Another night in the trailer park w/in earshot of N fork of Willamette river. Scott and Jen slept in his trailer a few feet away. Yes, I take a shower after every ride the big bonus. Plus I am not far away from Brewer’s Union. Plus I have a sure camp spot. Don’t plan on making any life style changes however.

I checked weather records for Oakridge humidity, amazing: ranges from 83% to 25% over the course of 24 hrs. This AM dew wetted everything.

Today i am to meet @ Bruce’s house for our ride up to Little Bunchgrass. He lined up a friend to ride along then drive Bruce’s car back to bottom TH. Rode in a Honda Element like I sold b4 leaving. Climbed up mountain side on logging roads. Cascades are really rugged, what they might lack in size they make up for quantity. At our upper drop off point was just under snow melt line, however 200 yds and we were full on in left over corn snow patches. Shortly the trail dropped 900′ down the radically steep face w/ steep nasty switchbacks. Maybe a 10″ tread. It was all there: a slight over steer correction and down over the edge I would go. Good woods dirt for traction. Bruce nailed almost all the switchbacks while I slithered around most of them. Bruce skids his rear wheel on the inside of the turn & drags his uphill foot as an outrigger. Still it was more than I wanted to handle. This was the worst section but several others were not far behind. W/ a shuttle we dropped 4700′ and climbed 1,800. Some of the uphill gave way to hike a bike from exhaustion. Bruce has a worse breathing problem than me so that I get to ride first on the uphills and flats. I can stay close behind on the more predictable downhills. Ride time was just under 3 hours that took us 5 hrs to complete. I didn’t understand the ride b4 hard and didn’t completely prepare myself. Again, spinning wins.

Wait, I am listening to Willie’s place on XM.

Stopped @ Brewer’s union for a pint. Encountered a lubricated IN rider out for a week of riding. Maybe it is the 20 ozs of beer, 4 more than a pint.

Drove to trailer park for dinner and a shower.  Forecast is just sunshine and 83 dropping to 74 degrees. Beautiful.

And that was my day. A difficult ride and a warm shower to rinse it off.

Sat I drove back up Alpine road climb to closer in camp spot.

Sun AM meet again @ Red Bridge for more trail work. Today I paired w/ Scott, his goal was to learn what was open up high on Alpine trail. There is a high logging road density up here. We ran into a snow patch across road, too deep and long to force even a 4X4 thru. Scott walked over the patch and continued until he hit  the location of Aide station 3. Next was a drive to see if we could drive to station another road. Fortunately just ahead of us a bulldozer opened up the snow patches allowing us access. We hiked up trail from the terminus checking the trail. Shortly we encountered a massive snow patch that would be too hard for the racers to drag their bikes over. Then I got lost in the roads. We worked the next uppermost piece of trail. I carried a hazel hoe like I used to dig fire line back in ’70 when I spent 33 days fighting forest fires. Today I got to use the hoe to dig “line” thru the snow banks for a clear trail:

Long story short, we cleared the trees and several small snow patches and hiked back. Drive back to red Bridge took about 1 hour.

Tonight I stay in a trailer park guesting @ Scott’s site. Gentle introduction to Trailer Trash. It  does have a clean shower room that I am enjoying. Caught a quick shower then dashed to Brewer’s Union for dinner and hoping to meet Frankie. The pub’s chef watched me pull and insisted on a van tour. I showed him and asked to be fed. Bike people in the place: Jason and wife Anna, Derrick, bartender Ben and other riders. Randy, owner of Mountain Bike Oregon (MBO),  was there. I heard MBO which is a 3 day catered shuttled ride extravaganza here in Oakridge. I introduced myself and learned that the guy was Randy. I asked if i could do some trade work to participate in MBO. He said everybody knows about me and that it would be cool if i attended MBO as a guest. Cool. I still volunteered for trade work. MBO is week after Cream Puff. Got it going.

