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APPEAL TRIBUNE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017
Life in the
Valley y
sanews@salem.gannett.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CASCADIA TRAIL CREW
Old trails are being improved and new trails are being built by the Cascadia Trail Crew for mountain biking at Shellburg Falls Recreation Area east of Salem.
Local group revitalizes mountain
bike trails at Shellburg Falls area
ZACH URNESS
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Ever so slowly, the dream of a top-
level mountain biking system is coming
together at Silver Falls State Park and
Shellburg Falls Recreation Area.
The creation of Catamount Trail at
Silver Falls, built by a group of volun-
teers in the Salem Area Trail Alliance,
has gotten most of the publicity so far.
But there is another group of com-
mitted volunteers working in the back-
country at Shellburg Falls, where a wild
collection of freeride trails are being
transformed into a network intended
for intermediate to advanced riders.
“We’re not a destination yet — we
don’t have quite enough ridable miles to
get guys from Portland to come out,”
said Raym Conkey, who leads the vol-
unteer Cascadia Trail Crew with his
friends Sean Connaghan and Josh Pe-
tersen. “But we’re hoping that will
change in the next couple of years.”
The long-term goal is to link the
trails at Silver Falls and Shellburg Falls
to create a network featuring some of
the best biking in the Mid-Willamette
Valley.
The process of getting there, howev-
er, involves lots of work just beginning
to take root.
Cascadia Trail Crew was created by
Conkey and his friends to improve a
system of “freeride” trails built in the
1990s in the northwest corner of Shell-
burg Falls’ backcounty. The freeride
trails, cluttered by old wooden jumps,
weren’t being maintained and had be-
come a hazard, officials said.
“We saw an opportunity with those
old trails,” Conkey said. “We removed
the rotting wooden structures and re-
built the trails enough so they were
rideable year-round.”
CTC has cleaned up about 6 miles so
far, Conkey said. The area is now
known as the Shellburg Falls Mountain
Bike Area.
“The trails we’re working on don’t
have any man-made features or huge
drops,’” Conkey said. “They are narrow
and steep trails, intended for the inter-
mediate to advanced rider, but they’re
pretty ridable now.”
The Shellburg Falls area is managed
by the Oregon Department of Forestry,
which has worked closely with the
group in planning, fixing and building
the trails.
“I’ve been blown away by the dedi-
The Cascadia Trail Crew is restoring a
collection of trails at the Shellburg Falls
Recreation Area.
cation these guys have shown,” said
Cassie Bostrom, a recreation forester
at ODF. “They all have families and
jobs, but they are out there working all
the time, often in really awful weather.”
Bostrom said ODF offers some sup-
port and works to approve trail designs.
But most of the money and equipment
comes out of pocket from the group.
“We make sure they’re following
environmental standards for the trails
for things like stream crossings,” Bos-
trom said. “But they do all the work.
They bring their own heavy equipment
and power tools. It’s pretty amazing.”
The goal — the reason that Conkey,
Connaghan and Petersen spend so
much time and energy working on this
project — is to create more rideable
miles.
“We want to create a route so a per-
son could ride 10, 15 or even 25 miles in
a system where everything flows to-
gether,” Conkey said. “Bottom line, we
just want to see more people out here
riding.”
Zach Urness has been an outdoors
writer, photographer and videographer
in Oregon for eight years. He is the
author of the book “Hiking Southern
Oregon” and can be reached at
zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or
(503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at
@ZachsORoutdoors.