Echo has developed a great reputation for fun mountain biking in the Northwest because of its central location and year-around riding weather, not to mention the trails flow like tumbleweeds. (That's a good thing, because tumbleweeds roll fast across the Columbia Plateau.) We owe a great gratitude to Lloyd and Lois Piercy for breaking the farmer/rancher mold and offering up their uncultivated land to mountain bikers to build trail. They went out of their way to ask Scott's Cycles in Hermiston about turning their land into a mountain bike oasis. In turn, the mountain bikers, lead by Brian Cimmiyotti and Shayne Meyers, began going to work building trail in the draws while the farmers plowed fields above. Eventually races started happening on the trails and it grew into the Echo Red 2 Red mountain bike race which is one of the biggest races in the northwest and earliest on the race calendar.
People now travel for miles to ride the trails, especially during the winter when other trails are under snow. It is a convenient hop off of I-84. Camping is allowed at the trailhead parking. There is also an RV park in Echo. The feature loop and statistics above are of the A & B loop combined in a counterclockwise route. It does not include the add on loops off of this trail, which can be seen on the Enteractive Map.
Directions
- From I-84, Exit 188 head south into Echo.
- Take a right on Dupont, the first road at the bottom of the hill.
- Turn right on Main (Lexington Hwy).
- After about a mile, turn left on Snow Road.
- Travel south 1.7 miles and look to turn left at the old windmill, staying to the left of the fence.
- The trailhead is at a parking lot on the right less than a mile down the road.
- Trialhead: 45.712234 N, 119.199037 W
