Motorcycling in Central Oregon
I've been having quite a bit of trouble with the news, both in reading it and staying away from it. So I decided to call it a day and head out on a dirt motorcycle loop around the forest.
I live in Bend, and there are a couple well-known dirt routes that pass nearby. An older one is the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route #3, and a newer one is the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route. I know that sounds very similar, but the former was created ages ago by folks in the Oregon Off Highway Vehicle Association (OOHVA), and the latter was created more recently by the Ride BDR group.
OOHVA for the OBCDR routes #2 through #6
OOHVA hasn't been active in a while, as far as I can tell, but I like to ride the old routes near my house, folding bow saw strapped to the bike, and try to keep them in good enough shape for jeeps to make their way through. (Otherwise they overgrow and are reclaimed by nature; the wide vehicles keep the foliage back.)
So the plan was to ride OBCDR#3 south, loop around toward Sunriver, then take ORBDR north back to Bend.
Pre-ride checklist: inflate tires, check that GPS has all the routes I need, warm up the bike to make sure it starts before I gear up, then gear up and go.
The Beginning
I headed out on track that I've ridden numerous times. I've ridden OBCDR#3 as far south as Crescent Lake, so this wouldn't be any new territory for me. I was just out there cutting the smaller logs that my saw could handle.
And it was a great morning! I knew the rain was coming so this was the last blue sky day for a bit and I was going to soak it up. The riding was easy even with the rutted out, sandy roads, and I was feeling good on the bike.
I cut through Phil's mountain bike area, past a lot of people camping. There weren't this many in the past, but COVID changed peoples' patterns and now there are a lot of people camping out here and working in town, or just vacationing to get some MTB action in. I think we have about 1000 miles of single track out here.
Cutting across Cascades Lakes Highway, I headed uphill on dirt vaguely toward and past Wanoga Sno-Park.
What's That Smell?
About 20 miles in, I rolled to a stop at an intersection and smelled gas. Lots of gas. Now, the gas caps on these bikes will vent vapor to relieve pressure as the tank heats up in the sun, and sometimes that smells, but this was stronger.
I peered down at the side of the bike and saw the fuel line spraying gas onto the motor where it was boiling away, an unnerving sight. Now, gas boils at a low temperature of 85 °C (180 °F), and of course it boils to gas vapor which is nice and flammable. The autoignition temperature of gas is 247–280 °C (477–536 °F), according to Wikipedia. Some parts of the motor might reach 150 °C (300 °F) on a hot day, so that should be safe... But the header pipe can get to over 550 °C (1000 °F)! Yikes!
In any case, we can all agree that spraying gas on the motor is "bad".
I quickly hit the kill switch and turned off the petcock, then wheeled the bike into some nearby shade. And I took a closer look at the fuel line.
On this bike, the fuel line is about 10 cm (4 in) long, running from the petcock to the carburetor, and that's it. I could see that it had basically fractured near the carb end. I removed the clip and ziptie holding it in place and pulled it off.
The rubber had really hardened, and then just broken from vibration. I was surprised that it went bad as quickly as it did after little more than a year. Too much old gas in there. I guess.
Now at this point I was praying that my past self had the foresight to pack an extra fuel line. I knew I had some ¼" line, but that's not what's needed for this smaller petcock. I took out my tool bag and started going through it.
And there it was, tucked in the outer pocket lovingly wrapped up in a snack-sized plastic baggie! Hurrah! I wouldn't be needing to phone in a favor, after all.
My hands were already smelling like gas from the old line removal, so there was no more worry about avoiding that. The carb takes a bigger ¼" line so it's a bit of a wrestle to get the smaller line over it, but it goes. The new line (actually the same age as the old one, I think, just unused) was nice and supple. I threw a new ziptie on for security (I've really grown to appreciate the fact that I bring a ziptie clipping tool on these rides) and opened the petcock. No leaks!
I was thrown a little off my game having a remote breakdown and wondered for a minute if I should call it. But really I wasn't ever going to be that far from civilization, so I forced myself to relax and hit the road again.
Southbound to Wake Butte
The next stretch of the OBCDR#3 was a little overgrown but not too bad. I stopped to cut some logs that were encroaching. People had been driving around them and widening the road, which isn't desirable. Then it got into some sandier stretches as I headed south past Edison Sno-Park.
And then I got to the old burn. The route used to travel through some younger ponderosa forest at that point, but the Little Lava Fire of 2024 had nuked the place. Just tons of trees burnt to a crisp ready to fall across the road. Some already had, but there were a couple guys out there doing clearing, gratefully. But next spring I'll bet a lot of work will be needed to open it. Often this area is full of moon dust, hard to ride through, but today it was pretty well-packed.
Then on to Wake Butte, an volcano remnant several million years old that punched up through groundwater or a lake making for some really interesting, flowing lava formations. Luckily the fire didn't make it there, and there were still some nice trees and shade around.
And that was the end of my OBCDR#3 portion of the trip. I got on the highway for 7 miles to cut over to the ORBDR.
Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route
It started off on the gravel road that goes from Sunriver back to Bend, and I think that road is dull. I really hoped that wasn't how I was getting back. Luckily, the route cut off from there to the northwest.
Found another log laying in the road. Cut some of it, and dragged the rest out of the way. It's amazing how much dry tree trunk you can move by hand.
And then I got to a logging area. I think maybe this was supposed to be closed road, but I didn't see a sign going in—I only passed one facing the other way on the way out. The heavy equipment used for logging tears up the roads and in the summer they can totally turn to moon dust. And that's what happened here. I was riding in moon dust for a good mile or so, but I got through with minimal dabbing.
Soon after, and more quickly than I expected, I came to Kiwa Spring. The road near the spring forms a dam where a small pond accumulates, but the last few times I've been here, the pond had been abnormally and completely dry. Today I was pleased to see some water still remained, happily.
And then to the highway for a short stretch and back into Phil's. I'm not sure why the ORBDR takes this much highway when they could cut into the woods much earlier along the old OBCDR#3 route, but that's what they did.
Mission Success
Not long after that, I stopped to top off the tank with non-ethanol, then I rolled back into the driveway.
Post-ride checklist: top off oil, add fuel stabilizer since winter is coming, and run some of it through the carb, plug in the battery tender.
127 km (79 mi) on the day, and feeling much better for it.
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