The Maston area mountain bike trails have the distinction of being the lowest elevation desert trails in the Central Oregon area, so this area will be a good bet to try in the off season when other trails have too much snow. The ride is mostly through nice juniper forest with occasional mountain views.

Even though it is in a semi desert it can still get muddy in the winter and spring when it is ridden more by default. Normally the soil drains very well in Central Oregon except if there has been some precipitation after the ground has frozen and the first few inches on top thaws out. If that is the case it may be better to ride early before things start melting for the day while the ground is still frozen on top. The mud is more like melting ice cream and not the kind that sticks to everything. Even though it is not the worst mud in world it would probably be a good idea to stay off of it until the conditions improve. It can dry or freeze with ruts.

Other than the first half mile from the south end along the power line road it is all single track. It is flat enough that it does not warrant making profiles for. The riding is technically very easy although there are a few minor rocky sections to spice it up here and there. It might be a good place to take kids because there are a lot of little knee high whoop-de-dos that kids can't seem to get enough of although most of those have been cut down now that motorcycles are no longer using the trails like they were.

There is a ride up Cline Butte nearby that has some good views and a the opportunity to do some climbing. If you open the map at the bottom of the page you can see where that starts. The first bit is very new and vague. It may not be officially sanctioned. This ride up to the first gravel road is easy climbing with very nice scenery. Once you hit the gravel road you can continue on to a gravel pit along a fence line. From there you can ride some of the roads that go to communications towers if you want additional climbing. The other option is to climb up the first gravel road to the top of Cline Butte. There are a couple of connected lesser buttes to the north and west. The climb up the road is steep. From the top there is an extreme free ride trail that heads off the east face. This has to be some of the most difficult riding in the central Oregon area. It is steep and there are some large man made jumps. Riding up the lower section to the gravel pit is a nice out and back which could be added to the trails at Maston however there is no connector trail to that across the highway at least not as of the fall of 2011. You are close though and if you are willing to hop a barbed wire fence.....but the BLM probably would not like that. Here is a quick map on that but it needs more work.

Unlike Gray Butte there appears to be little or no cattle grazing and the older Juniper forest is in pretty good shape. Central Oregon is home to one of the world's largest Juniper forests, that also happens to be expanding rapidly much to the consternation of ranchers and land managers. If you are not a cattleman you can go ahead and enjoy the uniquely beautiful old trees in the area. There is one other reason to possibly despise the trees and that is that a lot of people develop allergies to them. So if it is windy in the spring or early summer you may have a reaction to the pollen.

There are a couple of small private inholdings with houses near the river. You will not see these houses unless you get off the single track in attempt to see the river.  It would be great if the there were a trail that went along the rim of the Deschutes but there are nesting raptors so that would not be such a good idea. Speaking of mountain views it is a good thing that Cline Butte is so close and visible because if you are out there without a map this is a key orienteering land mark. The trails are mostly big gradual arcs though nondescript forest and terrain so on a cloudy day it can be difficult to get your bearings. 

None of the trails or intersections are signed with names or numbers as of the fall of 2011. This is a bit of a problem because the BLM currently has no official names for either the Maston Trails or the Horse Ridge Trails but at the same time they do not want any other parties naming trails or putting up trail signs. The BLM did add a fence on the south end and an unnamed trail head of sorts where it already was with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars. They also added vertical route markers with arrows at intersections but no names which is not particularly useful without names or a corresponding BLM map. Some of the intersections do not have these vertical route markers and that is because there are trails there that the BLM wants to go away for various reasons like say sensitive habitat in the area. If you are trying to come up with names that might stick eventually at some point do not use names of people like Phil's, as that does not meet their criteria. So the bottom line is unfortunately that it may be a couple of years before there are any official trail or intersection names and signs for them.

The BLM recently completed an Environmental Assessment for the Cline Buttes Recreation Area.  They are going to change quite a few things in the Maston area including rerouting and or eliminating some of the trails.  If you open the link above and open the Google Earth files at the bottom of the page you will see that they are sanctioning quite a few trails for mountain biking beyond the Maston area. It appears that you will be able to cross the highway and ride for many more miles to the west and north. Here is a link to a Google Earth file that has the existing trails and the proposed BLM trails in one file. Turn off and on the BLM Layers to see the difference. This is as of February 1, 2010 so the BLM may change those.  Check the trails listed on their page above to verify at a later date.

Speaking of officially sanctioned, map #13 on the BLM page listed above shows the whole Maston area as being non-motorized. So if you see any motorized vehicles out there you can mention to them that they shouldn't be. Another good thing that may come out of the new plan is that hopefully some of the trails can be modified to make them more curvy and interesting instead of just following old irrigation canals or high speed relatively straight user made motorcycle trails. According to one BLM manager the routes shown on the BLM maps are corridors and not exact routes. There is some wiggle room to make trails interesting in the corridors. Motorcycles can be hard to handle at the speeds necessary to make some of the tight turns on mountain bike trails.

Getting to the existing trailheads: The small southern parking area is five miles north of Tumalo on the Cline Falls Highway on Newcomb Rd. It is about a half mile east down the road just past the power line. In Google Maps enter Newcomb Rd @44.210638, -121.307956 as a destination. There is another bigger place to park north on the highway three miles north of Newcomb Rd. This red cinder road is on public land but is probably maintained by one of the land owners down on the River. There is single track that heads southeast just as soon as you turn off the highway. Enter Cline Falls Hwy @44.244908, -121.282308 to get to that one. The "Earth" tab below does not work in IE9 but works in other browsers like Firefox and Chrome. Hopefully that will get fixed.