Tonight I am camped at my usual spot out past Phil’s in Bend, OR. I spent last night just east of McKenzie Pass in ponderosa and lodgepole pines and manzanita for bushes, no salal or big tall hemlocks & doug fir. I tracked dust onto my carpet instead of wet hemlock needles. I spent 19 days and rode for 11 on the wet side. If you put the likes of Moab and Kingdom trails on your ride list, I suggest you put the likes of Oakridge on it also. If you have never been in a temperate rain forest of the west Cascades, ya gotta go. The shear green mass, the darkness under the canopy. Poison oak and blackberries.

So, no landing aircraft on the McKenzie airport. I am to meet the bike shuttle @ 8:45 @ the end of the trail. Clear cool day, the humidity made it feel colder. Met the shuttle w/ other riders. 2 did MBO & 2 rookies getting a bike operation lesson. $25 ticket to the top saving 20 plus miles of road riding.

Dropped off @ top, this time I rode on the west side of Clear lake sparing myself of the jagged basalt I experienced for the full trail experience when Chris and I rode it back in ’08. Upper part is mixed basalt tech features mixed in w/ regular forest riding. I rode more features than last time as my skill level has improved and I have more self confidence. Weekday ride meant just a few vacationers to share the trail, well better than a weekend.

I parked right off the highway feeling apprehensive of the exposure. I found several scattered pieces of window glass. Radar was warming up. I returned to a non violated home.

Trail crosses Belnap Resort, home to a hot springs pool and shower. Bought the $7.00 1 hr soak and made 10 mins b4 I showered and left. Chlorine treated h2o.

I found a road I have never driven on per my atlas where I have kept track of all the roads I have driven on  that I can remember. Rt 242 over McKenzie Pass in the lava fields. Tight, narrow, twisty good pavement road. Climbing into  the clouds, cresting @ the pass where the tree cover changed to lodgepole. Same elevation as aide station 3 on Alpine that was covered in maybe 100′ hemlocks.

I found a spot back off a logging road just above Sisters. I pulled up thistle weeds suspect from non weed free horse hay.

Chilly night. Today is a loop ride on Petersen ridge juts out of Sisters. Today will be my first non shuttle, earn your downhill ride since b4 Oakridge. Riding here is thru open forest w/ some basalt features mixed in. I raised my saddle about 1/4 to gain more spin leg power. Felt good to wind up a spin on mostly smooth trails.

Great views of the 3 Sisters.

Did wash in Sisters. The town has a maybe old western decor. No blocky stores.

Stopped @ Tumalo SP for a $2. shower. Place is packed w/ “campers”.

Drove to east Bend to Whole Foods for special foods and B&N for new copy of Bike mag. Whole Foods grocery, so much good food choices.

Visited Bend cycles to tell Eric I rode Hardesty.

Stopped @ 10 Barrels for a brew pub beer and tavern food for dinner, beer was great and sandwich was a pleasant surprise.

Read Bike mag. Since editor change the mag has leaned more towards the decline riders rendering me so over this mag. I liked it when Lou was editor and the focus was more on the pedal ride.

Tomorrow starts my 3 day Better Ride clinic where I will learn proven skills while unlearning what i have previously mastered which includes bad habits.

Another milestone to go along w/ 3 years of being on the road is I recently broke the 10,000 miles ridden threshold.

 

I volunteered to help Derrick build the legal Kate’s cut in onto Alpine on Thurs. Early get up, first up was to do wash @ trailer park. Derrick is to pick me up @ 9:30. I needed to clean clothes to get thru Mountain Bike Oregon (MBO) 3 day weekend.

Derrick arrived as I was putting finishes house cleaning. He drove up to place where we were going to build the legal Kate’s Cut-in onto Alpine trail from the road. A person, Kate gets credit for it rode in a short climbing trail from rd 1912 to the Alpine trail. A social trail known by riders but apparently not the USFS. A request was submitted to the FS and finally approved on Tuesday. The FS flagged the trail, Derrick ‘s & my effort was to make the proposed line into ma bike trail. So cool that we worked right from the road, our tools hit the dirt right away. Derrick chain sawed the trail then I roughed in the line w/ a McCloud, then we finished it w/ some kind of cool hoe. Came out sustainable. Derrick did a masterful job w/ some grade dips. Over 4 hours of solid work. The trail now has a climbing switchback and climbing traverse for a mountain bike friendly and sustainable trail.

Sweat and mosquito bites. Back @ trailer park for needed shower.

Tonight is MBO opening out @ Greenwaters park. MBO turns it into a massive adult tent camping gathering. Feed for 3 squares, ground underneath your tent and all the free beer and wine from local producers in a beer garden. Registration me as a guest. Paula, Randy’s wife, is the holder of a helpers’ chore list, she gave me a Sat eve clean up task. I mixed up w/ people I didn’t know. Back to trailer park for sleep.

Fri AM I signed up for a 8:30 ride departure named Lardesty which was a shuttle up to Lara… (something), ride down then get picked up by school bus to  shuttle us up to ride down Hardesty creek. Climbed onto a  full size school bus, 2 adults per seat, a settled into a monster climb up mountain. Getting ready to start out, maybe 60 riders(?):

Trails over here opposite of Alpine are more technically challenging. Not ridden as much as Alpine so trails are not wide and brushed. Big group ride, many riders pushed their chops for fast riding, way faster than I am willing to go. 1,000′ climb up to TH logging road climb. I huff & puffed my way up. Riders sorted themselves out by ability and aerobics. This is a potentially fast descent if you stayed off the brakes but the trail was very narrow bench cut littered w/ roots and odd faced rocks, neither could be hit square on and there existed the slippery element. Steepness. Riding on a sharp edge.

