12 minute read
Outside Bike Rides, Social Distancing Approved
the Ochoco National Forest
Finding solitude and wide-open spaces, just east of Bend
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By Linda English
The Ochoco National Forest has a million roads with so few cars that I always give out a big HOWDY wave when they go by. It’s the perfect place for gravel cycling; a recreational paradise. Late spring through mid-summer is my favorite riding time, with loads of wildflowers. We often run into mustangs, deer and antelope as we cruise by green prairies, fast running creeks, and rocky canyons.
Looking at a map, you’ll realize it’s a tall order to figure out where to start, so let me help you. Here are a few of my favorites, just an hour or two from Bend. Find all the route details including downloadable maps, photos, and route descriptions at Dirty Freehub (dirtyfreehub.com). All for free! Note that all of the routes listed below are e-bike friendly which means there are no restrictions for riding an e-bike.
Bonanza is a moderate route that starts near Brothers. The route is 51 miles with 3,200 feet of gain. It has a wild, Wild West history of gold mines and an ill-fated wagon train expedition. Don’t be surprised if you end up in a cattle drive.
McKay Creek Lollipop is a moderate route that starts 12 miles north of Prineville. The route is 38 miles with 3,700 feet of gain. You’ll love the big ponderosas, a beautiful creek and a ripping fast descent at the end. This is a classic Ochocos route!
Kevin English tops the hill on the Bonanza Route.
Kloochman is an advanced loop that starts in downtown Prineville at the Good Bike shop. It is 92 miles of gravel and road with 5,400 feet of gain. The route includes two of the best road cycling routes, connecting them with a great gravel section up and over the Maury Mountains. It includes the Post General Store and Prineville Reservoir.
Linda English Linda English
Meatloaf is a moderate route that starts in the town of Post. It’s 35 miles and 2,900 feet of climbing. The loop has a big continuous climb through a ponderosa forest, from valley floor to the mountain tops, with a blasting long downhill and terrific views of the Post/ Paulina valley. The backside of the loop has a beautiful section of ponderosa trees covered in bright green wolf moss.
Major Enoch is a moderate+ route that starts 30 miles east of Prineville. The route is 54 miles and 5,900 feet of climbing and includes amazing geographical features like the Steens Pillar. It finishes up with a fast, paved descent.
Big Summit Prairie is a moderate route that starts 15 miles east of Prineville, 48 miles and 3,800 feet of climbing. It’s a great place to spot antelope and mustangs. This route is a huge favorite in spring because of the amazing wildflowers and abundance of birds.
Pink Lady is a moderate+ route that begins two hours east of Bend, near Riley—32 miles and 1,400 feet of gain. It includes wetlands and rocky canyons but is also rugged and remote.
Dreamliner is a moderate route that starts outside of the town of Paulina. The route is 38 miles and 3,600 feet of gain and includes Boeing Field, Little Summit Prairie and a dreamy 8-mile paved downhill finish. -Linda English, aka Gravel Girl, is the co-founder of Dirty Free Hub, a free local resource for gravel cycling routes in Central Oregon and far beyond.
E-bikes are currently allowed on BLM lands, but officials want to refine the rules around them.
Weigh in on the use of
e-bikes on BLM lands
It’s a controversial—and confusing—topic: Should e-bikes be allowed on the same remote trails now populated by the people-powered varieties of bikes? And if they’re not allowed everywhere, where should e-bikes be allowed to roam?
Advocates of expanding access say allowing e-bikes on public lands gets more people out on the lands and improves health and fitness. Others believe allowing motorized bikes in remote areas only sets the land up for misuse, overuse, or more wildlife habitat destruction. Plenty of opinions fall somewhere in between.
Officials from the Bureau of Land Management recently opened up a comment period centered around the regulation of e-bikes on BLM lands— which, in Central and Eastern Oregon, include vast swaths of desert lands. Rules around e-bikes vary, depending on the agency managing the land. E-bikes are prohibited on national forest trails, but are allowed on national forest roads. They’re allowed on BLM lands, but officials there want to get more clarity around how and when they can be used, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt has advocated in favor of expanding access to e-bikes.
Find a link to the comment portal and more information at:
blm.gov/press-release/blm-seekspublic-comment-proposed-e-bike-regulations.
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An Eagle Obituary
At Blue Mountain Wildlife, saving raptors is the name of the game By Jim Anderson
Ihave a friend, Lynn Tompkins, who, with her husband, Bob, operate a wildlife facility that does wildlife rehab work near Pendleton. At the moment she and her irreplaceable Volunteers (Capitalized because they are so faithful and hard-working), headed by Michele Canon, are currently handling over 30 orphaned barn owls that have come to her attention as hay-haulers removed the bales from the barns, where the birds were nesting.
