Bend Trails: Tiddlywinks

Tiddlywinks Trail. Bend, Oregon

The Tiddlywinks trail has been on our to-do list for sometime with to numerous recommendations pouring in. Easy access from the highway and shuttle friendly, it’s considered one of the must-ride trails in Bend. It features a bit of everything a contemporary trail mountain biker lives for: flowy bermed turns, opportunities for air time and a number of technical rocky sections.

Plus, for those looking to put a big day in the saddle, you can connect it to dozens of other trails to make it as big of a day as you want.

Inga complained about dust in her eyes following me down the trail. Whoops.

We planned to ride it last year but not knowing the best route, (we followed the recommendation of MTB Project – see notes at the end of the post) began at the bottom. Pedaling up from Storm King to climb Funner for the Funner-Tiddlywinks loop, we ended up turning back 3/4 of the way up as we ran out of light.

Bend gets it. Warm up/ play area at Wanoga Sno-Park Trailhead.

Starting Point: Wanoga Sno-Park Trailhead

This time around, we skipped the pedal up, and getting a shuttle to the Wanoga Sno-Park Trailhead, we rode the trail down. (our vehicle was parked at the Phil’s Trailhead – thanks for the ride Kevin!)

The route still includes pedaling to reach the start of the flow section. Following Tiddlywinks down, we connected to Storm King to continue the fun. From there we rode Catch and Release to COD to Ticket to Ride to Voodoo to Grand Slam to KGB.

Ending the ride at the Phil’s Trailhead where we dropped our vehicle resulted in a good amount of trail miles logged for the day. Even more for me as I met up with my brother for laps at the Bachelor Bike Park that evening.

Another smile inducing berm on Tiddlywinks

The next day we did a shorter version of the ride, dropping a vehicle at the Storm King Trailhead.

The second run through was a blast. Charging through the initial XC section, we blazed through quickly to the start of the flowy descent. With the lines fresh in my head the day before, every gap and transfer was sent and fired off. There are a few rock gardens that make equipping a bash guard a smart idea, but remembering the lines, a quick hop/lunge onto the rock and down the backside made quick work of that section as well.

A second run down Tyler’s Traverse was considered, but as our plan included riding a full day at the park, we called it and got ready for round 2.

Optional booter line is mandatory for maximum fun times.

Finding it

Although we have been using the MTB Project app the most for the last year we’re migrating away from it due to the OTT listings essentially polluting every search. Unless I’m specifically looking to go bike touring, I’m not really interested in seeing all the backcountry routes and it has been making finding the rides we want to do much more difficult.

The app needs a way of providing filters for weeding out crappy content. The trail listing also recommends pedaling up Tiddlywinks and riding down Funner.

If you’re visiting this trail for the first time, this is NOT the fun route. Skip MTB Project altogether as the quality of the trail descriptions reads as if written by a single speed 29″ rigid hardtail enthusiast.

More berm banging

Most of our friends in Bend recommend Trailforks; like MTB Project, you can download the maps to your phone for route finding, and the trail descriptions read more like your homie telling you about the best trails in town.