Lewis River Trail
Ride Data
- Ride Type: Shuttle or O&B
- Ride Length: 13 to 18 Miles (one way)
- Ascent: About 1500 Feet
- Descent: About 1700 Feet
- Ride Time: 4-5 Hours
- Technical Difficulty: Intermediate to Advanced
- Plus: Remote
- Minus: Remote
- Location: SE of Mt. St. Helens
The Lewis River Trail is one of the Gems of the Northwest. It has all the features one would expect of a river trail: a nice river to follow, deep northwest woods, and lots of little ups and downs. And, like most river trails, you must either ride it as an out and back or shuttle it.
Please see my pictures from this area here.
Getting There
The simplest way to get to the Lewis River Trail southern trailhead is to head towards Mt. St. Helens on Highway 503 from I5. If you are coming from the south, it's the second exit past the big Transit Center, right after two cool old steel bridges.
Give yourself enough time, as it takes about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half to get all the way past Cougar once you leave I5. …
McKenzie River Trail
List of External Links
- McKenzie River Trail Map
Shows the whole trail well - MRT Shuttle
A Local MRT Shuttle - Finn Rock Grill - Vida, OR
Great Place to eat - MRT Shuttle with Cog Wild
An alternative shuttle company - Mountain Biking North Western Mountains and Valleys
Kelly's Cool MTB Web Site - The Whole MRT by theleeman at Garmin Connect - Details
Garmin view of my ride - McKenzie River Vacation Cabins
Great place to stay
The McKenzie River Trail is one of the best trails in Oregon, if not one of the best trails around. It has some amazing sights, including several water falls, a pool of water so blue its Azure, an underground river, and miles of fairly technical trail that pass through lava beds, where the trail seems hewn directly out of stone.
Check out pictures from this ride, here. See below for Ride Data.
Ride Preparation
We chose to shuttle the MRT, giving us the opportunity to ride the whole thing. We used the McKenzie River Mountain Resort Shuttle. I hear Cog Wild has one too, but the Cog Wild Shuttle is focused on folks out of Bend. We picked a 10 AM Shuttle start time, because we thought we would be driving to the Trail Head first thing in the morning, and that's about a 3-hour drive!
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