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 when other trails have too much snow or mud in the winter and spring. 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 sand traps and rocky sections to spice it up here and there. It might be a good place to take kids because there are a lot little knee high whoop de dos that kids can't seem to get enough of.

Unlike Gray Butte there is currently no cattle grazing and the old juniper forest is in reasonably good shape. 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. The ride is mostly through juniper forest with occasional mountain views. 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 -yet. 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. 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. COTA won't do it because they do not want to jeopardize their relationship with the BLM land managers. So unless some renegade map and sign makers make the unsanctioned effort, the mountain biking public is SOL for the mean time because the signs would need to correspond to maps - obviously.

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. The trail heads will also be changed. 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. A few not easy to bypass tight turns here and there make for good motorcycle deterrents.

Getting to the existing unsanctioned 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 owner$ 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.