Surveyors Ridge Trail

A look south down Surveyor's Ridge

This weekend I headed out to bike Surveyor's Ridge Trail, which starts north of Hood River. I had always wanted to do this trail but was always turned off my the Strenuous! rating on the adventuremaps.net Hood River map that I have (great maps by the way). The trail is one of the best in Oregon due to the views and quality of trail. There are a few approaches to the trail involivng Oak Ridge trail and Dog River trail with some connection with Hwy 35. I decided to try and skip the supposedly brutal climbs that lead to surveyors ridge by taking some fireroads to the upper trail head so i could attempt an out and back on the trail to accumulate roughly 20 miles.

However, the forest road that I chose became a little too much for my 95 Explorer to handle (aka the Green Machine) so I pulled off on the side of the road, under some huge powerlines and pushed my bike about a mile up the rest of the road as it was too steep and muddy to ride. It had been raining all night and hadnt stopped yet. Next time I will take the better maintained and more frequently used FR17 on the back side, which will take longer but will be less strenuous or maybe ill be fit enough to climb oak ridge by next summer.

Anyway, once on the trail, I climbed steadily for about an hour. By this time I was soaked to the bone from the rain. I still havent found the perfect rain layer that is breathable enough to work hard it but wont cause sweat. I needed to get back to town by 7pm so I turned around at the halfway point around Gibson Horse Camp. I changed my clothes before heading home so I wouldnt freeze on the descent. Had to pull out all of my gear in order to get to the dry bag that had my softshell in it. After repacking, I ripped down the rest of the trail in about a half hour. The Marmot Tempo jacket that I was wearing was absolutely phenomenal! and the trail was even better. I look forward to doing the whole thing next summer. In the end, my ride total around 9 miles. Not as much as I would have liked but better than hitting Brown's Camp again.

Repacking
My Kind of Christmas Tree

UNT

Bryan