Back down to pick up spot for a lunch break then  load back onto the bus for the afternoon shuttle ride. Our bikes were loaded into a large Uhaul box truck. Another climb from the bus to the TH then more climbing on ST b4 the trail dropped down. Again another hand full of a trail. I chose to walk most of the switchbacks.

What 2 grand downhill rides. Climbed 2685′ and dropped 7542′ Yeah for shuttles.

Bus ride back to park. Drank beer in the garden then joined a huge line for food. Beef tacos left me out. Visited w/ strangers. Evening chore was to help clean up after dinner. My job was rinsing pots, pans, and recyclable containers. I worked for solid 80 minutes; I won praise from Paula. At the end my fingers were shrunken from the hot h2o.

Back to trailer part for shower & bed. Forecast was for rain over night so I covered my bikes. Unfortunately rain fell boding a wet riding and hanging out day. Warm night.

Sat ride is Larison creek that left @ reasonable 10:30. Rain was not falling at the park.

Time out: 11:00 Sat night after another challenging ride, dinner and beer and wine, I am bed bound. Will get back here later to continue.

Back at it after Sunday ride down Middle fork. Today’s forecast was for 30% showers, statistics and fact favored us for a dry ride.

Sat ride was Larison creek. A light rain was falling @ Westfir when i woke up. Ride departure time was 10:30, a sleep in, however i pondered the rain falling: did i or did I want to ride in the wet? Sac up man. I drove to the park and out of the rain…. for a little while. 14 people and 13 bikes shuttled up into the clouds then rain. The shuttle took us higher than the TH so we could coast in which saved us a chunk of climbing. Better deal except speeding downhill in rain on a cold body. Then we dropped in on the very challenging ST. In places the tread was dry protected above by the tree canopy, most other places were rain wetted slickening the rocks and roots. Quite a few dicey spots on the slick w/ consequences, I walked a bunch of spots. A young woman guide riding a hard tail blew by me, later I was right behind her to see her downhill in the salal and he bike further down. She still does not know what she hit to knock her a kilter. Tricky stuff. Mostly woods dirt composed mostly of hemlock needles covered my bike. I rode bare legged letting the wet leaves along the trail continuously damp mop my legs. Down low rode thru ubiquitous poison oak. Trail picked up Larison cove flattening out then dropping onto pavement for ride back to park…. in the rain. Wet rainy slippery technical ride.

Pedaled back to van. I needed to wash my bike so I drove to Merchantile to use their outside hose. Had fun hanging. McKenzie, the owner was there, we renewed our acquaintances. 4 road bike tourers arrived, one had a broken pedal and the others hung under the porch out of the rain. They are part way thru a 5 week tour ending in Enterprise, OR. Washed bike. I hung out waiting for a big enough sucker hole to cross hwy 58 to my van.

Drove back to business park where we all parked. Not raining but still threatening. I decided to leave my bike clothes on because they were my only hang out side in the wet clothes as cotton would be saturated. Coasted downhill to the park. Hit the beer garden for a 12er and wait for dinner. Made the early full fare dinner line this time. Along the way I visited w/ strangers.

Evening excitement was big people racing in a circle on teenie kids bikes. The tread was rain slickened lawn grass. Funny wipe outs. Catrina won the women’s category.

I saw this bearded guy and heard him called Fuzzy. I remembered him as a rider who inspires from MBA several years ago. His gig was he and his wife and young child traveled the US in a Sprinter van going to races. I introduced myself saying we were riders who inspire. He has put down.

Met Lev from COG wild, he remembers me.

I pedaled back up hill in the I can just make you out light to the van. I decided to sleep in the parking lot.

This AM was overcast w/ low clouds. Could be a wet ride day again. Word from yesterday that the Middle Fork was dry. Last night I did not sign up in time leaving me w/o a real ride plan other that show up @ departure time and hope for cancellations. Score, a bunch canceled making room for me on the school bus up river. No rain fell.

Other rides were canceled because of wet tread freeing up many guides. On this ride there were almost as many guides as clients. Trail was almost all dry. A river trail rolling up and down ridges. So many riders. At the beginning we were all bunched up, gradually riders found their pace and spread out. i chose to be slow enough to be back but just fast enough not to hold anyone up and played on the trail enjoying the twists and turns and roots and rocks albeit much tamer today. Stayed short sleeve warm and dry.

Imagine 48 ride affected riders in a school bus. The bus was a muddy mess from ferrying muddy riders home yesterday. I jumped at a chance to take one for the team and accept a cab ride in the U-haul.

Back @ the park tent city was being struck. Viewed 2 riders and 3 bikes covered in mud. They rode Alpine in a muddy mess.  Feel ownership of the trails and do not support damaging them. My bike was in the I could wash it but it is clean enough to ride on tomorrow.

No shower. Washed myself w/ a little real soap. Rode thru a lot of poison ivy. What will tomorrow bring?

Today Andrew is to call me for camp and ride details for tomorrow’s ride. Forecast even on the dry side is calling for showers and rain. I am wondering if he will bail. Plan is to hang with them tonight and ride the middle fork again tomorrow.

Next stop is McKenzie river trail on Tues then on to Bend for Better ride clinic.

3:30 in town and it is raining.