Canon and her team have taken over an old farm, where they feed the baby owls the hundreds of mice they consume as they grow up (and you can just imagine what that cost is). When they reach their flying age, they leave on their own (known as hacking) to take
up residence in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon. But before they leave, the team bands every one of them with a USGS leg band.
Every day, all day, the phone is ringing about this or that wild animal that needs help. Baby wildlife that can’t be put back with their parents in the wild end up at the Blue Mountain Wildlife facility. Baby owls, robins, opossum, hawks, you name it. Lynn Tompkins, with the help of another volunteer, Samantha Castoldi, and her crew, will often have several wildlife of varied species to care for.
Courtesy Jim Anderson
In addition to the young and infirm, they also get eagles and hawks suffering from lead poisoning, both from ingesting it in the prey they ate, or pounded into their body by some person with a firearm that has to kill something — or has a misguided attitude about raptors and shoots every one he or she can.
Yes, at one time people paid a bounty for dead eagles in Alaska. Fisherman were so upset by the number of bald eagles eating “their” salmon they thought killing the eagles would provide more salmon for them to sell.
The Bald Eagle Act, enacted in 1940 and amended several times since, prohibits anyone, without a permit issued by the Secretary of the Interior, from
“taking” (killing) bald or golden eagles, including having in their possession parts, nests or eggs. But unfortunately, law enforcement seemed to be looking the other way, and no one really paid much attention to the Act, here or anywhere else.
When I rolled into Bend on my Harley in ’51 I went into the eagle protection business pretty quickly, because I found federal trappers poisoning eagles (along with hawks, owls, woodpeckers, skunks, badgers and everything else that ate meat) in the 1,080
Courtesy Blue Mt. Wildlife
Releasing a previously injured bird. The best feeling in the world.
poison sets supposedly placed all over Central Oregon to “control” coyotes. The Bald Eagle Protection Act meant nothing to them.
I had the greatest opportunity to help stop the killing of raptors when I accidentally met and began working with State Police Wildlife Officer, Avon Mayfield, stationed in Bend. He called me one day out of the blue and asked if I would climb into an old ponderosa pine near the Fryrear landfill of today and retrieve two dead baby golden eagles someone had shot.
It took Officer Mayfield almost a year to apprehend the culprits, but he got ‘em and stood right alongside them when they appeared before the county judge to be sentenced. From that day until I left Bend to go to work with OMSI as their staff naturalist, Mayfield and I put the fear of God in hawk, owl and eagle shooters.
When I’d discover someone shooting raptors, I’d call Mayfield on his home phone and his answer was always the same, “Wait until I get my uniform on…”
Right now, however, Blue Mountain Wildlife is plagued with a preponderance of gun-shot raptors. Most of the time the victims have to be euthanized because the injuries are so severe. When this happens in the spring that means nestlings also die.
Here’s what Lynn said about the gunshot bird X-ray to the left:
“Jim, this bald eagle was euthanized on admission Jan 10, 2020. The right wrist was destroyed by a projectile. I’ve included the radiograph of the left wrist for comparison. This eagle (also) had a blood lead level of 42.7 micrograms/ deciliter.
“It had lead poisoning from scavenging an animal that had been shot with lead ammunition. We test approximately 200 birds per year for lead using a LeadCare II machine. Its original purpose was to screen children in the doctor’s office for lead poisoning. It is portable, and California condor researchers use it to monitor lead levels in free flying condors. That is how I found out about it.
“This is the eagle that Richie Bare, of USFWS has offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who shot the eagle.”
What Lynn has shared with us is just the tip of the iceberg; that eagle was not only ingesting lead, but it was also shot with lead ammunition — it didn’t stand a chance. Unfortunately, 50 years of Earth Days still hasn’t sufficiently impacted the wildlife shooters.
If you would like to donate to Blue Mountain to help support this work that Lynn and her Volunteers do, you can contact her at: bluemountainwildlife.org.
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Dustin Hamlet
Broker 541.915.5977 DustinH@windermere.com
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Terry Skjersaa Principal Broker, CRS
Jason Boone Principal Broker, CRIS
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Cole Billings Broker
www.SkjersaaGroup.com 541.383.1426 1033 NW Newport Ave. Bend, OR 97703 Skjersaa Group | Duke Warner Realty
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Serving Happy Buyers & Sellers Throughout All of Central Oregon Since 2006 marciahilber2@gmail.com | marciahilber.com
219 NW 6TH ST., STE 1, REDMOND Licensed in the Sate of Oregon Lic #200608229
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