The morning overcast was gone when I looked out @ 6:00. Moisture has left the area. Another brilliant blue sky day.

Today is to be a shuttle ride down Alpine to pull down course markings if any are left after the 2 riders who swapped their own hassle w/ their own shuttle for  pulling down markings on their ride down Alpine. And Scott wanted to check on trail conditions after the race, plus he wanted to finally ride, free from the race duties. Last night Scott planned on riding around 10:00. I drove to Jay’s house to wait. Time went by, several calls from Scott finally put his arrival much later. We hit the trail around 3:30. On the drive up we picked up just a few missed pieces of marking.

Amazing! We dropped onto trail @ Jedi section thru some big old growth and big regrowth. This is the part of the trail i remember from my ride several years ago. The trail was not marked like I rode it before the race. Now I gathered trail information and made my decisions instead of delegating to the course markings. Scott flew a bit faster than me. The volunteers did a great cleaning job and we could concentrate on our ride. Great trail.

I missed saying good bye to Jay. Good bye Jay. Said Good bye to Scott. He has made next year’s Cream Puff attractive for me to race it. This year I would have been the 2nd oldest racer. Seven days of helping on the race.

Stopped @ bike shop for great hug from Catrina. Ahh, yes.

I told Scott I was going to ride Waldo and he said mosquitoes will be too much.  OK, then it will be the Umpqua and its mosquitoes up high. I drove east on 58 and crossed Willamette Pass. I figured if I drove East far enough I would drop down below the hungry ones. I found a road off highway not far from rt 97 and private land. Not far enough East and I fed a few new generations.

I am out of clean riding jerseys and undershorts. Tomorrow I will drive a bit North to La Pine for groceries and clean clothes and then head back South to the NUT ( North Umpqua river Trail).

Sure enjoyed the great trails around Oakridge. My bike rides so sweetly. My ability is improved.

Today I rode the Jedi section plus the lower Alpine for 12.32 miles and dropped 3752′. Understand why brake pads wear down.

Interrupted XM reception where I parked but internet access.

Peaceful night & morning up off road 1910. Down to red Bridge in Westfir for 10:00 meet w/ Jay and a shuttle from Scott to ride down Winberry ridge to remove race markings. Jay & I started  down just after 12:00 and finished just after 6:00. Not many miles ridden but lots of flagging and the race paper markings carried between us. The trail in places was like riding on slippery snow: front wheel wanted a different direction than back one that was sliding around. Got to ride more of the Oakridge trails. These are old hiking trails that have been reopened by mtn bikers and some places renovated. Great big woods riding. Not very technical on tread but narrow trails w/ occasional exposure. Alpine is in top 5 trails of my all time favs.

Scott picked us up and drove us back to Oakridge. He treated us to dinner. I learned that he knows Dean & Jamey from Sedona and rode w/ them. Jay let me shower @ his house.

Going to ride w/ Scott tomorrow down Alpine, maybe even up to Jedi and I will ride it slower this time.

Today before taking off for our ride I checked the front brake pads. Getting worn down. Have a new pair waiting in Bend. These trails eat pads from the downhills, not from the grit on shallow hills of the east. I discovered that my fork travel was locked out meaning that I had about 2″ of firm travel vs the plush normal 5.5″. I wonder if my pel mel ride down Alpine was w/ reduced fork travel. Corrected the adjustment and flowed down what we could ride. We would get in short distances of riding to be stopped by our role of removing flagging , signs, & picking up litter. Poor ride quality. Saw more deep woods & new trail to me.

Its late in Ray’s parking lot. Fed cat another can of food after dark. No extension of friendship.

Bare skin of shirtless body is sunburned from yesterday.

It is Monday morning, things are drying out, and my head ache is dissipating. Quite an event this race and compliments to the promoter, Scott. Time moved on and chores occupied most of my days. Saturday started @ 7:00AM and finished @ 9:30PM. Just things to prepare for the race to support the racers. Racer count was limited to 200 plus a few.

Late Sat afternoon I did get a shuttle to top on Jedi part of Alpine trail along w/ 3 locals and a later pick up. The locals were younger and better riders than me I assumed. Young bucks dropping the hammer at the start of Jedi which swoops thru big old growth and regrowth, it is special deep forest. We stopped @ aide station 2 @ Windy Pass and help set up a tarp shelter and picked up last rider. As we started out I was sure that there were maybe 2 if not 1 rider ahead of me and I pedaled frantically thinking I was being dusted. I stopped to stretch @ 1 point and after awhile nobody caught up to me. What the hell. Only solution was to get back on my bike and pedal like heck to catch up w/ riders perhaps ahead of me. I flew. My right hand went to sleep which hampered the subtle rear braking. i switched to 2 fingers that gave more brute power but less control. The Turner really gets down the trail. At the bottom of trail there was no rider ahead of me. I needed to be ready to leave for my help @ aide station 3 by 7:00 and I needed a shower and dinner prior. I pedaled hard back to school. the dinner line was horrendous so i took a shower and rigged van for travel. And Ben, one of the riders, arrived and said there he is. I was first down and everybody was behind me and my hard pedaling just got me down first.

School parking lot was camper and mtn biker city.

Drove 35 miles to aide station back up in hills. Worked on setting up a few things by flashlight. Finally bed.

Up @ setting up @ 6:00AM. It started raining shortly on & off during race. Fortunately it was never very hard.

And the racers started arriving. This aide station saw the riders  2x. They were muddy, a bit of bloody bodies, bikes were a mess. We watered, fed, & cared for almost 400 racers. Second lap was even worse. Drive trains were gunked up from woods dirt which was was less than the mud Grace experienced in her GA race earlier this year. At least the bikes still pedaled. I brought my plant sprayer that I use to clean my bike out and washed off quite a few bikes. Cleaned many pedals also. The Eggbeaters were tops in cleanliness.

Late afternoon we tore the aide station apart, packed up and drove back to Westfir. Racers continued to cross finish line till just after dark w/ no lights. Riding down hill in rain darkened woods on slippery tread must have been a handful.

I looked @ the racer sign up and saw just 1 racer from Spokane, Tracy West. I didn’t place the name at that point. At the aide station this racer calls me by correctly pronounced full name and it was Tracy. i immediately recounted our history from back @ N Division bike shop from like ’91. We chatted again on his second stop. Wow.

Awards were scheduled @ 8:30 @ bridge and it started raining in earnest. No fun standing out in rain for a raffle. Got wet but scored a feedbag that was thrown to crowd. Drank 4 beers which is head ache cause today.

Spent almost entire day on my feet and I felt it. My back was stiff. My leg hamstring cramped in bed last night for the first time in a long time.

Today I am at the school to help clean up. I am sort of hoping for a ride shuttle to ride down the trails pulling out the signage but I would sure hope it could be down on drier trails. No plans. If Bend got rained on the trails would be super there. Umpqua trail up high has mosquitoes as does Waldo Lake. Hanging here eliminates moving.