I rode Swamp Wells two days ago, and am thoroughly pleased with this trail. I have never gone much further than Kelsey Butte, however.
Has anyone made it all the way to Newberry Crater? I realize this would require riding in the dry, dusty horse-trodden summertime, but I think I wanna try next summer.
Is it scenic (i.e. in the pine forest) the whole way? Does it get quite technical in spots?
the grand loop, parking at horse butte and climbing either up arnold or swamp wells to the horse camp is a very nice loop. its about 28 miles and is espically nice in the winter. the trail is clear of trees and the tread is sweet. now is the time to ride it!
newberry is best ridden from the crater back to town...
ps...the new section of peterson ridge trail is killer, thanks sisters trail alliance.
Tried to ride up from swamp wells to the crater when it was pretty dry and it was very painful. I would think you would have to hit it just right moisturewise to make it enjoyable at all. Not recommended otherwise. We turned around after a couple of mile and had to pedal to go downhill in some sections. Great ride down if a huge shuttle doesn't bother you and there has been a recent soaking rain.
I rode from Crater Hill CG to my house in east bend via the crater rim and swamp wells. this was the day the Sisters fire started up so was plenty dry. Swamp Wells from the rim trail is seeing almost no traffic and the trail was nearly covered by needles cones and other forest debris so had to pay attention. It rides great and there is a big pumice desert about 2 miles down that has very little trail sign. From the pumice to the first dirt road crossing there are about 10 trees down. From the dirt road crossing the trail was mostly clear and had surprisingly little horse damage but would not be a fun climb. It's a really cool ride with some hike a bike up the cinder buttes and lots of variety on the trail. 6300' descending on the whole ride.
I rode from Crater Hill CG to my house in east bend via the crater rim and swamp wells. this was the day the Sisters fire started up so was plenty dry. Swamp Wells from the rim trail is seeing almost no traffic and the trail was nearly covered by needles cones and other forest debris so had to pay attention. It rides great and there is a big pumice desert about 2 miles down that has very little trail sign. From the pumice to the first dirt road crossing there are about 10 trees down. From the dirt road crossing the trail was mostly clear and had surprisingly little horse damage but would not be a fun climb. It's a really cool ride with some hike a bike up the cinder buttes and lots of variety on the trail. 6300' descending on the whole ride.
Sweet ride I have questions!
Was the downhill back to town mostly fast? Technical? Sure looks like it was fun. 4000' vertical from Paulina in a little over 20 miles if I see that right?
Side note, we are neighbors. I'm straight east of you right past the S turns on Ward.
Great to hear the trees got cut out. The ride is a mixed bag of smooth dirt, rocky sections, some loose cinder hike a bikes but all rides well. There are a few spots where there has been some logging that you have to be careful to find the trail. I would definitely do it again. When you cross china hat rd you can get on the coyote loop trail out to the horse butte trail head, then hop on the road for a ride home. I rode my road bike from home up to east lake and met my wife with our camper there. Switched to the Mt bike the next morning and made the ride home. Good fun !!
The ride was 47 miles from the lake to my house but I rode around the rim before hitting swamp wells. You could ride up the trail out of Cinder hill cg to the rim trail and that would cut out about 15 miles or so.
I have headed up several times but never tried it when it wasn't snowed in higher up.
There are some nice single tracks. I looks as though Eastsides route finishes on some double tracks, but I can't figure out where the single tracks I've ridden (which have sign saying they go on to Swamp Wells) diverge from his route.
By the way, while I use Google as my default search engine, I am pretty much adverse to anything that installs a "Google engine" on my computer. Hence, I do not have Google Earth!
Can anyone post their mapped route in a different form than a .kmz file?
By the way, while I use Google as my default search engine, I am pretty much adverse to anything that installs a "Google engine" on my computer. Hence, I do not have Google Earth!
Can anyone post their mapped route in a different form than a .kmz file?
I've had good luck using GPS Visualizer to convert between formats. Might be worth a shot.
Here is a great route and probably still open now. This is from Horse Butte trail head up South Swamp Wells trail to the horse camp and back down Arnold Ice Cave trail. Adventure Maps is a good thing to carry along. Also good to just go up Swamp Wells or Arnold from Horse Butte parking and back down as a way to start getting to know the area. There are lots of possibilities out there but it can be confusing to cross over between trails. A bunch of trees down between Bessie and Kelsey due to last storm. Easy walk around.
