Riding_in_the_N.W..wmv

mountain biking

Finally back on the bike!

After nearly 4 straight week's of rain and then last week with ice and snow we finally had some nice (47 deg) weather. Blue sky and fun ride. I was riding the kona since i want my new bike to stay mud/grit free. I like day's like this.

Rain

Son # 3 get's his first Mountain Bike

I have been wanting to get Otto a mountain bike for awhile but since he is 8 there is not a lot choices. Specialized has a hardtail w/24's and an 11" frame , so i thought that might work. We found one and it fit real well. On sale too. Otto was really excited to ride ,so today was the day. I figured i should take him to some real trails so we went to Growlers gulch in SW Wa. He did great and was riding over log's, wet root's and only had one fall. Great day with more to come. So soon my Wife and i will have three of our kid's riding with us. Should be exciting.

Riding with Son #2 AKA-Shawn Casidy

Today i took my Son Louis(He's 10) on a really fun ride. He love's to ride but i don't take him nearly enough. He has an Iron Horse w/ 24" wheels. Almost tall enough for 26 but not quite. Some of the trails i have taken him on were pretty tame. If you went of the trail a bit you just were in the brush. No big. So i was a litle nervous as this trail has steep long falls if you went off the edge. It Starts off with about a mile down hill. He was yelling "this is great" "I'm not tired" and other funny things. He did great and i was proud. He rode through all the rock sections,on was even up hill. Just wait 'till he's on a 26". 13 mile and he was wasted but had a great time. He even (unknowingly) Said what just about every body i have ridden with say when there spent after a ride. "This is the BEST Cliff bar I've ever had"

Rollo Went West

My Buddy Todd (AKA: Rollomatic) came out from Colorado last week to sample some North West Mountain Biking. And boy did he get a sample. He met us (Me,Flying J, East Coast Eric and Johnny Thunder) in Hood river after a night of relaxation at the Parker compound in Boise. We headed for Post canyon as fast as we could to get some run's in since it was mid day. We were having good time and Todd was doing well. Hit the step up and drop on XchorusX and the first jump in the moto kicker line. Good stuff. East Coast Eric slipped a pedal when landing on the 25 foot gap and jacked up his ankle. Ouch! Then we headed to Egg hunt. A cool trail that ends with a 20 foot step down. ( ladder to man made wooden landing) Todd looked at it and I said something like "Better a little too fast than a little too slow". I should have said skip it. Todd sky'ed it like a super hero and almost landed to flat. ( that's bad if you don't know) After he hit the ground he probably slid on his side about 15 more feet or so. WOW! gnarliest thing I had seen in a while. My buddy's were impressed and happy he didn't get killed. And I got it on video. The rest of the day was uneventful. Another crash but compared to what we saw it was mellow. Day one was over and Rollo was worked.
Day 2 was some xc riding with another buddy Dave. We did the scenic Lewis river trail and then Siouxon creek. A long day of riding for sure. The trail was dry and dusty but the trees were huge and the views beautiful.Dave went over the enbankment but was ok. I hit a rock and went face first into the bank. Yee ha. We ended the ride strong and loaded up for the next one. We were going to do Mt St Helens also but it became obvious that we were really tired and were running out of daylight. So we hit Siouxon. More lush Forrest and great single track. Boy was I tired. After that it was drive back home for my Wife's home made burritos and watch Super 8 before getting some sleep.
Day 3. We went up near Mt Hood to ride the Dog river trail. A short trail but m trail had done the damage. He deostly down hill. I like long time. Super dusty and a couple of really cool rock sections. Fun stuff. Then we shuttled up to the top(lodge) of Mt Hood for a ride down. The Glade to cross town to pioneer bridal trail. Around 14 miles with 4000 ft of descending. There was a tech feature that we had to ride around at the start but after that we were flying. No crashes on this one. The Glade is a gnaarly ski run with lot's of rocks and sand. Cross town is really smooth with a rock here and there and Pioneer Bridal is bank and forth tech and buff single track. This is a favorite ride of mine. At the bottom I noticed Rollo wasn't looking his old chip self. Decided to bag the last day of riding and head back to club Craig for some r&r before going home. It was great riding with Todd in some trees for a change and was a great time. Saturday I went to Falls City for more riding while Rollo went east. He'll be back and we'll do it again, but maybe we'll hit Post on the last day.

