Oregon's highest-elevation purpose-built bike trails aren't in the Cascades—they're at Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort, a small mom-and-pop ski hill five hours east of Portland. Here, on the crest of the craggy Elkhorn Range in the high, dry side of Oregon, the resort serves Baker City (population: 10,000) and the surrounding ranchland some 30 winding miles away. Built in 2018 by Bend-based Dirt Mechanics, the two-mile Broadway Flow trail descends from the top of the resort's Rock Garden chairlift on what has become Dirt Mechanics' signature: machine-built trails that feel like a piece of the landscape rather than simply stamped on top of it. Rock doubles and stutter-step sections abound, and several sneaky alt-lines offer up BC-like slabs.
A rough, two-mile maintenance road accesses the top of the ski area and Broadway Flow. Bikes make quicker work of the rocky and heavily rutted road than shuttle vehicles, and the roughly 900-foot climbs make multiple laps easy. Riders can happily lap Broadway Flow or combine it with Two Dragons below the resort. The latter trail converts a decaying roadbed into narrow, off-camber singletrack, root drops, and a roller coaster finish in thick forest. The two trails combine for 11 miles and 1,800 vertical feet of quintessential Eastern Oregon riding. Dry duff and decomposed granite tread winds through grizzled whitebark pine and wildflowers, in stark contrast to the wet western Oregon forests of cedar and ferns.
In addition to the purpose-built trails, the network ties into some classic alpine singletrack that's open to bikes outside the neighboring North Fork John Day Wilderness, including the sheer cliff edges of a non-Wilderness portion of the Elkhorn Crest trail and the nearly 4,000-foot descent of the Dutch Flat trail. The trails add up to outsize mileage for a tiny ski area nearly an hour of mountain driving from the nearest town. Creston's Yurt, the resort's sole summer lodging outside the Anthony Lakes campground, occupies a prime spot atop the summit near the chairlift, with the beginning of Broadway Flow quite literally out the front door. Available for Friday-through-Sunday stays, the yurt puts the Anthony Lakes trails well within weekend-warrior reach for Portland, five hours away.
-Aaron Theisen
