Swatting mosquitoes up at Swampy snowpark, staging for South fork of Tumalo creek tomorrow. 54 degrees at 5751′ at 8:50 PM. Darkness and lower temp should lessen the nuance.
Sat evening I headed back east spending the night up at Willamette pass, mosquitoes there. Furnace was made to work again, I fired it up the next morning. Started on first spark and ran as it should. Ran it again this AM with same satisfactory result.
Friday I rode Heckletooth from sleep spot at bottom of Dead Mtn. Lots of road riding for a piece of downhill singletrack, ah, that is what Oakridge is about. 9.6 miles climbing 1919′, 1.38 miles of singletrack to the summit then 4.96 miles dropping 1783′ of dirt to pavement then 3.52 road pedal back to van. Local Jim has done this ride over 200 times. Some steep pitches, worked my brakes which kept my speed under control and confidence.
Hung out at Brewers Union, drank a corn liquor drink at Deep Woods distillery, bought a fifth of their Cascadian Moon corn liquor.
Sat I drove over to Greenwaters park to ride Larrison Rock right above toen. Again, another grunt climb for just a few minutes of dirt single track. 6.39 miles climbing 1972′, took 1 hr 16 mins nonstop pedaling. reward was 3 miles screaming for 18 mins. Down.
I washed off accumulated mud off my bike using the tree sprayer. Evidence of use is revealed. Boy, my rims show many many places of abrasion.
I rode the 4 rides I wanted to do. Amazing 10,200′ of climbing, that plus about an extra 3,000′ descending. Rides in Oakridge are long gravel road climb for short piece of downhill dirt. I did what I wanted. I visited with people I knew. I just couldn’t connect myself to the local vibe.
Back into town. A beer at the pub and thinking. Bend is about 100 miles away, I could drive part way back, sleep at the pass then finish drive to Bend then get a ride. Lots of daylight. Drove out of town heading east and up. Spent the night at Gold lake snowpark just below the pass. Made Bend mid morning. I felt blah so I skipped the ride. I picked up groceries and water then drove out to Phils area just to hang out and rest. Cooler temp and less tree cover. Went from dense tree cover and effect of water to open forest in high desert.
Booked O’Leary Shuttle on the 26th to ride with Joe’s family. That’s the last week of June. Leaving time? No pull or push one way or the other. Where to next?
Mosquitoes are solving my loosely attached netting and feeding on me. Several smashed losers fell on the keyboard.
Kevin described what has happen to our mountain biking. What was once a lifestyle has become a sport. Great handling bikes and purpose built trails, downhill focused. Enduro riding: hip packs and stuff attached to the bike. Trails are in close proximity of help and cold beer.