Gravel Biking 2026

Editor's Note: The following introduction was provided by Andrea Bonadiman. The month of May in the Owyhee can often lead to unpredictable weather patterns. From heat to pouring rain, and usually a fair amount of wind is included in the package. However, no matter what - the scenery, solace, and company of those you're sharing an experience to last a lifetime is always worth it. Gravel Biking was offered as part of our recreation programming earlier this spring. While we realize it is a niche activity, we would love to invite you to read about the experience through the writing of our board member Erik Feibert .

Mitchell Butte to Watson Gravel Ride

The ride started on Saturday, May 16 from the parking area near Mitchell Butte west of Adrian, OR. There were three riders (Gini from Seattle, Randy and Erik from Ontario; coincidentally, we were all in our late 60’s). We had the wonderful help of SAG driver MJ from Fruitland, ID with a 4-runner carrying our camping equipment and food. We started at 10 AM with sunny weather and northwest winds. The expectation was for a tailwind, but it never seemed to favor us and was just annoying. We all had gravel bikes: 2 Salsa Cutthroats and a Cannondale Topstone with 45 mm tires. The road is mostly good gravel except for the area around Dry Creek and some miles near Watson where cattle had roughened up the road a bit. We took a halfway break at Twin Springs, which has a vault toilet. Beautiful views of the distant Honeycombs and other scenery were a constant on the way. A few miles past Twin Springs is Dry Creek, which had a low water level and was easy to ride through. The canyon beyond Dry Creek is beautiful to ride through due to the multicolored cliff faces. We made it to Watson by the Owyhee River around 4 PM and found a beautiful campsite by the river with trees and bushes that sheltered us from the wind (which had picked up during the day). We rode 47 miles with 3389 feet of climbing and encountered very few vehicles. Tents were set up, and then we shared food, beer, and wine while enjoying the scenery by the river. We did not see any other people camping in that part of the river.

The next day we had breakfast, broke camp, and headed out into increasing northwest winds.  The ride was slow due to direct headwinds that were reported to be 20-30 miles per hour. By the time we got to Twin Springs, we had had enough of the wind and accepted an offer to ride in the 4-runner back to Mitchell Butte. On Sunday our ride totaled 26.6 miles with 2392 feet of climbing, which took us 3 hours and 21 minutes. Except for the wind, it was a good ride and a good time. The leg from Mitchell Butte to Twin Springs has been ridden numerous times as a day ride by Randy and me and friends, and we never encountered wind anywhere near what we had that Sunday, so we were just a bit unlucky this time.