I read NOAA forecast several times a day as weather changes, my thought is to be prepared to a ball park estimate forecast and prepare for what it is to bring, like a rain jacket sets me up. Interesting study of forecast data and what happened. Forecast had been calling for 30% probability or rain and maybe thundershower after 11. I added that rain coat and pedaled on Catch and Release winding thru a recent thinning harvest to beginning of Stormking which worked its way to Grand Slam down to Ticket to Ride S side swooping down the gully from banked side to the other. Ticket is a greener but way fun and challenging as the faster you ride the closer the turns become. I coast as much as I can because I can avoid work by harnessing gravity. Dirt is mostly packed pumice seems like that. Trails have many squiggly turn sections where it’s like a lead swap on a horse. Not all berms are firm, the ones mostly likely to cause a fall are the blown out soft and flat. Need to approach each carving turn with flexibility, the direction change is determined by the characteristic of a berm. Side knobs on tires give carving grip when I really carve. I will be replacing the rear tire with same as I have worn the lugs down to even with the reliefs in the knob. Tires here will last a long time as long as I am skilled when riding thru basalt rock gardens.

Moving to a new paragraph.

So, puddle filler. Back to forecast. I played the forecast and pedaled away. Big sucker hole inspired me. Oh well, how bad could it be? A dry torso and wet below would be acceptable under these conditions. Weather brought rain clouds over but didn’t drop. I finished my ride. Several hours later I was in town when nature wet on forecast probability. Gully washers, water tracks down the streets, brake soaking deep. Almost need posted sign do not entrer when flooded. As I drove out to Phils maybe 20 riders were hard at getting home while being drenched. I did see riders with rain gear on. So, take away: 30% is not to be treated lightly.

Before getting out of bed time a shower fell, big splatters. Short duration then smiling sucker hole. Convinced me. Last night I stayed off rd 41 by the quarry where Catch and Release closely goes by. I watched riders pedaling or coasting stirring up plumes of dust from each wheel. As long as you were first the dust is a non issue. The short shower put a smile on my face in anticipation of hero dirt: firm dust. I still suspected many berms.

On Catch and Release, which parallels busy paved FS rd 41, this was freshly dug. Humans must be cool to the denizen. Randy one time said that it might be a badger, sure wasn’t Peter rabbit. I did encounter a badger up on Tylers, we were on head on collision before it split, maybe 30′ apart. So, badgers are around. But dug right on the well used bike trail.

I stopped at a Ponderosa pine tree beside the trail. Maybe 30″ across. Dead branches were still attached. Good. What I observed were beetle larva chewed galleries exposed after the bark fell off. My thesis is the larva and its aduly have existed. The beetles lay her eggs in young branches, the eggs hatch to hungry larva that feed on the tree cambium until metamorphis to adult. Trees seem to prune their lower branches, like conifers, by shading out the sun thus preventing photosynthesis. I add the beettle feeding damage.

Tomorrow will be still be dust free.

My freshly washed riding clothes hung on the drying cord inside the van take like 2 days to dry,amazing desert times were same day. Ah, my skin is better nourished.

Again, trails here are mostly about pedaling and carving turns. Then there is Mrazek and Farwell yet to be ridden this year. That in the past made for a 33 mile ride. I have been teasing myself with riding it, working on conditioning away so long from recovery beer. It isn’t I really like beer, it’s just that avoiding expenditure of energy needs a reward. I need 2 hands in contact with my bike, preventing drinking while pedaling which is a moving violation on your driving record.

From the other side of the Cascades come fresh local strawberries. Rain washed out the pollen.Tomorrow’s forecast calls for 20 to 50% chance of rain getting increasing in afternoon. Pedal S Fork look from Skyliner? 9 AM start time would finish before greater chance of occurring, yeah, pack my rain jacket and remember to dry rotors off if wet before needing them.

Writer note: I write the post then sort of proof read it via spell check, context is brushed over or mostly accepted. I usually do not read what I wrote. Short term memory trick: write it down and know where to find it saves trying to recall from memory. Well, sort of, I chose what to share and from my perspective.

Dinner was mashed Yukon gold potato dish with real cream, lots of butter, dill, vinegar, salt, peas, and crumbled smoked wild salmon. 1 pot gourmet, again, the mess I make I clean up, but no post clean up beer reward.

cookie is really coming on. Over and out.

As in noun. June 7, 41 degrees this morning. Chillin strikes me as something you do to consume time when you are comfortable more or less. Today I wore a short sleeve wool long underwear top under my mid weight long sleeve wool jersey and knee warmers. Started with wind shell. Wore shield coverage glasses to block the cold air on my eyes which tear up. Ride started uphill and in a short while I was comfortable pedaling not chillin.

I made yesterday a rest day after having ridden 6 of 7 days, Chilly enough to move to wind shell puffy from normal light weight wool shirt. I hiked for 2 hours on Phils trails. Most riders were accommodating me hiking. What really fries my body fat are the riders who literally sneak up on me, they never announce their presence. When I hear them I almost jump out of my skin. I even wore my gloves. Windy.

Today I needed water. I know that there is a well spigot up at Skyliner lodge, I needed to learn if it was open. Well water here is just enjoyable. Drove up Skyliner road to lodge, checked the parking lot, open, spigot was not locked. Score. Filled sink tank and 2 gallon drinking jug. Returned to Skyliner TH which was almost full.

