Exciting Revisions to our Classic Routes

Always Improving – A Message from Routes Manager Michael Bielecki

As our organization has grown over the past 15 years, so has our passion for constantly refining and improving our routes. Once we publish a new route, it’s never considered “done” and we are continually reviewing feedback from our community, Ambassadors, and Route Architects to make improvements and add more dirt, more points of interest, new optional harder and extension tracks, and an overall better riding experience. Celebrating 15 years and over 20,000 miles of free GPS tracks marks a significant milestone for the organization, and what better way to celebrate this than with a fresh new release of the WABDR and some major updates to the ORBDR.

Updates to ORBDR

After releasing the ORBDR, riders faced logistical challenges with the original Sections 1-3 often being closed due to wildfire travel restrictions on BLM land and within the Hart Mtn Wildlife Refuge. This, and the higher temperatures in the southern Oregon desert meant a very short window to safely ride the entire route from start to finish.

The newly revised Sections 1-3 start and remain in higher elevation National Forests to match a similar climate to the northern sections. This will ensure a more predictable and consistent riding season to run the entire route, whereas in the past by the time the northern sections opened in the Cascades after snowmelt, the southern three sections were too hot with temperatures over 100F and often closed for the remainder of the season, and deep sand was possible creating even more difficult riding conditions. Given that the new sections remain at a higher elevation, riders can expect to ride the entire updated route between mid-June and mid-October, depending on snowfall.

We are actively working on a brand new BDR-X in southeastern Oregon that will use the best parts of the original three sections combined with the best parts of the current Steens/Alvord BDR-X to create a brand-new longer and more comprehensive loop-style route in this region.

While we will no longer be advising on route conditions or publishing the original three sections as part of the ORBDR track file downloads, those roads and areas remain public and available to ride, and if you choose to venture into this area be mindful of the extreme summer heat and potential closures.

Updates to WABDR

The Washington BDR was the first route that inspired it all. Spanning from the Oregon border to Canada, this groundbreaking route set the precedent that all other routes would follow in the next 15 years.

The newly revised WABDR tracks contain eleven notable changes, ranging from minor revisions to major improvements. We’ve added new dirt roads, reclassified portions, discovered more seldom-travelled forest roads, expanded Extension tracks, added new waypoints, and refined existing segments to bring significant improvements to an already incredible route.

For riders who have not yet ridden the WABDR and those who have, these new changes bring a fresh perspective and a reason to visit Washington and experience the one that started it all.

Creating the best routes for our community to ride while enabling a strong economic impact to small communities is our number one goal, and we’re delighted to release these significant changes in an effort to do just that.