Three Norwegian friends tackle North America's new premiere long-distance mountain bike route: The Oregon Timber Trail. The trail is an iconic 1 078 kilomete...

 

The Oregon Timber Trail Alliance is dedicated to stewardship, education, community, and quality trail experiences throughout the Oregon Timber Trail corridor.

Conceived in 2015, the Oregon Timber Trail links communities and backcountry landscapes through mountain biking experiences. Inspiring outdoor recreation is a pathway for personal growth and well-being, as well as a benefit to the economies of Oregon’s rural communities. We strive to make these experiences accessible to everyone and welcome riders from all over the world and all walks of life.

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Stewardship

Well-designed and well-maintained trails are a basic ingredient for a satisfying adventure on a mountain bike. And where trails become unrideable due to fallen trees, brush encroachment, or erosion, we rally our own volunteers to help restore them or encourage other mountain bike groups and the Forest Service to respond in kind.

OTTA volunteers have logged over 15,000 hours to clear and maintain trails since 2017. We:

  • Helped restore 175 miles of the neglected Fremont National Recreation Trail and Crane Mountain National Recreation Trail in southern Oregon.

  • Helped maintain and extend the Bunchgrass Ridge trail that connects Oakridge to Waldo Lake.

  • In partnership with Trans-Cascadia and Alpine Running, helped restore trails along the Old Cascade Crest north of Santiam Pass.

  • Partnered with Back Country Horsemen and Go Beyond Racing to begin restoring neglected trails west of Olallie Lake.

  • Annually maintain a section of the Fifteenmile trail east of Mount Hood.

  • Are installing signs and tags along the trail to aid navigation, especially in southern Oregon.

The OTTA will continue to secure funding and rally volunteers to help maintain trails in the OTT corridor.


©Dylan VanWeelden

©Dylan VanWeelden

©Daniel Sharp

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Education

The OTTA believes we have a role to educate riders about the landscape they’re traveling through and provide them the skills to help maintain trails if they choose to volunteer.

We hosted a series of chainsaw certification courses, resulting in over 50 new certified volunteers who in turn cleared thousands of fallen trees.

In partnership with the Willamette National Forest, we developed a course to train volunteers about how to maintain trails.

The route guide we prepared informs riders about the history, ecology, and geology along the OTT route.

We’ve coordinated skills courses that cover bike camping, backcountry navigation, and camp cooking.


© Gabriel Amadeus

© Gabriel Amadeus

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Remember the feeling of your first bicycle powered camping trip? So do we. In the Summer of 2019, the Oregon Chapter of National Interscholastic Cycling Asso...

Community

Interacting with the communities along the OTT is one of the enjoyments of riding the route or when volunteering to maintain local trails. It is a chance to connect and find common ground with folks that may have different backgrounds and viewpoints.

The OTT route guide contains detailed descriptions about what these gateway communities have to offer for those who travel by mountain bike.

Our footprint may be small compared to other factors that drive the economies of these communities, but we like knowing that the recreational dollars we spend locally make some difference.

To that end we’ve:

  • Hosted a series of educational and inspiring film nights to grow our community of riders.

  • Partnered with Springwater Environmental School to educate students about the natural and cultural history along the OTT and incorporated their feedback in the OTT route guide.

  • Teamed up with a landscape architecture course at the University of Oregon to develop a map and guide for the Willamette Tier.

  • Helped the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) coordinate their first bike camping trip on the Deschutes Tier.

The OTTA will continue to engage with local communities and look for opportunities to foster a sense of pride and care for adjacent public lands.


© Gritchelle Fallesgon

© Gabriel Amadeus

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Experience

The OTT is a unique network of trails and little-used roads that the OTTA has mapped and presented to the wider mountain biking community. The OTTA helps maintain some of the trails along the route but the success of having this long distance route is possible only because other mountain biking groups and the Forest Service are maintaining trails each year throughout the corridor. It’s indeed a joint effort and we’re pleased to be a part of it.

The OTT route isn’t static. A catastrophic wildfire will close off a section of trail during and after the fire, thus requiring us to come up with an alternate route for bikers. Logging operations or construction projects may close off a road for the summer and require a re-route. A trail might become abandoned from disuse or a new one built that prompts us to come up with a better alignment. The OTTA strives to respond quickly to these changes and get the word out to riders.

We’re always on the lookout for mountain biking experiences in the OTT corridor other than riding the entire route in one shot. We’ve mapped alternate routes (we call them bypasses) around a section of the OTT that a rider might choose because it’s easier or to hook up to make a loop for a weekend trip. We’ve defined two official loop routes up north that lend themselves to 2 to 4 day rides and take in some spectacular terrain.

How do we measure our success?

  • Riders from 28 different countries have downloaded our route guide.

  • We’ve had 200,000 unique website visitors.

  • Bikepacker.com awarded the OTT “Best New Route” in 2017.

  • 50 media outlets nationwide have published news of the route.



OTTA FINANCIALS

View our 2020 990 here.

View our 2019 990 here. 

View our 2019 & 2020 comparison here. 


OTTA leadership

Everett Ó Cillín (they/them) is a curator, organizer, and adventure cyclist based in Eugene, Oregon. As a former co-founder of the Radical Adventure Riders, ambassador with WeGotNext and Ride with GPS, Everett seeks to foster community and connection through bike travel and trail stewardship. They seek out the narrative in the landscape, routing exhibitions and expeditions that connect people, places, and ideas. You can find their essays on art and cycling in Adventure Cyclist Magazine and The Bikepacking Journal.

Steve Jansen (he/him) is an educational advocate focused on building school community. His first “mountain” bike was a Banana Seat Huffy with a few BMX parts. Steve has settled into Sisters, Oregon as home after long stints in Jackson, Wyoming and Santiago, Chile.

Chip Andrus of Hood River gets his thrills watching folks finish the OTT from his front porch. He's a fan of long distance racing and touring and hopes to get a few more under his belt soon. He once had a career in restoring salmon habitat but has now moved up in the world and fixes bikes for kids.

Steve Brook is the president of Atainium, a business consulting firm. He enjoys the Oregon backcountry and the Oregon Timber Trail for its opportunity to highlight the beauty, adventure, and challenge that exists along the route. With a tendency to look for the road less traveled, he is often inclined to choose the logging road, overgrown path, or just plain bushwhack as the preferred route. Steve is committed to working with the Oregon Timber Trail Alliance to improve the accessibility, ride options, inclusivity, and mutual support between trail towns and the Alliance.

Nancy Serrano is a college student who advocates for DEI in the outdoors. She currently works for the university’s Outdoor Program as a bike mechanic. She loves taking friends out to go mountain biking, rock climbing, and camping. Nancy joined the Oregon Timber Traill Alliance in hopes of getting folks of all backgrounds and ability levels out on the trail. Bikepacking is an amazing experience that everyone should have the ability to enjoy!

Mike Vanderberg has spent much of his life studying forests and recreating on their awe-inspiring networks of trails. A native of Pennsylvania, he grew up riding BMX and digging dirt jumps before transitioning to racing mountain bikes at age 14, as a member of the National Off Road Bicycle Association. Bikes have been a constant in Mike’s life, and he is happiest spending time with others riding and exploring the trails and roads that crisscross our amazing forests.

 

Contact Us

Get in touch. We're happy to answer questions or get you involved with the Oregon Timber Trail Alliance.