The Old Cascade Crest is one of Oregon’s most remote and raw places to Mountain Bike, located in the Northern Sector of the Willamette National Forest.  Nestled right next to the Middle Santiam Wilderness, the OCC in total is a 42 mile backcountry lollipop just an hour from Bend Oregon.  This area was site of the 2017 Trans-Cascadia MTB race, split in half, we ride the Old Cascades Crest South on Saturday and Old Cascades Crest North on Sunday.  These two days are the best combination of riding in this area.

We begin by our day on bike from the S. Crescent Trailhead.  It’s a stout climb to the top of Crescent, but we’ll take it slow as we have two big climbs on the day.  This can take up to 1.5 hours and as little as 1hr to the top.  There is a great lookout and in front of us, and incredible descent.  We’ll snack up and then hop on our bikes. The North Crescent descent is long and playful.  Not many people ride here so the trail quality is high, lots of duff and the perfect soil.  We’ll make our way down, crossing through forest, then through patches of thick rhododendron and back through old growth forest.  We’ll eventually hit our low point with a creek crossing and a short pedal to our van and our lunch.

We can take the time we need to relax and enjoy the day, for some, this halfway point may be enough and we have the opportunity for a mid point return to the car.  For those who push on, we’ll hop on bikes from the van and continue on trail towards the 3 pyramids.  The trail to get to the beginning of our climb up S. Pyramid is fun and undulating, bouts of fun descending and some punchy climbs.  We’ll make our way to S Pyramid Trail and head up.  This is our second big climb, we have another 1-1.5 hours of bike/hike a bike.  We ascend adjacent to a glacial cirque  and up a radical old trail.  It’s steep and technical, but its beautiful and raw, and in the spring flower bloom, the place to be in Oregon.  We’ll make our way to our high point, high five, and get ready for N Pyramid.  Maybe the most coveted of the descents in the Old Cascades Crest, certainly one of best.  It’s a long decent down perfect PNW backcountry trail with some fun switchbacks, long stretches of hold er open and on trail features you can jib and jump off.  At the bottom, we’ll cross a lower creek and then a short climb back to the shuttle van and a 25 minute ride back to our cars.  End of day, and how about that ride!  Come on out and explore Oregons Backcountry at the Old Cascades Crest!