The Baker Trail offers a genuine bike mountaineering experience. While riding it I was reminded of this video by Vaude, only slightly less of a knife edge to the ridge. The route requires much technical skill in descending and plenty of brake pad. Rocky outcroppings provide ruggedly divine encounters as you weave around and around them riding down the ridge. Just keep in mind that this experience is reserved for true backcountry riders.
The ride isn't for the feint of heart or those lacking in fitness. Huckleberry Mountain is unrideable up, due to steepness, so you end up hike-a-bike for 1,500 vertical feet in 1 mile. Then it eases up enough you might be able to ride the last half mile to the saddle. There you have a chance to summit the 7,533' peak (route not shown here but you can figure it out when you see the summit) and then you have a thrill ride down the ridge.
Some trailwork is needed on the Baker Trail from the top saddle down the ridge. It just needs some brushwork of small trees and some cutting of blowdown. Once it departs from the ridge the trail is in good repair to the Bear Creek Trail. The trailwork there looks to be recent. The Huckleberry Mountain Trail is in good repair also. There is enough trail work needed that I don't recommend this route until something is done. . .unless of course you want a true backcountry experience
If you are trying to find the Baker Trail from the bottom at Bear Creek, it is the least discernible trail entrance I've ever not seen. There is no indicator for a trail and even the grass is grown in obscuring the junction. This is probably because the trail has be de-listed by the Forest Service and you won't see it on their maps anymore. The best way to find it is to keep track of mileage or use GPS. It is exactly 2 miles from the Bear Creek Trailhead at Boundary Campground. It is shortly after crossing Baker Creek on the trail. You can also look for the mossy log cut (see picture) that looks like a good resting seat.
Despite two run-ins with ailing wilderness signs, as near as I can tell this trail is legal to bike. The trail basically follows on the boundary at the top of the ridge for about 2 miles. There is one short section that sidehills on the wilderness side of the ridge (see pictures), from the saddle below Huckleberry Mountain. This is not very rideable scree anyway that isn't maintained well so you might as well hike the ridge to keep it legal. It may be possible to divert around this section by just taking off from the Huckleberry Mountain Trail earlier near the spring and head straight over to pick up the trail on the ridge. This could be a good future project to work with the Forest Service to make a completely legal trail loop, maintained by mountain bikers. Everything else is clearly outside the wilderness including the stretch of trail along Bear Creek, except you might not want to look back when you exit the trail at the very end because there is some misplaced signage there.
Getting There
From Wallowa head up the canyon to the south. The road turns to gravel eventually and then there is one major fork in the road. Right goes to Boundary Campground and Bear Creek Trailhead. Left goes up to the Huckleberry Mt. Trailhead. The sign says rough road but it is in good condition without ruts. If you're not going to shuttle it, you can park anywhere there is a pullout or at the Bear Creek Trailhead where there are bathroom facilities. The climb is a steady climb up to the Huckleberry Mt. Trailhead for making a big loop of it.
Trail Notes (starting on the Huckleberry Trail)
- 0.0mi Start at Huckleberry Mt. Trailhead and continue up the road to he west.
- 0.5 After crossing Little Bear Creek (which is very small), the singletrack trail begins to the left. You can actually drive to here if the gate is open.
- 1.9 Saddle between Baker and Huckleberry Mountain. There is a wilderness sign on the ground beside the trail. Go through the saddle and look for the Baker Trail traversing northwest across the mountain. It is actually like take a U-turn a the saddle and reversing direction on the other side of the ridge.
- 2.4 Not long after the traverse there is a difficult stretch to follow the trail in some more level saddles. The best approach is to try to say on the high point of the ridge going west. Eventually you will run into a more discernible trail as the ridge sharpens.
- 4.2 There is a broken but standing Wilderness Sign and then the trail bails to the north off of the ridge and begins descending in the canyon.
- 6.1 Arrive at Bear Creek Trail. Go right, downstream.
- 8.1 Arrive at the Bear Creek Trailhead at Boundary Campground. The parking area requires a Northwest Forest Pass.
