FOUR-PAGE SPORTS PULLOUT INSIDE
• B SECTION • FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2021
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Trees of
Ancient
Juniper
Trail stand
the test
of time
BY DAVID JASPER
The Bulletin
You don’t have to go to
the Badlands in order to see
strange, twisting and even
sinister-looking western juni-
per trees, but they are here in
abundance.
Last week,
I took a drive
out to the
Oregon Bad-
lands Wil-
derness, a
TRAILS
sprawling,
nearly 30,000-acre wilderness
chockablock with interesting
lava rock formations located
just 15 miles east of Bend.
And as interesting as those
features are, my “destination”
was the trees along the An-
cient Juniper Trail, an easy,
3.1-mile loop trail that shares
a parking lot — and for one
stretch, merges with — the
popular Flatiron Rock Trail-
head. There, I met up with a
friend longtime Bulletin read-
ers may remember as “Map
Guy,” from his adventures
with former Bulletin outdoor
writer Jim Witty, who died in
2008.
Truth be told, we hadn’t
hiked together in at least five
years, but much like the an-
cient junipers we saw on our
hike, time had been kind to
Map Guy, though, like the ju-
nipers we took in, we’d both
weathered a bit.
Views
from the
buttes
uttes
The Cline Buttes near
Redmond are a dynamic
winter mountain biking area
The Three Sisters as
viewed from the west
side of Cline Buttes.
See Juniper / B10
BY MARK MORICAL
The Bulletin
C
yclists willing to brave cold
temperatures can still find
premium mountain biking
trails in Central Oregon, even in the
depths of winter.
Sprawling High Desert views,
thrilling terrain and quality win-
tertime dirt make
Cline Buttes west
of Redmond a pop-
ular destination for
mountain bikers.
Miles and miles of
user-built trails line
TRAILS
the juniper-filled
slopes in the area.
The myriad trails on Cline Buttes,
including a narrow singletrack path
that wraps around the buttes and a
few downhill trails that start from
the top of the highest butte, are part
of the Bureau of Land Management’s
32,000-acre Cline Buttes Recreation
Area.
The singletrack that circles around
the buttes for a 10-mile out-and-back
ride is my favorite route in the area.
The trailhead on the south side of
Cline Buttes is located just off Cline
Falls Highway between Tumalo and
Eagle Crest Resort and across the
highway from the Maston trail sys-
tem, also part of the recreation area.
On Tuesday, I started out roll-
ing through juniper trees and sage-
brush as the singletrack trail became
steeper along the south butte. The
trail was completely frozen, and
parts of the trail were blanketed
in frost. It was 28 degrees when I
started out, but my body warmed
quickly as I climbed.
I turned left onto a rocky road,
then picked up the singletrack again
to the right after climbing a few hun-
dred yards.
The singletrack narrowed to al-
most 10 inches in spots, and to my
right was a fairly treacherous drop-
off. Redmond, Smith Rock State
Park and the snow-covered Ochoco
Mountains sprawled out to the east,
and soon I turned west as I wrapped
around the north butte.
See Buttes / B9
Submitted photo
A juniper tree finds a little height
assist along the Ancient Juniper
Trail east of Bend.
Mark Morical/Bulletin file photo
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