During your ride, you may encounter active timber harvesting operations. To ensure your safety, the safety of timber workers, and to prevent conflicts, please familiarize yourself with the following guidelines.

Signs of Active Logging Operations

• Signage (i.e., CB channels, mile markers, etc.)
• New brushing and mowing alongside the road
• Gates open
• Tire tracks
• Fresh gravel in-lay
• Orange ribbon marking road obstacles or hazards
• Noise

What You Should Do and Know as a Cyclist

• Remember that hauling log trucks always have the right of way! Uphill or downhill.
• Move to the side of the road. Stop, put a foot down. Wave!
• Use lights! A flashing white front light and a red flashing rear light with a radar detector (Garmin Varia, Trek CarBack).
• Do not override your sight lines.
• Keep your group size small and together, reducing your riding footprint.
• Listen and be observant.
• Lastly, when access is temporarily closed, do not “sneak through.” Logging operators are not trying to keep you out; they are trying to keep you safe, and they may keep you out to keep you safe.

Learn more about logging, riding in a log truck, and timberlands riding etiquette in this 3-part podcast. The Dirty Freehub team joined Jennifer Beathe—Forester and Outreach Manager at Starker Forests—for a tour of the Alder Creek Tree Farm near Corvallis, Oregon. Along the way, we explored key topics like recreational access, rider safety around active logging operations, the risks faced by logging crews, and what to watch for as a cyclist. It’s an insightful look at how to ride responsibly and safely through working timberlands.