Morrow County Report

[liv2day]

For the last 13 years, a group of bike nuts has gathered in the small community of Fossil, Oregon, for a weekend of riding, bench racing, and hanging out. Before I was back into trail riding, we'd descend upon this great little town to enjoy the amazing roads and scenery of central/eastern Oregon. Miles and miles of incredible twisties await anyone wanting to ride through; easily some of the best riding Oregon has to offer.

Fast forward a couple years and I no longer have a street bike, just a track bike that's a royal pia to make street legal again. Not wanting to give up a great weekend, I hauled my dirt bike out last year to explore Morrow County OHV. Had a good time and decided to do the same thing this year...only on my GG.

Another buddy decided to check it out with me while everyone else was either doing the street ride, riding horses, or doing a bicycle ride - funny how things have changed over the years.

The majority of trails at Morrow County are 2-track (lots of quads), with some single track thrown in here and there. The plan was to try and hit all the single track we could find; as well as attempt the goat trail that we were only able to make it 2/3rds of the way through last year.

Navigating around Morrow is decent -at least the trails are well marked. They have a map of the area, but it leaves a bit to be desired; hard to tell how to connect trails. Anyway, we naviguessed our way through a bunch of trails and only missed one section of single track that was on the original plan.

One section we skipped on purpose, stopped at the top and took a peek over the edge - talk about steep (GoPro doesn't do it justice). I would have liked to looped back to check out the bottom of this trail to see what it was like going up...next year.

We finally made our way to the goat trail and decided to start from the end we didn't make it to last year (lol). Humbled to say that we made it all of 1/4 mile before tucking tails and turning around. Once section was so completely washed out that we had to walk the bikes uphill; trying to ride just washed the back tire downhill and it would have been hell getting out if you tumbled. Literally took 45 minutes to go 25 feet; think I'll just skip it entirely next year...lol.

After getting out of that, we doubled back and hooked onto one of the best single track trails at that park and had a blast bombing it back toward staging. Along the way, we ran across a herd of elk at least 50 strong; wish I would have taken the little point-and-shoot camera out as they were too far away for the video to capture anything.

Had a great time exploring more of the park; only logged 34 miles for the day, but it was fun. We loaded up and headed back to the ranch where we've stayed every weekend - which I highly recommend regardless of where you're from (Wilson Ranch).

Nothing like coming back from a ride to this deck to hang out and this to enjoy

Have some video of a few of the trails he hit - most of this is the single track from the park. The best section of single track is the 3rd video; also the longest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSUqIccE1NU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3gDFkL4zf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQlibC4c4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZEEER6Z_XU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSTJz03Jqq8

 

[Phaeton]

Thanks for the post. I will have to make it over there.

 

[rubber Jonny]

That looks fun

 

[liv2day]

Thanks for the post. I will have to make it over there.

Hey...another Oregonian

Have you ever been over to that neck of the woods? If you ride street too, there are some amazing roads to explore. I have a bunch of loops originating in Fossil, from 325ish miles to over 500 miles. Two of my favorite roads are Hwy 218 from Shaniko to Fossil and then Forest Road 53 from Ukiah to Granite - epic.

I assume you've ridding China Hat if you're in Bend? It's a bit like that, though I think Morrow might have more elevation change.

If you're looking for a great place to kick back for the weekend, definitely check out Wilson Ranch - Phil & Nancy are simply awesome. It's a bit of a trek from their ranch to the OHV park, so if you're only going to ride, it'd be easier to camp at Morrow.

I totally enjoy the scenery there; such a contrast to what we have in the valley.

 

[firffighter]

Such an awesome place to camp and explore!

I miss the monkey butt Harescramble they used to do over at morrow. That was a fun event.

That G trail is a mountain goat son a gun! I love entering off G3 with the ski flags marking the trail. The other end off G1 is dangerous with that washed out trail.

 

[Phaeton]

We were just at Ukia and Granite Sun-Tues.

Heading to Morrow in the morning to check it out for the day.

 

[liv2day]

That G trail is a mountain goat son a gun! I love entering off G3 with the ski flags marking the trail. The other end off G1 is dangerous with that washed out trail.

Did you guys do that when you were out last time? If so - props to making it as I didn't want to try the whole thing.

We actually made it past the washed out section heading down and it wasn't too bad, then the damn trail disappeared and we ended up facing a barbwire fence. Back-tracked to figure out which way it went and spent 20 minutes trying to make the uphill switch-back. Said screw it at that point - wanted to ride and not spend the day fighting the trail...lol.

Hitting the washout going uphill was dicey at best, ended up pushing the bikes as I didn't feel like tumbling all the way down and then riding the creek bed out...lol.

Phaeton - have a good time at Morrow; make sure you hit trail 59 if you can - that's a fun, flowing section. If you can, hit the sections of 60 too and let me know how crazy the downhill part is off 73

 

[firffighter]

We didn't do that route this year. Did it the past 2 years. Last year it didn't look like it had been ridden at all and was tough to find the trail form time to time.

There's some pretty challenging stuff at morrow just have to find it. That steep country makes for some real climbs and scary downhills.