Deschutes River Trail

Very good familiy ride. We did it in Aug and yes it was hot but an early morning depature and a swim in the river make it bearable. Very cool scenery a nice change from riding in the forest. Would be cool to bike your stuff in for flyfishing/camping for steelhead. WE had one big problem..thorns..WE had 4 bikes and 3 of them got flats in both front and rear. That is 6 unpatchable tubes! There must have been 5 holes in every tube. There are these thorn called "goat heads" that got us. I dont even remeber going thru them. Perhaps a no tube setup or thorn resistant tubes are recommeneded. We had to walk out the last 3 miles.

The weather was AMAZING after this long winter. And the scenery can't be beat. Perhaps we're just getting a bit too old, but the hard grade of the rails-to-trails left us wishing we had full-suspension bikes. The trail is used as a road for access vehicles, presumably to maintain the campsites that are apread along the route, and is a bit wash-boarded out in places. No flat tires, but a close-call run-in with a rattlesnake!

This is a gorgeous xcountry trail. One has spectacular views of the river the whole way. The scenery is desert. The riding is easy; although, it is rocky in spots. Don''t forget your patch kit. There are lots of stickers, and I did get a flat. The fall was a good time to go because it wasn''t too hot and I hardly encountered anyone beyond a couple hunters in the first few miles.