Santa Cruz Factory Racing puts in
the sweat equity on Oregon trails
Santa Cruz Factory Racing puts in
the sweat equity on Oregon trails
Crew revives Oakridge trails with more than 1,100 volunteer hours in weekend Work Party
June 29 — 2022
Adventure outfitters Trans-Cascadia (TC) forged their work hard/ride harder/party hardiest reputation by putting on epic multi-day enduro events in the Pacific Northwest, as well as providing guiding and shuttle services in the mini mountain bike mecca of Oakridge, Oregon. And while they’ve mothballed racing for 2022, they’re full gas on everything else, including the trail building and buffing they’ve always done. The Santa Cruz Factory Racing Team–made up of our factory and HQ employees–joined in the first of this year’s four Work Parties, earning the serious trail karma that only comes from putting in some serious sweat equity.
The first Work Party had two goals: Bring 100 wood poles onto Heckletooth Trail to use as reinforcement for berms and benchcuts, and to reopen the long out-of-commission Deception Butte Trail. Heckletooth is one of the most-ridden trails in the Oakridge area and part of a beautiful 32-mile backcountry ride called Bunchgrass, while Deception Butte is a 4.3-mile fall line trail with 2,500 feet of elevation loss that has been closed since 2014.
Thirty-six volunteers, along with a pack of dogs and kids, showed up for the weekend, ready to work—and knocked out the pole parade in the first couple hours of the day. These poles were brought up to support four full-time trail crew who are rehabilitating four crib walls—an essential piece to help support sluffing trail on a steep hillside that ensures the trails’ sustainability.
Next up was the rebuilding of Deception Butte. Unusable for the last eight years because of wind and fire damage, the trail was a hodge-podge of annual blowdown and burnt trees. It was so bad that an entire section more than a mile long needed to be rerouted and recut. After endless chainsawing, lots of elbow grease, and some serious sweat and tears, the crew cleared the trail in its entirety—a job well done to be rewarded with a first-run shuttle on Sunday morning.
Over the four days, the volunteers racked up 1,152 volunteer hours, making a serious impact on the trails. Sign up on their website if you’d like to be a part of the next TC Work Party. The upcoming dates are July 14-17 at Pyramid Mountain in Washington, September 15-18 at Basalt Peak Trail in Washington, and October 13-16 at Strawberry Mountain or Oakridge.
