Forecast for yesterday morning was perhaps rain. At 1:00 I am to meet w/ the house designer people. Decided not to ride.
Friday’s meeting turned out to be just Michael, the architect just hired. We met at a local pub. I noticed his rain parka hung over his chair that said serious stuff. He shared some things in his life. Last year he hiked 82 days on an incomplete trail going across the northern states. He lives in an apartment and keeps his life almost backpacking spartan as he cooks w/ his backpack pot and sleeps on the floor on a inflatable pad but changed to blankets for more room. We related. His degree is architecture and has had years of experience. He used a tablet to capture my house ideas. We worked out the stairway which can be the bane of a house design. We worked well together. Next step is further refinement.
Afterwards I drove down to my property just NW of LaPine for the night. My own land. I slipped off the cable noose blocking the entrance then drove in over rain softened pumice. I sawed out 2 small short clumps of brush so as not to catch things on the van under belly. My tracks from last summer are still visible. I got out and walked my 1 acre seeing what’s up. I noticed 3 tree tops had fallen for all the damage. I pulled up knapweed in front as that’s the only place it grows as it has spread from the property across the road. I am camping on my property, I ask only myself for permission and can stay as long as I pay the taxes.
Adjoining properties were vacant. Road has been worked on to be a smooth gravel road. I fixed Captain chicken that Rebecca renamed Captain Craig. A long time had passed before making it tonight. It was like a celebration of being home. Although it was the second night here.
Chilly night with the furnace running on a low setting. Rain fell off and on. Forecast Sat night called for rain probability decreasing after 11AM today. I was thinking about riding in the afternoon if so.
This morn I was sitting at my desk when I noticed a white SUV parked out on the road in front. I deciphered the markings on the car as the sheriff. I put on my Mr Rodgers wool sweater and walked out to greet him. I am the first person he has seen on this property so he decided to check out what’s up. We chatted introducing myself to the law. He suggested I get a fire sign from the fire department and hang it along w/ No trespassing signs. The sign would give the law the reason to check up on anybody being on my property. I was shivering in the cold damp and he was in shirt sleeves.
Rain sprinkles fell off and on till mid afternoon when big patches of blue opened up. My chance for a sucker hole to walk the FS roads. I am 4 properties away from the edge of the Deschutes NF. Big Ponderosa pines. Maybe 200 yards into the forest have been fuel reduced. The area is saturated w/ mapped logging roads. I walked out to a hard road and back for 5.4 miles.
Freeze warning for tonight.
Camping on public land for me seemed to have an etiquette as in you stayed in your spot and did not visit others. Others respected privacy for the greater most part. Being on private land in a neighborhood has a great potential for visiting neighbors. The marine family is back home, the guy to the east is still away. The neighbors to the S end are back as I heard their dogs barking.
Tomorrow I will drive thru Sunriver to the upper Phils trail complex. This ride might finish on an uphill where as if I drove down to Phils it would be sweet coasting. However driving high is shorter than going into Bend then out to trails. RT 97 south is reduced to 1 lane that creates slow speeds.
Along the way I find lots of good rides and like to stay in an area. I started looking at time management where I go and how long I stay there. My goal is Bentonville, AR before Thanksgiving for the IMBA World Summit. I need to manage my time to either ride all the places I am starting to identify or ride fewer places but stay longer. Paradox. I’m up to it.
At Twin Falls I visited a Specialized dealer shop. I asked about E bikes as the big S makes some. Guy took me outside to look at 2 that were hung over the tailgate of a truck.
Check out the beefed up bottom bracket area and oversized down tube. The motor is in the bottom bracket massive and the down tube houses the battery. It appears to be a full blown regular mountain bike only it can go fast. Supposed to be under 700 watts and max speed on flat ground under a 170 pound rider of 20 mph. Later I saw one being built up at the Perch. I learned the pedal assist matches your effort, if you are pedaling at say 4 mph it adds matching 4 for 8mph. The rider controls how much energy hence speed is drained from the battery. Amazing. So as I was crushing myself climbing up to Lookout mtn at 6800′ just making balance speed, an e-assist bike could have gone by me and the rider could have carried on a one way conversation w/ me. They are not permitted on non motorized trails. To me the non motorized name should be changed to Heart Propelled which captures what we do versus what the can’t do. More positive and definitive. I have yet to encounter one on the trail. There is a speedometer that must feed back to the brain to stop power at 20mph.
Tom A. my good friend from Hood River has been riding one for about 5 years. He bought the rear hub (houses the motor, the battery, the controls (4 different levels of effort), and the electronics from a Canadian company that manufactures the system, and put it on a Santa Cruz Heckler. Works well, but you really get a workout riding with him. It’s a no win race until his battery is depleted. On downhills, the motor in the rear hub generates electricity to charge the battery. He liked the first one so well that he bought another complete bike in Hawaii (Maui), where he lives in the winter, and uses it as his basic transportation. I agree, this is a motorized bike and should be banned from nonmotorized trails. He has been able to poach trails only because nobody knew what they were when he started riding his 5 years ago.