Oakridge Bets on Mountain Biking

Bike enthusiasts are hopeful that Oakridge’s scenic trails can help breathe new life into the local economy

By MATHIAS LEHMAN-WINTERS/For The Herald  —   For roughly 30 years Oakridge has been a town struggling to reinvent itself ever since the logging industry collapsed in the early 1990s. However, now some believe that the town has begun to find its footing in a relatively niche but growing sector, the recreation economy and mountain biking.

Lev and Kirin Stryker are two people who aimed to contribute to the local economy while searching for a suitable home for their business. The Strykers are the owners and operators of the Bend-based mountain bike tour and shuttle company, Cog Wild. After joining Cog Wild in 2006, they expanded from Bend to Oakridge in 2014.

“We were looking to diversify [from Bend],” said Lev Stryker. “The community was saying ‘Hey we need this in Oakridge to try and grow our recreational economy, why don’t you guys come and do shuttles here?’”

And so, the Stryker’s did. Since expanding their operations to Oakridge over 10 years ago, they now operate mountain bike tours and shuttles six months out of the year as well as an Airbnb.

Lev Stryker said that one of the reasons why they don’t have their own fleet of rental bikes in Oakridge like they do in Bend is because they can’t find someone to manage it.

Instead, the Strykers partner with the Oakridge Bike Shop, referring customers who require a bike there.

According to an employee at the Bike Shop, when Spring comes, the store is flooded with tourists. “There’s a lot of descending [trails] around here,” the employee said, “And people need brakes.”

The employee said that a lot of what they do at the Bike Shop is assess everyone that comes into the shop, asking the right questions so that they can be paired with the best bike, and then sending them out onto the trails.

“You have to be a local and know the trails,” the employee said. “Knowing where the snow level is, especially during the Spring. That’s just local knowledge. People like the trails here because they’re not super technical, they’re just fast and flowy.”

Steve Saxon first moved to Oakridge over 40 years ago in 1983, and worked briefly as a logger. “It’s the saddest thing, because when I came here Oakridge was a booming economy. There was about 500 people working in the woods and in the sawmill back then,” Saxon said. “There was no evidence of mountain biking going on at that point.”

Saxon said that when he first began riding in the area on his mountain bike the bike trails were little more than animal paths. “I started riding the trails around here [Oakridge], which were basically deemed trails the deer and elk used.”

In those days, Saxon said he rode with some other people, some of whom have passed away, but “were the pioneers of mountain biking” in the area.

In 1995 Saxon moved to Eugene for five years, and by the time he returned, mountain biking had really taken off, he remembered. It was also upon his return that Saxon got involved with the Greater Oakridge Area Trail Stewards, or G.O.A.T.S., a volunteer trail maintenance organization.

Amity Hoos is a mountain biker who resides in Thurston. He said that he’s been out to Oakridge to bike the paths on numerous occasions.

“I love it in Oakridge,” Hoos said. “I want to do more trails. I mean to do Clover Patch and Dead Mountain.”

Hoos also volunteers with the Oakridge Trail Alliance, a local nonprofit organization focusing on trail maintenance and restoration.

“It’s a pretty chill experience,” Hoos said. “I joined one day with a small group of 10 of us just hanging out in nature and rebuilding a trail.”

Hoos emphasized that something he enjoys about Oakridge, in addition to its natural beauty, is their shuttle systems, which allow riders to skip the uphill part of a trail.

Hoos also said he enjoys the numerous single-track trails around Oakridge — trails that are only the width of a mountain bike.

Mike Sheppard is one of the people who dedicates his time to maintaining trails like the single-track ones that Hoos enjoys. Sheppard is the trail work coordinator for the Disciples of Dirt, a mountain bike club in the area that hosts meets and organizes trail maintenance. Together with the Bureau of Land Management and local city agencies, Sheppard organizes the construction of new trails as well.

Sheppard said that as a longtime rider, he wanted to give back to the community that had given him so much.

