B10 The BulleTin • Friday, FeBruary 5, 2021
Cruising the crust: Bend has many options for fatbikes
with elevation, so be sure to
bring along a pressure gauge
and a pump so you can fine-
tune your tire pressure to the
conditions.
Fat biking when the ground
is soft or with too much air in
your tires will leave ruts in the
trail. These ruts can make you
and subsequent riders swerve
and fall and are difficult for the
groomers to repair.
If you’d like to try fatbiking,
most of the bike shops in Bend
rent and sell fatbikes. Plan
ahead since fatbikes are pop-
ular this time of year. In fact,
Central Oregon Trail Alliance
estimates that 25 to 70 people
ride the Wanoga fatbike trails
each day.
If you want to explore more
riding options, fatbikes are al-
lowed on groomed snowmo-
BY EMMY ANDREWS
For The Bulletin
Central Oregonians love to
bike, and they love snow. And
the sport of fatbiking allows
them to com-
bine those
loves by rid-
ing on snow.
Fatbiking
involves rid-
ing a bike
TRAILS
with tires 3.8-
to 5-inches
wide, much wider than tires
on other bikes. The wide tires
make it possible to ride in areas
where a normal bike would be
difficult or impossible to ride,
such as the beach or on packed
snow.
Central Oregon Trail Al-
liance has a permit from the
Deschutes National Forest
to groom 9 miles of trails for
fatbike riding. The trails are
located at the east end of the
Wanoga Sno-park across from
the sledding hill. Depending
on how much snow we have,
they are groomed from Dec. 1
to Feb. 28 each year.
Wanoga Sno-park has three
loop trails fat bikers can ride.
The shortest loop is about a
mile long and is shared with
snowshoers and skiers. There
are also 3- and 6-mile loops
that are primarily for bikers.
Trail maps can be found on-
line at bendtrails.org. Be sure
to follow the signs, since there
Ground
Continued from B1
Hole-in-the-Ground is lo-
cated about 30 miles south-
east of La Pine off Highway
31 and takes a little over an
hour to reach from Bend. My
daughter Lilly and I departed
shortly before 10 a.m., min-
utes after she alerted me to
the fact that she had a video
conferencing appointment at
2 p.m. for which she needed
to be home. Meanwhile, the
car still needed gas, and I still
wanted a drive-thru coffee.
We threw in extra jackets and
gloves, plenty of water and, I
realized after we were rolling,
zero snacks.
As we motored south at
the north end of the speed
limit, the weather did not look
promising. Baleful clouds
glowered low in the sky around
and beyond Lava Butte. But the
adage about the weather and
waiting 5 minutes held true
once we were heading east on
Highway 31, where the sun
made quick work of melting
ice on the pavement.
Though there are websites
that will get you there, we
brought along our decade-old
copy of “Bend, Overall,” Scott
Cook’s indispensable guide-
book to nearly 100 hikes and
outings two hours or less from
bile routes and most snowshoe
trails. There are hundreds of
miles of groomed snowmo-
bile routes in the area. Maps
of these can be found on the
Deschutes National Forest’s
website.
Grooming reports for snow-
mobile routes are available
on the Facebook page Moon
Country Snowbusters.
Fatbikes are not allowed on
Mt. Bachelor’s Common Cor-
ridor or on trails groomed for
Nordic skiing, such as those
at Meissner, Swampy Lakes or
Edison sno-parks.
And on rare days, when the
top layer of snow freezes into
a smooth crust, crust cruising
is guaranteed fun. Enjoy the
trails!
e e
Emmy Andrews is the executive director
of the Central Oregon Trail Alliance.
The Perfect Valentine...
Bulletin file photo
Gary Meyer rides his fat bike on the singletrack trails he grooms near Wanoga Sno-park.
are also some trails that are
for snowshoers and skiers
only.
Central Oregon Trail Alli-
ance volunteers groom the fat
bike trails at Wanoga using
snowmobiles that pull special
grooming implements. The
result is singletrack through
the snow! Grooming reports
are available on the Facebook
If You Go
Getting there: From
Bend, head south on U.S.
Highway 97 through La
Pine and turn left onto
state Highway 31, head-
ing southeast for 22 miles.
Turn left at sign to Hole-
in-the-Ground. After three
miles and turn right at
FS 3130. Proceed about a
mile. Veer left toward the
crater rim.
Difficulty: Easy to mod-
erate
Cost: No passes required
Contact: 541-383-5300
Bend. Right down to the mile
markers and distances between
forest roads, his directions hav-
en’t let me down yet.
Interestingly, Hole-in-the-
Ground, Big Hole and Fort
Rock formed in similar ways,
when volcanic eruptions en-
countered groundwater. Cook
spells it out pretty succinctly:
“The Hole formed by the ris-
ing magma encountering an
underground aquifer, resulting
in a huge explosion that blew
rock and ash into a perfect cir-
cle around the vent, called a
tuff ring. … To contrast, Fort
Rock formed similarly, but its
magma came up underneath
page Central Oregon Fat-
bikes.
The packed snow surface is
relatively fragile and it’s im-
portant to know the etiquette
of fat bike riding to keep it fun
for all. First, it’s important to
ride when the ground is fro-
zen. Riding early in the morn-
ing is ideal as temperatures
will be lower and you can beat
(the) surface of an Ice-Age
lake that once filled this basin
12,000 years ago to a depth of
200 feet. Fort Rock’s explosion
also built up a 300- to 500-foot
tuff ring, but under water.”
Last week wasn’t our first
time visiting Hole-in-the-
Ground. Our family visited
one cold and snowy morning
10 years ago this March, when
Lilly and her sisters were big
enough to do the one-hour-
or-so walk to the bottom of the
crater. At the time, those kinds
of hikes often felt like slogs
with kids. Lilly was 8 then. At
18, she can outpace me when
she wants.
Though a very lumpy road
circles the crater rim, a good
bang for your buck is to head
down the south rim trail and
come back up the steeper
path directly below the treed
parking area on the west rim
(“parking area” is a generous
term for what you’ll encoun-
ter). However, since we took
that path the last time we vis-
ited, we opted to bound down
the steep, straight path to the
crater floor 425 feet below, and
came back up the easy way.
Whichever path you take at
Hole-in-the-Ground, a rose by
any other name would smell
just as sweet.
e e
the crowds to the sno-park.
On a typical Bend day, where
temperatures rise to 40 or
higher, it is best to finish your
ride by noon, or even earlier
on especially warm days.
Second, it is important to
ride with very low air pressure
in your tires. Ideal air pressure
is around 3 pounds per square
inch. Tire pressure changes
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