Oregon’s highest-elevation purpose-built bike trails are being built not in the Cascades, but at a small mom-and-pop ski hill five hours east of Portland — and they’ve quickly become a statewide destination.
Here, on the crest of the craggy Elkhorn Range, in the high, dry side of Oregon, Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort serves the town of Baker City (population: 10,000) and the surrounding ranchland some 30 winding miles away with its single chairlift during the winter. Nearly a decade ago, the resort and the Blue Mountain Singletrack Trails Club, which maintains front- and backcountry trails throughout northeast Oregon, began working in partnership with the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, on which the resort sits, to develop a summer trail system.
With Broadway Flow, the ski hill started its bike network off with a bang
Built in 2018 by Bend-based Dirt Mechanics, which has constructed a number of Oregon classics from Mt. Bachelor to the backcountry oasis of Oakridge, 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 it 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.
What’s already on the ground is just the beginning
In addition to several miles of cross-country trails using the Nordic trail system around the resort, Broadway Flow and Two Dragons represent the fruitful first steps of a decade-long effort to turn this remote outpost into a mountain biking destination. The Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort 2023 Master Development Plan outlines ambitious plans to add a half-dozen new bike-optimized trails in and around the resort’s boundaries. On the front side, four new trails are planned, including connectors between Broadway Flow and both Two Dragons and the base area. Two additional trails of varying difficulty will switchback from the Rock Garden Chairlift through the forested north-facing slopes down to the base area. Off the backside of the ski area boundary, two more trails — one bi-directional and one downhill-primary — will drop south through open, south-facing slopes to Lower Crawfish Lake.
The new network also 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 purpose-built and backcountry trails add up to outsize mileage for a tiny ski area nearly an hour of mountain driving from the nearest town. And Creston’s Yurt, the resort’s sole summer lodging outside the Anthony Lakes campground, makes the ideal high-elevation home base for a long weekend of backcountry riding.
Creston’s Yurt puts you at trailhead elevation — literally
Named for a long-time and beloved ski patroller — whom you can still find, dancing in the base-area saloon, at over 100 years of age — the yurt occupies a prime spot atop the summit of Anthony Lakes near the chairlift, with the beginning of Broadway Flow quite literally out the front door. Sleeping six with bunk beds, a wood stove, and a full kitchen, the yurt offers arguably the highest-elevation lodging accommodations in the state.
Available for Friday-through-Sunday stays, the yurt puts the Anthony Lakes trails well within weekend-warrior reach for Portland, five hours away. Post-ride BBQs from the yurt’s deck, with views of the Elkhorns and Wallowa Mountains out the front door, cap off summer evenings where there’s always time for just one more lap.
Stay at the yurt and you’ll meet locals lapping Broadway Flow from the Anthony Lakes Campground. On summer weekends, fully loaded tailgate pads dot the base-lodge parking lot, and the resort’s saloon, the Starbottle, bustles, with long (by eastern Oregon standards, at least) lines for their pints and wood-fired pies.
Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort’s ambitious plans have already begun to turn the area into a dirt destination, and Oregon’s highest mountain bike trails have quickly earned their elevated reputation.
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