Waldo Lake
Trail Snapshot:
Trail Description
ebike allowed or not caveatE-bikes NOT allowed on Waldo Lake
About an hour Southwest of Bend, the Waldo Lake trail (also called the Jim Weaver Loop) is an epic 20 mile loop in the Willamette National Forest.
Sitting at 5400′ the trail is covered with snow late into the season. With summer comes hoards of mosquitoes — so early fall when it drys out and cools off is prime riding season at Waldo.
Waldo is Oregon’s second largest lake, covering more than 10 square miles. One of the clearest and purest lakes in the world, you can see to depths of over 100 feet on a calm day. Water enters the lake from snow melt and subsurface flows so there is very little soil erosion entering the lake — resulting in its deep indigo color.
Views of the lake are plentiful around the entire loop – and the trail meanders through rugged boulders, some swampy wet areas, and picturesque burned forest. There is a little bit of everything. Some sections are technically black, but they are fairly short.
Trail Photos
East side of loop is closed to clear trees from the last fire. Also the road to the north end of the lake is closed.
Trail still in rough shape, but rideable and worth it. Lots of small debris and sandy. About 10 miles is burned, including the old charlton burn section.
Rode the entire trail as park of a bikepacking trip. No trees down. West side is very disturbed. branches down, sunken holes, very soft–slow going with bags on the bike.
Trail now open. Lots of debris left in spots and trees down on the east side I hear.
From Oakridge Trails Group: Waldo Lake Trail will NOT be running this year (summer 2023). There is too much damage from the Cedar Creek fire to get it scouted, relocated, and cleared.
Entire trail Closed due to cedar fire now
West side Closed due to Cedar Creek Fire
Waldo now clear. Thanks Nathan, Paul, Scott, Lev, etc
75 trees down (large and small)
Trail clearing planned for Saturday 7/16
As of this morning the deadfall is all cleared, and riding well.
West side – shadow bay to bother Waldo cleared today. Approx 130 trees. East side getting cleared tomorrow.
Perfect conditions today, tacky, with minimal mud. About 5ish trees down on the westside, several are huge. Minimal small ride-around trees down on the eastside, except a big one down on the shoreline connector trail near North Waldo CG. Probably too late to address since tomorrow looks to be the last nice day anyway.
Sawyers has all the deadfall cleared around the west side of the lake. Not sure how the East half is because we rode Twins instead, but I’m guessing it’s good to go.
About 8 trees down on westside otherwise trail is great, before the afternoon thaw
Many large blowdowns between North Waldo Campground and Shadow Bay.
On the east or west side of the lake?
North waldo 8.5 trees down and rootball damage in the first few miles. West Waldo unknown. S Waldo first 3 miles are clear and the rest is unknown. Thanks for the report Olivia.
riding great. Mosquito’s not bad at all. South side of trail has two smaller trees down on downhill sections if you are riding counter clockwise.
Over 30 trees down – mostly on the west side. Freeze/thaw and mud are prevalent, but, for the most part, the trail is rideable. Good news – there are no mosquitoes because most of the ponds have a good layer of ice on them.
Riding good. Pretty buggy still. Bring a mosquito netting if camping.
Woohoo!
Cleared by a well coordinated crew! Around 100 trees between three sawyers. pretty prime riding conditions with the exception of a few very negotiable snow patches and some puddles on the trail.
any updates about riding conditions? Looking to get it in this weekend before I move!
Just chatted with Nathan who I logged the trail with last year and we are planning on logging it out as soon as it’s ridable. He said the USFS today said it’s still under snow. We cleared 100 trees or so last year – so I wouldn’t rush into it till we post that it’s clear.
Riding super well with some occasional sandy spots. We had no need for bug spray today either!
Waldo Lake is riding great. Perfect temps and minimal mosquito activity on Saturday.
No trees down that can’t be ridden over.
Nathan from OTTA cleared the last bit of trail over the weekend. Reports of a couple new trees down on North end.
report from someone riding today: So 7 trees down, 2 or 3 are about 1.5 to 2′ in diameter. One or two are shattered. They are roughly located in a section 1/2 mile on either side of the steep, technical rock step.
95% cleared yesterday. Yeah – we left about a mile between the 2 groups which headed out in opposite directions. Christy and I cleared 46 trees from Islet CG to the mid western side of the lake. Nathan and crew got almost to the same spot going the other direction. Snowy/wet weather became detrimental to life. Trail was about 25% full of puddles and 5% snow drifts. On a nice day it would have been epic and lovely.
Tried to ride on Saturday, 10/28 but the snow from 2 weeks ago made it a slog that I would not recommend – unless you like pushing your bike through snow.
Rode CWise from Shadow Bay, 9/30. Lt rain early am, trail and eroded roots on west side were wet, slippery. No mud, rained on us for last half of trail, good firm conditions. One big tree down on west side.
Muddy from snow melt on West side, probably best to give it a few days to dry out. Still non-stop huckleberries ! Deeper snow on North East, where elevation goes from 5400 to 5800
We gave it a few days and today it was perfect. No mud, no snow. If there was ever a reason to play hookey from work or school tomorrow, come get it at Waldo before the weather turns. My stomach is bloated from all the huckleberry eating!
Conditions were good today! Slightly hazy…air quality was good. Lots of blueberries on west side! Snow will fly soon….
No mosquitoes to speak of! Rode the loop CW from Islet today, departed at 08:15, returned at 11:45. Really good conditions today.
Trail is in great condition! Rode counter clockwise from Shadow Bay. Left about 10am-returned 1:30pm….no mosquitoes to speak of!! Did lather up before I left. Minimal smoke.
Trail in good shape. Some mud in boggy areas on SW end of lake which is not abnormal. A very small tree down you can ride over on West side of lake. A large 20″ tree on east side of lake along a fast descent of heading south so be wary. Mosquitoes annoying if stopped but I didn’t find them too bad.
Trail now clear per USFS report.
Rode CCW today from north trailhead. Skeeters not a problem if you keep moving but I did spray liberally before the ride. Lots of deadfall on west side but stopped to clear what we could. Lake is perfect temp for post ride cool down.
Rode this on saturday (08July). Snow was pretty much gone, few patches but nothing you cant ride over.
LOTS of downed trees especially on the northish sides… and…
LOTS of hungry mosquitos
fun trail
Rode on October 8 (Saturday). A touch muddy with a few puddles but the trail is riding great overall. Lots of hikers about and a few other bikers. No blow downs yet! Great ride!
Rode clockwise from Islet. Mild skeeters on the east side, had to lather up at shelter(south)…no issues on west. Trial is in great condition…this is the earliest I have ever ridden it! Lots of blueberries on south and west sides as well!! Came in on NF4290…took care of all the rattles on/in my van.
It rides well in either direction. The west side of the lake is more scenic and a little harder. We usually ride counter-clockwise from the north end and add on the Twins instead of riding the east side of the loop. As long as the skeeters aren’t too bad, you can’t go wrong.
Is one direction preferred over the other for this loop?
Word has it the trail is almost entirely clear. May be a couple trees down but that’s it.
Bring bug spray! There are some downfalls, hike a bike, but not too bad.