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Mrazek » Upper Trail
Trail Snapshot:
Trail Description
E-bikes NOT allowed on Mrazek » Upper
The Mrazek Trail is maintained by Phil Meglasson (the Phil of Phil’s trail) and is not maintained by COTA. You can expect lots of twists and turns, tight corners and Phil’s unique flavor of trail design along the way.
The trail begins at the West end of Shevlin Park and heads up the ridge in a fairly moderate grade all the way to the intersection with Metolious Windigo trail. You can also access the top of Farewell near the top of Mrazek. There is a section of Mrazek near the bottom which was burned in the Two-Bulls fire in 2014 — riding through the burn area is interesting as the fire charred the landscape beyond recognition and opened up some decent views.
Mrazek is also accessed from Phil’s area by taking the BS logging road off of the Skyliners Rd/MTB trail intersection to the North where you will find an unmarked trail dubbed “Kratsch’s Crossing” on Strava. This leads you through the woods to the BS logging road further on, and after heading down and back up this road you will see a trail heading out to Mrazek near the top of Shevlin Park.
Mrazek was named after a locally based bike brand and largely attributed to the rep Jeff Bernard. You can still see a few Mrazek Bikes rolling the trails these days.
Wes Cheney and I finished clearing trees from Upper Mrazek today. Bottle Creek is about one foot deep and 6 feet wide. The 370 road from the jct. of Mrazek and Met. Win back down to 4601 is about half sand.
No snow. About a half dozen easy to bypass trees on upper Mrazek to the Farewell intersection. Rode on 6-7-24.
Started to try to do Upper Mrazek on Oct 26, 2023, but bailed about a mile in, as I couldn’t get enough traction with the Rekon Race rear tire I had. If you have more substantial tires, I bet you could get a ways further up, but not sure it’d be great.
Mrazek is clear of blowdowns and snow to Farewell.
amazing! thank you!
We just cleared it to Bottle Creek about a 1/4 mile before the 370 road. I ran out of battery. There were about 30 trees in that section
As of June 4, lots of dead fall on the trail to Farewell intersection. Another dozen or so follows Farewell for the next mile too then just a couple more trees across the trail.
Lots of freezing-cold standing water on the trail until below the 4601 crossing near the steep ravine.
Two small trees down at 44.054, -121.595 and 44.054, -121.585.
No headshot tree noticed today.
Two mountain lions seen on the trail this evening around 7pm. Didn’t seem overly interested or disturbed by us.
Rode yesterday, one tree partially blocking the trail about a 1/4 mile north from the viewpoint. This tree sticks out into the trail near head height and came up on me fast! Be careful. One tree across the steep road grade descent at 44.05359, -121.52123
Head shot tree still there
Cleared today. Just pushed it over :)
About 6-7 trees down on upper.
From Farewell down, Upper Mrazek was clear of trees except one about 10-12″ diameter at 44°03’00.5″N 121°33’23.9″W and another the same size about 100 yards further down the trail. Some patchy snow just below the farewell junction but not too bad.
Clear of trees and snow all the way through the canyon and to the 4601 road crossing. Then deep and patchy snow until the viewpoint. Didn’t go past that.
Controlled burns look like they are mostly finished. Dirt was great today but about 20 trees down between NF210 and Farewell.
Controlled burn with a few down trees around 5600′ towards the end of Upper Mrazek.
Free of trees from Met win to farewell. Some frozen ground in spots.
Trees are clear from Met win to farewell. Dusting of new snow
Just cleared the Cold Spring log…trail is fully clear to the best of my knowledge
one tree ~18″ near cold springs at about the 5400′ contour. Will try to clear it this week. Trail is riding awesome!
10ish trees cleared from 370 down to Farwell. Running as good as it gets.
The large tree in the canyon has been cleared. I rode up as far as the viewpoint on Upper Mrazek on May 7 and there is still a lot of deep snow. No deadfall in that section unless some hidden under the snow. Likely to be deadfall on the section going to Farewell.
two small hanging/ perched trees immediately west on the mrazek trail out of the farewell junction
N Fork to Happy Valley Met-Win, Mrazek, Farewell have been cleared.
Huge shout out to the Fire Crew that showed up and helped out today.
I do not know the conditions on Mrazek below Farewell.
UM had lots of dead blow down between happy valley and farewell
Cleared deadfall from Happyvalley, MetWin to Mrazek, Mrazek to Farewell.
Clear from Farewell down. Talked to a couple riders who said there is still snow up North Fork and Happy Valley (more than a little).
8 to 10 trees down between Farewell and MetWin. Only a couple small snow patches. High water does make for a fun creek crossing just before MetWin.
Rode through yesterday (5/25) and snow patches were almost nonexistent at the Farewell cutoff. Got surprisingly busy with probably 10 total riders headed down from Farewell.
Just a few small rideable patches of snow up to the Farewell junction.
Deep snow in Upper Mrazek. Ended up turning around and going back down Farewell (which also has deep snow for the top 0.5mi).
Riding awesome. Firm and grippy.
Large tree down near the start of the road climb. I think that’s right where lower and upper split but not sure.