Late night socializing, no Frankie. Drove to trailer park. All was quiet. I drank a Rock Star on way down mtn and it kept me awake. No caffeine after noon. Quiet night, no fights or sounds of violence.

Today was my shuttle ride reward for 2 days of trail work. Randy drove us up mtn where we rode up the road further to Kate’s cut in where Scott and I turned around yesterday. Became acquainted to Bruce, an older rider that is very knowledgeable on local and far flung trails. He offered me a shuttle ride for tomorrow on Little Bunchgrass, another big dropper.

Alpine is a first rate trail especially enhanced by the big old growth trees. Even w/ the shuttle I climbed 1812′ but dropped 4971′. Rode it the best ever/ Great bike, tuned suspension, and seat dropper. My ghetto tubeless tires were inflated to 25 psi but they sounded flat in the woods dirt. A genuine gotta ride trail.

Back @ trailer park for a shower then a jaunt into Oakridge for whatever. I fixed dinner and typed this in a grocery store parking lot.

Spent Fri taking care of things in Bend for my outpost in Oakridge. Clean clothes, bled brakes, some groceries, & diesel. Paying $4.19 per gal in Bend. South @ LaPine it was $3.99.

Drove south then west over McKenzie Pass to the wet side of the Cascades, a temperate rain forest. First time in the wet since perhaps 2 years ago. What a sight. Trees are tall and plentiful. Bush bashing doesn’t really happen.

Stopped @ Mercantile store in Oakridge. Remet Eugene, Joe.

Stopped @ Brewer’s Union brew pub uptown. All beers are cask condition. Enjoyed an Imperial pint.

Drove back road to Westfir then upriver to Alpine road climb. Found place I stayed b4, decided to drive further uphill looking for a better spot. Drove another 4 miles to next intersection for a camp spot. Pleasant temp slept w/ side door open w/ netting across doorway.

Today is scheduled trail work on Alpine trail preparing it for the Cream Puff. At Red Bridge park named for a red covered bridge. 2 years ago a new pump track was on site. I learned that a cantankerous local took exception to the track and seeded it w/ grasses etc causing the track to disappear under high grasses. There was an IMBA labeled truck in the parking lot unloading trail building equipment. I asked 1 guy what was up. He said that we met back in Augusta @ IMBA world. He is part of IMBA trail solutions, the group that lasys out trails. He knows Bill and Liz from FATS. Bill should you read this, Jason did a great impression of Liz. So much fun.

Scott, the Cream Puff promoter arrived sporting some facial hair.  decisions were made that assigned people to jobs and trail location. I rode up w/ Bob and Max, each past Cream Puff racers. We drove to where I camped then further down the side road to where Alpine crossed that road. We walked up to lop brush interfering w/ the trail. I did not have a pro lopper but I made do and cut a few conifers. Ah, a killer again.

Finished our assignment then drove back down to Red Bridge. We saw less than 12 riders on the trail.

Hung out watching Jason and another guy w/ a Ditch witch moving dirt. To my untrained eye I perceived 2 guys on small dirt moving machines moving dirt to no end to a track. They claimed they were keeping current to the evolving design. I learned that Oakridge is an IMBA Ride Center.

Yesterday I learned that Catrina is working @ the Mercantile and I have so looked forward to seeing her again. She was there. Ah, Catrina.

I am back in Oakridge for internet. Going down the street for beer and light dinner @ the Brewer’s Union then back up into woods for the night. Tomorrow is some other trail work.

I am looking forward to riding the Alpine trail. It is damp, shaded, and mostly downhill. No dust. No visitas in these woods.

Learned more tips on dripping enough blood to satisfy the machine’s requirements; Bled like proverbial stuck pig. INR is 2.5, the highest it has been.

My first exposure to west coast mtns, Oregon specifically, was in the Umpqua on the wet side. back in familiar mtns.

As I walked the Alpine trail I noted steep side hills the trail was cut into that were not observed while riding fast downhill. I saw long steep drops obscured by trees. Narrow single track dug into hillside. A good unintended bounce and a rider could be in for a long drop.