“When I retired, I decided I wanted to get involved in trail maintenance because it’s a sport that’s given me a lot in the 35 years I’ve been riding,” said Sheppard.

Since Sheppard only recently took over as the trail work coordinator, he has not overseen any trail work done in Oakridge — yet.

“Disciples of Dirt and Team Dirt [a chapter of the International Mountain Biking Association] both help with trail maintenance down in Oakridge. I personally have not, I’m new to this position. When I say new I mean like two weeks,” said Sheppard. “But in the future, I’ll be part of trail maintenance and trail building in Oakridge.”

The Three-Legged Crane is a pub on 1st Street in Oakridge that is frequented by groups of mountain bikers like the Disciples of Dirt.

“At this point, the [recreation economy] is our bread and butter,” said Three Legged Crane Owner John Crane, an Oakridge resident and mountain biker himself. “We have a really good Oakridge following, but it’s a small community, and by nature it’s difficult to have a business up here in Oakridge.”

Crane said that because Oakridge is so small, having a reliable base of mountain bikers, and outdoor enthusiasts from out of town is crucial to staying open.

As Oakridge looks to attract recreational mountain biking as a facet of its economy, it is faced with an unfortunate reality. Fire season is getting longer, and the air quality represents a significant hurdle to overcome.

“It was rainy when I bought (my home) here. The first hot winter we thought it was great; I biked in shorts and a T-shirt. We called it ‘Juneuary’,” an employee at the Bike Shop said. “Then the wildfires came, and it all went to s**t.”

Evacuation warnings in Oakridge due to wildfires have become commonplace. In 2022 the Cedar Creek fire forced a mandatory evacuation of the entire town, and in 2024 the Ore and High Prairie fires brought level 1 and 2 evacuation warnings.

“We’ve been hit really hard by the smoke and fires, it’s terrible, just terrible,” said Kirin Stryker. “When the fires start, people stop coming because it looks like the state is on fire. A lot of people in the last few years have been going to the coast.”

Kirin Stryker said that in 2024, the numbers for both their Bend and Oakridge locations were down. “The smoke is either blowing into Oakridge or it’s blowing into Bend,” Stryker said.

According to the University of Oregon Ecosystem Workforce Program, Oakridge “has historically been ranked among the top 20 communities in the United States with the worst air quality due to high concentrations of particulate matter.”

This challenge with air quality is brought about by one of the factors that makes Oakridge such an ideal place for mountain biking to begin with — its steep topography and basin-like bottom. These geographic qualities that make for stunning views and create the environment for shuttles to the top of trails to be possible, also create the perfect combination of factors to trap wildfire smoke in the valley.

Saxon said that he has noticed the impacts of smoke on the tourism that Oakridge relies on, and not just in mountain biking.

“We are all about mountain biking, but there’s a lot of groups that come up here to kayak and fish and hike trails that have been impacted by the smoke,” Saxon said. “There’s a lot of environmental factors we have to take into count, but let’s face it: Oakridge doesn’t have a whole lot going for it right now besides mountain biking.”

Despite these challenges the Strykers, and others, believe that the future is bright for mountain biking in Oakridge. They are advocating with the forest service to get permitted for a longer season, so they can employ people more months out of the year.

“There’s this long-running joke in Oakridge. It’s that ‘Oakridge is about to blow up,’ and we’ve been saying that for twenty years,” Lev Stryker said. “But a lot of people in Oakridge see the beauty, surrounded by the potential.”

Sean Fitzpatrick the president of the Disciples of Dirt, said that he thinks Oakridge is a special place that is at the precipice of a great opportunity to revitalize its economy. But at the same time, it’s important not to make the town so reliant on tourism.

“We [D.o.D] love Oakridge. Oakridge is one of those towns that relied on logging for so long, and having that recreation opportunity is something to be harnessed. But you also want to do it carefully so you don’t absorb all of those resources and not make sure the people that live in the town are not taken care of,” Fitzpatrick said. “People live here and rely on the town for their everyday life. But from the outside looking in, I think it [mountain biking] can only help Oakridge’s economy.”