You are correct that the road climb is where the division between upper and lower begins (unofficially). Tree is still there but I removed the deadfall status since this is on the section of road that the single track goes around. My estimate puts it about 15-16″ at the road and will require multiple cuts.
Met a large black bear this evening between Met-Win and Farewell. Luckily we sorted it out without getting too close. Good reminder that a MTB bell is better than sneaking up on wildlife.
Rode 06/01 west to Farewell, a couple snow patches were small and avoidable. Like last comment stated there are a lot of trees down.
Hiked up from the intersection with the gravel road that starts at Tumalo Falls gate. Mostly clear of deadfall until you get to the tree gap. From there to the intersection with Farewell I counted 20. Most < 6" and 3 that were ~10". Still some very deep snow patches but also long stretches that are snow free.
Ran up to the cell tower last night and cut over to Mrazek. Still super snowy and deep. Couple more weeks.
Phil and Co. cut out the trees this morning – all good to go.
About a half dozen trees (mostly under 12”) down across the trail and some puddles, but otherwise the dirt is about as good as it gets.
No problem with branches in trail, but there are “tree falling” warning signs for the short section.
This is really in the NF- Mrazek transfer section.
Nothing has changed in two months. Wonder when they’ll haul off the downed logs. All are off trail.
Yeah I noticed the same. We under IFPL restrictions for fire at the moment, so heavy equipment and chainsaws are a no go within the forest. Probably the reason they stopped the work
They are felling trees right as you come out of Happy Valley. Trail is full of branches so be careful. It is a very short section, the rest is fantastic!
Riding great up until a mile or two from the Farewell junction where there are a dozen + tree’s down across the trail. All of them are less than 18″ i’d say. All the snow is gone though! Woohoo!
All clear now!!!
This is second hand info but yesterday I came upon a rider on Southfork that claimed it was all clear to the top. Forgot to ask him about deadfall but theoretically it’s possible to reach it.
Did a run from Skyliners TH -4601-connected to Mrazek to the towers, and down 4601. Mrazek is in great condition until it kicks up under the ridge (I’m sure you all know where there is that sharp left hand turn) about 1/2 mile below 4601. From that point on, there are several feet of snow and then 4601 is very sloppy mud as I headed back to the towers. I could run it but you’d definitely have to hike-a-bike the last 1/2 mile to the junction (snow). I’m heading out to check out Farewell today….
Great conditions until a bit past the lookout. Then a mix of hard packed snow and clear ice requiring some hike-a-bike. All will change tonight though if we get the forecasted snow.
Rode from 4601 up to Farewell. It’s great down low, then about a half mile from the view point the good fluffy snow is interspersed with choppy post holes in the old snow underneath. After the view point the post holed sections get longer and less rideable.
1-3” fluffy snow over frozen dirt. Fabulous on the fatbike.
Deadfall cleared on Upper Mrazek today. Thank You, DR!
cleared 57 trees on Mrazek and Farewell. Still 15 remain that were too big, or dangerous for me to do with my hand saw. All clear until you get past the road just beyond the look out. Most remaining are at least 9″ and would be best with a chainsaw.
Other than the remaining 9 on Mrazek, trail is riding great.
Done! All clear!
Before I get into the review it seems that someone purposely blocked the trail along the ridge climb with cut trees. I didn’t see any reroutes so not sure what the point of this was. I ended up clearing it so sorry if this was some kind of planned closure but there was no indication of anything official.
A few puddles and light snow but actually the tread condition seemed even better than lower Mraz from the part that I rode. Deadfall is not horrible (4 remain after I cleared a few) until the split tree gap just past the scenic view but then you start to hit a steady dose of deadfall. Most are smallish and could be cleared with a folding saw (which I forgot to bring) but there are a couple good sized ones in the 12-18 inch range. I turned around after the count got to 14.
SO MUCH FUN!
Rode up Farewell (clean and clear) then down Mrazek to Shevlin and back to town.
From the junction with Farewell going down (East), there is maybe 2 inches of slushy snow for 1/2 mile or so. No problem riding down through the snow present. However riding up it would have been annoying or difficult IMO.
Now that we (group of 5) put some tracks through there it going west/up would be more possible(assuming it’s not covered tonight).
There were a few more patchy areas of snow below that, and some puddles, but nothing that presents any issue riding.
Otherwise it is wide open and super fun.
Trail is riding really well, best of the season!!!!
All of Mrazek is riding well. No downed trees, no snow, nice tacky dirt.
Saw that today. And didn’t bring the saw. Another tiny tree down at about head level further down. Had to slightly duck below it a little.
Within 100 yards of the start at the top is a handsaw size tree down at hip level.
Rode down from Road 700(?) today. Upper section was excellent. Lower section is starting to get a little dusty but still great. Lots of braking bumps on the tight corners in the steeper sections, but not too bad yet. I probably made them a little worse today, sorry!
From Farewell intersection down is perfect, no trees down. Not sure about conditions above Farewell.
Choppy snow from two crossings above the rocky overlook. We might have tried to get higher but deep muddy ruts on NF-4601 held us back. We met people trying to push up to Farewell. Don’t know how that worked out for them.