The organizer of the Oregon Outback event says event ‘is dead’ after cyclists trash route.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
A popular Memorial Day weekend bike ride that starts in Klamath Falls and ends at the confluence of the Deschutes and Columbia rivers has been declared dead by its organizer.
The reason: cyclists trashed the route, co-founder Donnie Kolb wrote on his website, OregonBikepacking.com.
According to Kolb, riders this year were less than gracious guests, leaving garbage throughout the route. Some of the most outrageous offenses were reports of riders not properly disposing of human waste, leaving toilet paper and feces in impromptu campsites. Cyclists also reportedly left trash in a barn that a Silver Lake resident opened up for riders the first night of the event. To top it off, Kolb said someone pooped in the yard of the Silver Lake family that had graciously given them shelter the night before.
“If you can’t follow Leave No Trace ethics, if you can’t literally take care of your own s— properly, if you can’t show respect to the folks who live on this route, and you can’t respect the wild nature you ride through, then stay home,” Kolb wrote. “Oregon is closed. We don’t need you and we most definitely don’t want you. You ruined something super awesome,” he added, “something I was immensely proud of.”
(SOURCE: Bend Bulletin)
The ride attracted more than 300 bikers over this year’s Memorial Day weekend. The route, which garnered national attention and was designed by Portland cyclists Kolb and Gabriel Amadeus, cut through Sprague River, Beatty, Silver Lake, Fort Rock and Saniko.
Kolb wrote on his site, “I’m chock-full of four-letter words and offended on so many levels. Any form of an annual ride is done forever. Kaput.”
