Rainy-Wahtum Trail on a mountain bike?

[DannyH]

Hi Everybody,

The only trails I have left to cover in the gorge (that are open) are around Rainy Lake. It would be more fun to cover the Rainy-Wahtum trail starting from the Wahtum Lake campground on a mountain bike since it’s an old road. Anyone know if that’s allowed?

Thanks,

- Danny

[Charley]

Yes! My Adventure Maps shows that trail as open, and recommends an out and back ride all the way from Green Point Reservoir (19 miles). I've hiked that trail but have never ridden it. I ride near Hood River sometimes, but have gotten in the habit of going to the Road 44 trails because I'm usually avoiding Cascades weather.

The Adventure Maps "Hood River, Oregon: Mountain Biking Map" that I own is out of print (2007), and the the company's newer map doesn't cover all the areas that the former map covered (it is a little unwieldy, but incredibly useful). Here's the newest one that only has Post Canyon and Syncline, really.

http://www.adventuremaps.net/shop/produ ... map-guide/

[Jerry Standish]

Yes! My Adventure Maps shows that trail as open
.........
The Adventure Maps "Hood River, Oregon: Mountain Biking Map" that I own is out of print (2007)

Ahemmm, your map that says "Yes" predates the 2009 expansion of the Hatfield Wilderness.

And the interagency map at Wilderness.net shows Rainy Lake is within that Wilderness.

[Charley]

You are correct that Rainy lake itself lies within the Wilderness by a matter of yards, however, as the original poster referenced the Rainy-Wahtum Trail, and not the Lake itself, please review the following information. In short, the trail is open, legal, and perfectly fine to ride on a bicycle, if challenging.

In this area, the boundary on my Adventure Maps map is correct, at least according to the Forest Service's own newer map. If you look, you'll notice that the trail is adjacent to the Wilderness, not inside the Wilderness.

This is no surprise: as is often the case, Wilderness advocates and the Forest Service often align Wilderness boundaries alongside existing features, so that when the legislation passes, clear boundaries may take advantage of clear facts on the ground. In this case, the old road itself represents the furthest northern extent of the "non-wilderness" in this area. You'll notice that this is the case on the Wilderness.net map, as well. When discrepancies arise on maps, having the northern edge of road as the border itself can make things far clearer!

Please note, also, that this document lists the acceptable uses at the top right of page 1, using symbols commonly used to denote different recreational users: Bike, Equestrian, Hikers.

In this era of faked documents, please feel free to confirm by visiting the original document here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DO ... 397118.pdf

Also, if you look at "Activities," on the landing page for this trail, Bicycling is listed, and a bicycling "difficulty" rating for the trail "Difficult," is given. Again, here's a link to the relevant page:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/mthood/ ... ecid=53284

Again, the trail is legal and open to bicycles.

[Charley]

And, welcome, Jerry Standish, to Portlandhikers.org!

[retired jerry]

There's a bit of a shortage of trails that allow bikes, nice this one is allowed.

Nice to see people out there enjoying wild areas.

[Charley]

Nice to see people out there enjoying wild areas.

Citizens using the trails keeps the miners and loggers away. That's what I think, at least!

[DannyH]

Thanks for the info charley. Despite my google searching I didn’t think to pull up the forest service page and look at their activities at the top... kind of funny since I was teaching online research skills in my class just last week (DOH!)

I hadn’t heard of adventure maps before, looks interesting.

[Webfoot]

AdventureMaps makes the single most trustworthy Mt Hood area map I have yet found, and I'm kind of a map nut.

[Charley]

AdventureMaps makes the single most trustworthy Mt Hood area map I have yet found, and I'm kind of a map nut.

Agreed. Though Jerry Standish's comment really did key me in to the slowly advancing age of my copies. It's kind of unfortunate that they haven't released an update "Hood River" map, because there were a few trails that were covered on that map which are not covered on more recent maps. Compared to the Nat Geo maps, Adventure Maps are far more accurate, and compared to most FS maps they are easier to read, easier to use, and more attractive to the eye!