Hitting the OC&E Trail And Learning The Hard Way
A first Hand Account From Kurt M.
As a mountain biker in the early and less experienced camp and a new resident of Oregon, putting in the time to discover trails around the area was a great experience. The OC&E trail is one of the longer trail systems in the region and goes more than 100 miles to complete. It was a hidden gem only beholden to the locals. You can find it in a trail listing on google or a hiking book that lists all the features of the trail.
OC&E or the Oregon, California, and Eastern Railroad trail system has had a long history of being used as a railroad that was dedicated to moving timbers freshly cut out of Klamath Falls to Eastern parts of Oregon and possibly down to California, and back into Western parts of Oregon and passes through towns such as Bly and out to Sycan Marsh. The trail is enjoyed by hikers, and fishermen and is accessible as a horse and bike trail. Although it isn't for motorized vehicles, I'm sure some people more recently have used electric bikes on short jaunts in town. The four sections of the trail go in three different directions. There is an intersection of the three main sections in the town of Beatty. I decided to go from Klamath Falls up to Sprague River which was going near the town of Beatty but, not really near any of the usual trail endpoints.
The OC & E went from the flat farmland of the outskirts of Klamath up to the nearly mountainous hills with groupings of forests sprinkled all around the gently sloping hills, which told me that I was in the wilderness. The trail itself became all gravel and it had to become like a pass. Some smoke was passing around the hills until the road was completely smogged out in front of me, I was hoping it would clear up.
Going from Olene into the last upward jaunt towards Sprague while riding a mountain bike that was well suited to the elements (it was a hardtail- long travel front suspension but not back suspension). I was suddenly going through vast swaths of smoke every five minutes or so. The most likely scenario that you may associate with seeing smoke is fire, but this smoke seemed dense in such a way that it was being put out or it had been actively managed for a while.
Still wanting to continue I did start to worry and then suddenly as if it came out of nowhere a branch or log that must have fallen recently off a tree moments ago crossed my path.
My bike made its front wheel over and then as the back wheel jumped over, I was flung forward enough to go over the handlebars. However, I did catch myself on my right-hand side and impacted sideways on the hard gravel. Still sitting on the ground to recover for a second, up ahead on the trail- I heard a loud crack and then a thump that was heard and felt. I couldn't see where it was but, half panic mode, I got back up on the back without checking for any damage to the bike frame or tires and pedaled hard and fast, in 3rd gear in the rear.
I rode for a good ten or so minutes back towards the West. I eventually got back into the flater section of the trail. By no means is the trail difficult but, I felt the hilliness more so, even though it was light in its grading going down hill. Not to mention I was pedaling harder and faster while dealing with smoke inhalation. Surprisingly, I didn't feel the effects until I got back into clear air and was back in Olene. Later on, I looked on a map of how far I went and really only got around the turn north towards Moyina hill and Hopper Hill, or so I thought. I was near the Lakeview highway and was up above the highway where Stevenson park is and sits next to the Lost River. But, with the smoke, there was no reference for where I was. I also saw on the news later in the week that they were going to shut down the OC&E trail up near Sprague River. It was the Bootleg fire that was going West and North. This was during the first week of July. The fire never got down near the Sprague but, the day I was riding smoke was kicking up and some of it was sweeoing south and settled in where I was riding.
To put an endcap on all of it, I still haven't made it all the way up to the Sprague. The lesson I took from this experience is to plan for your trip especially if it's going to be multiple miles and do your research beforehand. I also could have had a friend with me that knew the trial and conditions better than I did.