. We didn’t know this until later on in our trip, but there is actually a climbing trail that starts right at the lot we were parked at and ends partway up the climbing road. We did ride this the last day we were in Squamish, and although it is a fun climb, I didn’t feel it was any easier.. While climbing (the road or trail), you’ll get some nice views looking out toward Howe Sound, which I couldn’t help to stop and take a couple photos of. Continuing the climb, we passed the SORCA shelter (with a map of the riding area) and made a hard right turn, getting into the meat of the climb. Although steep, the climb here is fairly short and before we knew it we were at the entrance to Half Nelson, which you can’t miss. After a quick breather, we unlocked our shocks, dropped our seats, and prepared to drop in.

Emily rides past a nice view, thanks to some cutting...

Ready for some more climbing

Emily pulls into the trailhead for Half Nelson

The first part of Half Nelson has you ripping down singletrack through a forest setting – it’s really nothing fancy at this point and gives no indication of what lies down the trail. Not far below the intersection with “Recycle” (another fun trail), get ready for lots of "whee" moments. For me this trail can best be described as a dirt luge/bobsled course, where you’re funneled into S-turns of high banked berms; however, unlike the aforementioned Olympic events, between the turns you’ll be treated to massive dirt rollers and/or jumps, depending on how big your sack is. For me, I’m plenty happy with keeping my wheels closer to the ground and getting my giggles from the amazing flow of this trail, which doesn't require you to go big. That said, there are still plenty of small features to get you airborne, which we took full advantage of on the way down. Before long we passed underneath a elaborate wood bridge, which is actually the “Angry Midget” (AM) Trail. The AM trial can be accessed by passing the trailhead to Half Nelson and continuing on for another mile or so. It's also a fun trail in its own right, but seems to have been neglected a bit, as it has lots of loose dirt.

Okay, back to Half Nelson. After passing underneath AM, the trail seemed to be a little more packed down and moist, in a good way. There are some spots in here where you can really build up some speed before driving around a corner high up on the well-built berms. I really wish I had the stones to huck some of the bigger jumps so that I could land on the transitions, but once again, it’s still plenty fun even if you don’t. As we rounded the last few bermed corners at the end of the trail, all too soon, it was over. Not having nearly enough of that, we grinded up the hill one more time for another round. As a quick disclaimer, pictures do not do this trail justice, which seems to flatten out the perspective quite a bit. Furthermore, it’s really hard to find places to stop and take pictures, and the reality is you’re having so much fun that you really don’t want to. That said, here are a few shots from our laps down Half Nelson:

Em enters the fun stuff

Rounding one of the many corners

A few bridges here and there

Emily heads under the AM bridge

A little more packed on the bottom half

Entering the speed zone

Looking down Half Nelson from the AM bridge

A rider slingshots around a corner (taken from the AM bridge)

Same rider, downhill of the AM bridge

Now content with our couple laps down Half Nelson, we headed southwest to one of our other favorite trails in Squampton, Somewhere Over There. To get “There”, we took the trail from the bottom of Half Nelson down to and across Ring Creek (at Darwin's Crossing). Once over the creek, we made a short (but steep) climb to the “STP” trailhead. STP is also a moto trail and I’m not sure how much MTB traffic it actually gets, but I can tell you that we think it’s pretty fun. It’s a pretty technical up & down affair, with the last bit being a pretty fun (and somewhat loose) descent. When we reached the bottom of the hill we were faced with a recent clear-cut where the trail continued. With the heavy undergrowth on this section of trail, I always feel like I’m going to come around a blind corner and be face to face with a big black bear, but that has yet to happen. Eventually the trail deposits you at another dirt road, which is also the start of another grunt to get to the top of SWOT.

Em heads across Ring Creek at Darwin's Crossing

The start of another climb, to STP

Descending STP

Em enters the clear cut

Towards the end of STP

The climb up this dirt road is fairly short, but it is steep with lots of sun exposure (due to the cut). Before long the road turned to trail and ducked back into the forest. Just a bit up the trail we reached the intersection with “Hoods in the Woods”, supposedly a really fun trail that I eventually want to do. However, it was not on our day’s agenda, we had other things in mind, so we continued to climb toward our destination. Between Hoods and the start of SWOT were some fun short climbs that required both technical and mountain goat skills, which I wasn't able to conjure up for a few of them. As my legs and lungs were starting to feel our day’s adventure, we reached the summit at the top of an unearthed granite pitch, which also marked a convenient lunch spot for us.

The climb to Somewhere Over There

After puttin’ down some ham & cheese sammys, we saddled back up for our descent. After dropping down a steep granite pitch the trail darted left into the woods – be careful to take the correct trail and not the one marked with a sign “moto”. From here the trail traversed back & forth down the hill with lots of techie bits, including around the switchbacks. You can tell that this trail is still relatively new since it’s not quite bedded down yet in some spots, although this doesn’t detract from the fun. There are a couple of exciting natural rock features as well as some wood ladder bridges to keep you on your toes. One bridge in particular makes you dizzy, as they determined that the best path between two points is not a straight line. I did walk one of the stunts that consisted of a steep granite pitch with a couple of ladders built into it. After giving it a quick peek, I wasn't quite feeling it for the first ride of the trip. Luckily there was a ride-around, aptly named “The Panty Line”.

The author gets back to it after a short lunch break (photo by Emily Pfeifer)

Some fun granite slickrock (photo by Emily Pfeifer)

Emily in the middle of a long bridge section

more wood

The part that does its best to make you dizzy

Opting for the Panty Line

Some downhill bridges (taken during our 2011 trip)

Em above the last obstacle on SWOT. This one is much steeper in person.

After this, the trail dropped down a few long ladder bridges and started its final descent to where it intersected with yet another gravel road. We took the road a short distance, heading north, and then made a left at an intersection where we followed it until it crossed over Ring Creek once again and tee’d into Mamquam Rd, just down from Quest University. This bridge puts you directly over the creek at a series of waterfalls in a tight little gorge. Now at the road, it was only a short distance uphill to our awaiting car and the completion of our ride.

What a great first day of riding, just as good as I had remembered it being. Although Half Nelson and Somewhere Over There are awesome, there are plenty of other great trails in the Squamish area, like Cheshire Cat, Wonderland, Crouching Squirrel / Hidden Monkey, and my personal favorite, Credit Line. There are many more than that, with many I still haven’t ridden. All in all, Squamish is a fantastic place to ride that should be on anyone’s shortlist for mountain biking destinations, especially when you consider its proximity to North Shore (Vancouver), Whistler, and Pemberton. I don’t plan to document any other rides from this trip, but I have done some ride reports for the BC area over the last few years – they can be found on the sidebar, under “Wheels”.

 Some parting evening shots of the area:

Moonrise over Squamish

The Tantalus Range

Squamish under a blue moon

The tracks from our ride: