Mountain Biking

Again.

Thursday I rode what  was to be my last Bend ride. Climb up Tumalo Ridge. Today I chose to ride down Sector 16 which becomes Upper Whoops then up and down Skyliners back to Skyliners Lodge. ran into Jimmi on Whoops so we visited to catch up. 13 miles climbing 1312′ pedaling for 1 hr 47 mins. Garmin has calculated my max heart rate as 161, as a result I spend less time anaerobic which moved most of its time to in range. Pretty stout heart workout.

Did laundry at west side. New owner Doug happened to be there. Visited. New flooring and machines. Pretty spiffy.

I completed all my things to do while in Bend. I am able to leave. I left before air went unhealthy. I headed north to the rd 44 trails right near MT Hood, on the east side. Working my way north. Hot afternoon drive. FS rd 44 leaves highway 35 then climbs 5 miles up to Surveyors ridge TH. I continue past out to a wide open spot in full view of MT Hood. But full on exposed under blistering sun and upper 80s. OK for one night.

MT Hood. east side

Just haze as air was upper green

Friday, the 13th, I rode around upper Surveyors and down to Knebal springs from park site. back under deep tall tree cover. No rain here either allowing usually woods dirt tread to be dried out with patches of dust. New trails added to me. Surveyors has new single track that takes it off the old buried aqueduct. Nice. Woods trail riding, what I learned to ride on, which to me, is what mountain biking is all about. Hence my description as mountain biking. Riding Phils trails is sport riding, what mountain biking morphed to.

Lower Cooks

Deep tree cover. Height cranes one’s neck to see into the canopy. Other pieces have plant growth at trail edges but out slope was cleared of foot smacks.

86 degrees at ride finish at wide open spot. Earlier in my ride I spied a spot that was partially shaded, Better than this spot so I hustled down to occupy it. I needed all 10 of my new leveling blocks to level. I jockeyed several times for fit. I turned off the engine as I was done. But I checked the wheel alignment on blocks to see if I moved about 3″ forward I would be better. I turned the ignition key which sent a click sound. WTF? I recycled the key which brought the engine to life. I am totally freaking as the van has a sordid past of not starting and I am way back out there with no cell. I shut the engine down with a scant piece of mind that because it started once after the click it would start again. But I did not want to chance it not starting. Sat I set out to ride while fretting if the van will start. I was so stressed out with the only stress release was to start the van. I was all but shaking when I turned the key. VROOM… it started. My heart rate dropped. No need to test it again. I took of on my ride.

Sat’s ride was the big climb up Cook’s Meadow to High Prairie. I know that it is a brunt of a climb. One of those rides bigger than my mind wanted to force my body to do. I needed to find out if both brain and body would perform as a team. This bike is something special as I was able to climb all but 1 short very steep climb. The traction, grip, is much better. I also have been exercising my glutes which brought more power into my uphill pedals. At High Prairie a recently rehabed FS road traverser then dropped to the junction of Lookout mtn descent. Deep woods riding, twisty. Bike, body, brain, working together. Big ride big success enough to repeat it. 16.5 miles climbing 2192′ pedaling for 2 hr 40 mins.

Today I needed to resupply. RD 44 drop;s 5 miles down to hwy 35 then 29 miles to Hood River. Start elevation was 4200, river is like 500′. Took on 4.2 gals of propane and 5 gals of sink water at station, Grocery store trash emptied. Bought groceries at Rosauers, Spokane hometown chain.

Stopped at Dirty Fingers bike shop. I opened the door and when no sooner than my head crossed the threshold Mitchell, the owner, was behind the bar working on a bike looked up and made instantaneous recognition. Among other things I told him I am still wearing his shop’s jersey he gave me years ago. He will be soon relocating to a spot on the main drag. Tough year he has had like many bike shops. He could buy nothing to sell, Chain, no chain. I am hording a new on, necessary as the present chain already has 200 miles on it.

temps are still in 90s. I’m parked on the side of the road outside Parkdale, OR as I found  strong internet. In a moment I will be driving back up to rd 44 for 2 more days of riding, then driving back down to river and learn of riding across the river. Bend’s air is bad and Spokane’s is even worse.

 

respooling

Last posting was on the 4th, 5 days ago. I can let 24 hours per day slip through my fingers so fast so to speak. Another impediment to blogging is slow or non existent internet access. Last Sat I drove up to Swampy snowpark, 2,000′ above town to spend the next 2 nights there. Very slow speed such that my patience is beyond tried, I just don’t attempt. I would walk up the Ridge Loop trail to a high point where I get a strong 3 bar signal on my phone for reading internet stuff, no desire to pack laptop up there. Then I was rereading Anxious People which was an avoidance of dealing with my own life. Joy of that location is that it is a bit cooler, maybe the air has less smoke in it to breathe, and I can ride from my van.

Van has new tires on the front wheels. The back door needs to open to access bolts holding the spare tire to the underside of the van. At first blush it seemed the doors would have to be opened fully which meant removing the JOBOX for the doors to swing free. Tire shop budgeted 2 hours for me to remove the box then for them to remove the spare. The spare had never been used in the 14 years of van life and it had a true rim that was needed to replace a bent rim. Wow, I opened the back doors which cleared the bolts eliminating the need to remove the box. Success. The shop only needed the normal 1 hour tire change time and I did not have to assess the stuff stored in the box. I still feel the smooth pavement, perhaps the tires will never fully balance out. Replaced tires wore normally w/o indication of alignment or suspension problems.

I like riding the trails up at Swampy as fewer riders to share. They are more rugged per Bend’s lower trails or not shuttled. I have been riding the same loop as what I took Steve on. It’s 13.5 miles climbing 1575′ with pedal time of 1 hr 43 mins. Climb up Ridge turn onto Vista trail climbing more to Flagline tie connecting to lower Flag, descend to Swampy, go around to east side of nonexistent lake to Swede ridge, many woods dirt downhills. Arrive at Swede shelter, return via SST to Swampy then continue to Ridge tie for a grunt climb back up to Ridge back to van. Bike is so much fun to ride. Unfortunately my sleep spot is full on heat of the day sun exposure and traffic noise carries over. I rode that same loop Sat and Sun with almost identical efforts.

Today COTA scheduled a trail love party on lower Flagline meeting right at my house. Maybe 10 volunteers participated. Tools had been cached at work location. We pedaled our bikes the 3 miles to where we would start. I worked on making and or cleaning drains on the tread to lead water to where it would no longer run on the trail. There were several locations needing extensive rock work that others attended to.

Lower Flag rock work

Upper and Middle Flagline open on August 15, this Sunday. Our work will really get hammered by the opening day shuttle crowd. The trail goes thru elk calving cover, the closure allows elk to be undisturbed.

As I pedaled back to my van a rider approached. He said that my van door was open. Shit, I did not shut it. Arriving at the van I checked for different foot prints in the dirt and seeing none I relaxed.

After tomorrow all of my Bend repair items will be completed so I can leave to go back on the road. Forest fires and air quality will be major deciding factors on where I go.

Freehub and 10 Barrel film about me is moving along with a yet to be determined release date.

31 degrees this morning at Swampy. I let the furnace add warmth. Outside the van I stood in the sunshine for heat. It’s a love hate thing as during full on sun it is too warm yet early morning it is too cold until it becomes too hot. Repeat. later this week are upper 90s forecast.

view from Tumalo ridge, Bachelor and Tumalo.

Thursday’s ride of S Fork was smoky as per above.

Blood red sunset

Today I drove from my property N of La Pine and south of Bend to Bend. I spent last night soaking up neighborhood vibes. Realized that just because I am 4 doors from access to Deschutes NF it comes with a noise downside as the dirt road I am on continues on to the USFS ( public) land, noisy speeders from wherever streaking down the road into and out of the forest. It’s theirs like mine, their fun effects my solitude. No security night lights. Neighbor to the east seems to be nonexistent and the family to the west I am still figuring out. I own an acre of land, flat, pumice dirt, sparse P pine and lodgepole pine tree cover, some bitterbrush. Over the years I have pulled up any knapweed plant  growing on my side of the road, no regrowth or emergence of new growth. My land is free of the invasive weed. I now own an architectural house plan. I outlined the 30X30 house perimeter with white PVC pipe, actual house is smaller.  I have it orientated about 40 degrees off true north and at an angle to houses on each side. I park inside that perimeter. Last night I oriented the house model with the chosen location and walked thru the house visualizing sunshine and privacy. I am locating it just outside the drip zone of the largest P pine.  The land is completely fenced except for the entrance which is a cable stretched across the now driven in opening. I zip tied a No Trespassing sign on the cable. Squirrels have been harvesting the P pine nuts as seen by numerous shed piles. Almost all of the lodgepole regrowths have blight, over several years I have cut down almost all of them and piled them up. No quiet night every time I have lived there. I am making window screen netting from plastic netting, metallic washers, and magnets. Sandwich from door out: magnets, contact cement, netting, washer. Full coverage.

Still very warm here in Bend, 81 degrees at 8:52 PM. AQI went to hazardous, forecast wants clear skies soon. I access 2 web sites for forest fires and another for AQI. Damn, there are many fires out here west which created the blood red sunset. So far just the smell of smoke, not the smell of fire as smelled up at Waldo 2 days ago. Where I go to from here is dependent upon fires and air. Dunno.

So, I met Jimmi and his friend Ryan at Paulina lake where Trailforks showed we should. Ride today was the Newberry Crater rim. A 3.9 mile climbing 1599′ on FS gravel road to start of single track. Ryan was riding a borrowed old school full suspension 26 incher, triple chain ring. He said he hadn’t ridden for 4 years which even then that bike would have been antiquated. I rode his wheel on uphills, sometimes I would look at where his chain was on the cassette. Was not even close to my 1X11 cassette. He made it work.

Single track stayed away from the crater rim only offering infrequent viewsheds. Tree cover was dense lodgepole or hemlock. The trail was a mix of single tracks but most was almost like a jeep road cleared of stumps.

Paulina lake
Ryan and Jimmi on Newberry crater

Paulina Lake is formed from the collapsed volcano.

East lake

The trail was 16 miles from the access to the East lake shoreline. Descent in many places was screamer fast steep. Soft questionable berms. 19.5 miles climbing 2195′ pedaling for 2 hrs 38 mins. We stopped numerous times, average bpm was 114, no slouch ride.

Jimmi and Ryan had inflatable standups that they inflated then geared up for whatever it is that they do. I drove to my property for the night.

Today I had a new tire install appointment. I drove the van when my turn came into the service bay . Was told they need to open the rear door to get at the spare tire. The JOBOX will have to be removed which will be a project, today I had a DR appointment and could only give them an hour to do the tire changes. Rescheduled for Friday.

PA-C diagnosed stomach acid, take OTC antiacid. I started this afternoon and am much improved. Drew blood for knowledge of body chemistry.

Back out at Phils in my hoped for spot which was empty, no new tracks into it. Score. Again, I chose this spot for seclusion and inability for encroachment. Ground squirrels upon occasion crawl up onto van step, I stomp a foot to scare them back onto dirt.

Smokey skies but forecast of clear and cooler.