Beat cabin fever with hiking and biking

With the onset of winter, hikers and mountain bikers look for low-elevation trails to beat cabin fever. The Sisters Trails Alliance has built several such trails near Sisters on National Forest lands in cooperation with the Sisters Ranger District of the Deschutes National Forest. Experienced trail-users can use forest roads and these trails to put together a 10-mile loop beginning and ending at Sisters High School.

Crossroads-Sisters High School Single-Track

This single track starts just south of Highway 242 at McKinney Butte Road (entrance to the high school) and a 3-mile route connects to the west fire exit of the Crossroads subdivision. This new single track was completed just a couple of months ago by a volunteer work party. The trail is open to hikers and mountain bikes.

Mainline Road-Metolius-Windigo Connector

This trail is a combination of single-track and forest roads to connect from the Mainline Road immediately west of the Whychus Creek-Mainline Road bridge. The route goes south for 2.7 miles to connect to the Metolius-Windigo Trail. The trail begins as a single-track, then follows old logging roads to more recent roads. At 1.25 miles the route intersects the 1505 road (Edgington Road) and follows it to the 1505-410 road, which crosses the Metolius-Windigo Trail.

Elk Ranch Trail

This trail begins at the intersection of Highway 242 and Edgington Road, and follows a blocked road south just over a mile to the intersection of Edgington Road and the Mainline Road.

The Big Loop

If you're feeling adventurous and don't mind doing some map reading and exploring, you can put all of these together in a 10-mile loop. All of the loop is pretty well signed except for a short portion where you leave the Crossroads-Sisters High School single-track and go about 7/10 of a mile south on forest roads to Sisters Cow Camp. At Sisters Cow Camp take the Metolius-Windigo Trail south to the 1510-410 road where a Sisters Trails sign will direct you down the road toward the Mainline Road. At the Mainline Road, continue west until you reach the Elk Ranch Trail. Finally head north on the Elk Ranch Trail until you reach Highway 242.

There are several locations on both the Metolius-Windigo Trail and the Crossroads-Sisters High School single-track that have great mountain views. Parking is available at the high school. Additional trail information and maps are available at http://www.sisterstrails.com.

Wintertime can cause the single-track trails to be muddy. Stop and stay off the trail if you find yourself or your bike sinking into the ground. Freezing and thawing can create a soft trail and users can create ruts that will eventually wash the trail out. If the ground is frozen you won't have this problem.