Ride today was starting down low and climbing from the get go. Pedal up Tumalo Ridge grinder then out onto former haul road where previous ride I knocked 50 seconds off. Today I chose not to record or put in the effort. At the shelter almost all of the elevation gain was complete. I did shift to 42T gear, resisted the 46T granny. Swede ridge escapes the shuttle riders. Never been logged.

Viewshed.

Pedaled on W side of Swampy Lake to junction of South Fork which is what I pedaled this distance for. 3.07 miles dropping 912 feet taking non stop 16 mins. Tree cover is like above. 15 mins was just about right, very grateful for purchases of the RUNT and PUSH Eleven6 shock. Not that the ride was baby butt smooth, it was manageable. The shield glasses kept my eyes dry to focus on what was approaching at a very fast speed. Some of it is so fast my eyes are unable to fully focus. Finished off on little brake on Tumalo Creek trail where my new speed record is 26 mph.

Riding the loop this way saves the long uphill drive. The downhill reward is the carrot for effort of 4.75 miles gaining 1027′, more than Sedona 100′ / mile . Driving up and starting at the top gets after the fun almost right away but only the faint calling the cold beer in the fridge motivates this climb.

Drove back to town to complete several tasks. Stopped at shipping place to print septic maintenance agreements which need to be presented to county at time of septic permit request. Short drive to Safeway for Clif bars. Parking lot required cruising to find and empty spot. Next was drive to Bend Battery to learn performance of my electrical system which I perceive as not holding up its end. This shop installed the camper batteries like 2 years ago. Battery check revealed performance now is better than when new because that’s the way the agm batteries behave. Nothing defective in my system and the diminished performance is a function of seasonal poor solar gain. Didn’t need to spend $.

Back out past Phils different spot. Forecast is still chilly and possible rain.

Harsh on dumbing down features. Going around a feature allows a rider to build up future ability to ride the feature that the go around was built for. Altering the feature to make it rideable is in bad taste, if you can’t ride it, walk it.

Example of a new go around on Storm King at the Funner / Tiddlywinks junction.

At another place on Storm King a go around was built to get around a climbing rock garden which is over embedded boulders which prevents alteration. Someone took it upon themselves to vigorously rehab the go around.

Anyway.

Today and yesterday I rode big rides here at Phils. Observation so far is the trail love is stellar. Sharing the trail, yielding to uphill riders, greetings, many are sporting gray hair and facial hair (men). Many solo women. Trail heads are packed with rigs that brought the riders and bikes but the trails have been mostly empty as I choose not popular trails. Today, Saturday, has been the most crowded.

The weather here turned unsettled in that precip events, lower temps and wind. I check weather forecast on my phone to plan the next day’s events. Sometimes the forecast changes sightly in the morning from the night before. Take today, last night forecast had 60% rain maybe t storm after 11. Window would have been to get after it and finish shortly before 11. Except it was 40 degrees in the sun at 8. Clouds were portending dark and stiff breeze from the west. OK, I can do this, I’ll pack my rain jacket and wear my wind shell. I could build a route that would allow shorter loops. I headed out on my planned route savoring the wind shell until I warmed up. As my ride went along shortly after noon I believe I started feeling water droplets on my bare legs. It never really got after it. Broken cloud cover with blue patches, like how serious is this going to be? I would pedal in and out of those faint splatters. At the top of Storm King I talked with 2 recent college grads allowing time to pass. On the way down Phils on the way home clouds must have turned water dropping as my focus was only on the trail tunnel plus riding under tree cover can’t view much of the sky. Thinking that I should not have spent the time visiting as I might get wet before gaining van security. Sprinkles were like clearing nature’s throat, made van, put bike on rack and covered it as short shower dumped. AH, safety, made it. So far no thundershowers and still early to see is snow forecasted will fall.

The 2 young riders. They are from the Front Range in CO, they went to college in Durango, 1 was on school mtn bike race team. I asked if he knew of the twins from Cable, WI, yes the racer said. The twins are daughters of Mic and Beth in Cable that own Rivers Eatery where I have visited every trip. He found it another example of how small our tribe is. I regaled them with selected tales. They spend off and I poked after them.

Today I rode in the different direction of favored routes. Big challenge will be riding entire Storm King uphill. For the most part the trails are rider friendly but elevation gain is work. Storm King trail was 8.27 miles gaining 1273′ took me 1 hr 17 mins to ride. Total ride was 23.7 miles gaining 2106′ in 3 hrs of mostly non stop pedaling. I inhaled 9 hits off my vaporizer at the beginning of Storm King which helped the effort. Riding with a buzz has become my norm.

Thursday I spent at La Pine. First off was laundry in town. Took on propane. Lunch was take out at Subway where guiding foot steps were placed on the floor to follow to start of sandwich build line. However, there were no foot steps to follow to the exit. get you in but don’t help you get out. Foot prints were not required but I kidded them. She said she ran out.

On my land almost all of the small lodgepole regrowth are infested with a fungus. The fungus spreads to other trees and prolly kills the tree down the road. I have been cutting down those trees and piling them in a pile.

Dinner break. Steaming small filet of never frozen king salmon,$15 for 1/3 #. Steamed with diced sweet potato and broccoli. Munched on a honeycrisp apple, 2 beers along the evening.

It’s 8:30 it is 42 degrees, it’s June 6. Weather station for Bend is at 3455′, La Pine is at 4450′, my property is at 4249′, at present I am at 3860′.

On May 20 I started the drive-ride-camp-whatever. Driving has been long distance at little stop and go. Van miles per gallon is running 26+ mpg, last tank was 29mpg.

Visitor center on bachelor highway is closed, the FS even turned off the water.