By the way, while I use Google as my default search engine, I am pretty much adverse to anything that installs a "Google engine" on my computer. Hence, I do not have Google Earth!
Can anyone post their mapped route in a different form than a .kmz file?
Thanks
Ah man! I second the opinion google earth is amazing. Best thing is you can download these kmz files and keep them listed in the app. Have a route for nearly anywhere.
I don't know of a better way to view maps personally.
I'm curious who I ran into out there today, near Swamp Wells horse camp. I was the guy hiking, wearing the wool coat. Sorry, I didn't introduce myself.
Anyway, I have ridden Swamp Wells only twice, and weather prevented me from getting much further than Kelsey Butte. So today I went on foot to explore the area near Swamp Wells Butte (and horse camp). It looks like a great ride. Very Mrazek-like, except more buttes to climb up, over, and around.
Can't wait for early spring to really get to know the area better!
I'm curious who I ran into out there today, near Swamp Wells horse camp. I was the guy hiking, wearing the wool coat. Sorry, I didn't introduce myself.
Anyway, I have ridden Swamp Wells only twice, and weather prevented me from getting much further than Kelsey Butte. So today I went on foot to explore the area near Swamp Wells Butte (and horse camp). It looks like a great ride. Very Mrazek-like, except more buttes to climb up, over, and around.
Can't wait for early spring to really get to know the area better!
That was me! Great to see you out there and chat! I rode the loop for the first time and loved it! Even went off course a couple times (over to armold ice cave) and on another little jog. 30 miles total. Very scenic and a fairly easy ride. Other than the fact that my body starts aching after about 25 miles.
Anyway - a few things I would like to share about the grand loop:
1. I think it's best ridden counter clock wise, just from my impressions. Reason being that the West side of the loop if riding CCW is uphill and under tree cover. The dirt is much more ideal for going uphill. On the east side of the loop it's very scenic yet no tree cover. Although the trail was in great shape it was much sandier on that side (better for the downhill in my opinion). Plus you get to view the cascades all the way back into town if ridden CCW.
2. If you ride the loop wear long sleeves and leggings. Lots of bushes are encroaching in places.
3. Do yourself a favor and ride like .25 miles off trail to the ice cave. Pretty cool.
4. The loop has a few technical areas but nothing that tough. All rideable. Nothing had to be walked.
In helping keep to the trail, I had downloaded the map that was posted a week or so ago and I loaded it onto my Garmin. That helped me stay on track and that was key!
I will post some photos later tonight!
Dirt farmer - I am Joe by the way. Nice to meet you!
Oh by the way - Met a guy who was actually removing pine needles from the trail about half way around. He was rather happy and surprised to see someone else out there. He had just finished building a dirt "ramp" over a fallen tree, and he apparently comes out with a chainsaw and removes all the downed trees (or most of them) and otherwise is sort of an unofficial trail steward. Very cool. He said the trail was much more primitive before he started working on it.
I believe his name was Phillip. But either way, cheers to the dude!
Oh by the way - Met a guy who was actually removing pine needles from the trail about half way around. He was rather happy and surprised to see someone else out there. He had just finished building a dirt "ramp" over a fallen tree, and he apparently comes out with a chainsaw and removes all the downed trees (or most of them) and otherwise is sort of an unofficial trail steward. Very cool. He said the trail was much more primitive before he started working on it.
I believe his name was Phillip. But either way, cheers to the dude!
What's wrong with pine needles?? I kinda' like them.
Thanks, I think we need photos of this area to show members of the local Mountain Bike Elite how nice it really is.
I don't ever want to see this area become as congested as Phil's, but it sure could use more name recognition.
I'm not sure what it's like in mid-summer, but I saw very, very few horse apples on my hike yesterday. I bet the horse traffic is not as bad as it could be.
What's wrong with pine needles?? I kinda' like them.
Yeah I like pine needles too. However because the trail is not ridden much at all, the needles just pile up and up and eventually the trail becomes a little lost. So I think based on his experience when the trail was more primative, the trail was hard to follow, so he wants to make sure it's easy to see.
all down trees are gone on the arnold ice cave (#63)/swamp well (#61) loop and some lovely person has been raking out the whole top section of the grand loop, thank you!
now is the time to get out and explore horse butte, it rocks as its the anti-phils scene.
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Originally Posted by eastsiderider
Very Mrazek-like, except more buttes to climb up, over, and around. 