Falls City

This a great area near a small town in western Oregon. Kind of a Freeride/Dh area but has some nice single track also. In fact they hold a big xc race "the falls city firecracker" every year.
The first time i was there was Oct of 03. I had just been riding my Stinky dlx for a month or so and we heard there was this place where we good do some jumps or something. Sounded good to me. It was me, Jaime,Ross, Ross Dad Jim,Bernie and leading this angry group was Dallas Steve and his cousin Dean. Who by the way was riding with front brakes only. Not too smart but if want to ride you don't let Mechanicals get in the way. It seemed like a long push/ride to the top of Mt. Brown and it still does. We tried a few jumps on the way up and were having a blast,even though they are so small you could roll 'em and not crash. Maybe. We got to see Dallas Steve drop off this 17 foot rock/cliff. We thought it was bigger but that's how it is when you keep it on the ground. When we got to the top it was a rough straight line style down and a few jumps along the way. Things have really changed there in the last 3 years. About a mile from the parking area there a section called "Basic Training" Which was created out of the need to work up from smaller jumps and stunts to the bigger ones. Great idea. There's some small gap's, drops and some skinny's. I think they're plannin on doing more low impact/low to ground intro stuff an that's sweet. My kid's will love that. Trail's like Granny's Kitchen,Sictner Nar,Bonzi, Sunday Stroll and others will test your skill and your co-payment. There's a dedicated group of builders who work with the forrest dept. and that insures that this area will be there for many years. I've had many a good day here (year round) and plan to have more.
Check out www.brmba.org for info,pic's and cool video.

Single Speeding Siouxon creek

Well my Wife and I were. Dave was sporting the multi-geared, full suspension Titus Switchblade. What a great ride. This one has been on my list for a while and Dave was willing to show off this gem to my Wife Marla and I. Getting there was a great drive and it's only about 37 miles from where we currently reside in Woodland ,WA. When we were unloading the bikes and stuff my Wife and I realized we forgot our gloves. I HATE riding w/o gloves. O well...better than no helmet. We dropped into the trail and were descending at about 20 mph right off the bat. Awesome. Moss everywhere,huge trees and green, green, green. It was really rolling so I did well on the Bianchi making it up all the hills and all the tech sections. It seemed like a pro trail grooming team had gone through ahead of us. Perfect conditions. Quite a few creek crossings and little waterfalls, great campsites and photo op's. We got to see where Dave broke his shoulder last year (or so) on a solo ride and had to walk and push out. He rode the tech section today and had his revenge. That was good to see. We only rode about 10 miles but since it was an after work evening ride that was ok. More rides like this please....

Tamarack and Back

... I drive all day for work ( with a decent commute) so I figure I might as well drive to Idaho for a day of Downhilling at Tamarack resort with Craig from Boise. I ride in Hood River quite often so I'm used to driving up the Gorge but it was a real treat to keep going . I arrived later than planned as I decided to take a nap instead of driving off the road. We watched a bit of Drop In to set the mood for the next day and then hit the sack. We were up early and drinking coffee,bikes loaded,camelbak's filled and ready for a day of non-carnage. Awesome drive up the 55 by a beautiful river , past a lake or two and through some cool little towns. When we got there we found out there was an XC race getting ready to start and most of the trails we would be riding were closed until 1:00. O well...We got ready and went up and rode what was available and cheered the racers

from the lift and the ground. I always think that they think I'm mocking by yelling "good job" or" Keep it up" as I'm sitting there on my DH bike but I'm not. I like all MTB racing and the culture that goes with it. Looked like a fun course. We did trails like "Super G" which was a flowy trail with some jumps. "Rock star" Which was a fun rocky tech trail with some steep roll downs that Rollomatic would have liked. ESR was a really tech,rocky alternative to the exposed, steep loose rocks of "Stage Fright". I made my attempt but gained a bit of speed and lost it. Didn't crash but stopped. I was bummed and thought I would try it again later but was way too tired. We did like 9 or 10 run's. All in all it was a great day .Craig is a good rider and didn't quit until we were wiped out. (which I realized halfway down my last run). We sped all the way back to Boise to watch Spinal Tap..I mean so his Wife could go to a shower or something. Up early the next day for the drive back and a nap. Tamarack..I'll be back......

First ride on the W.U.S.S.

Well ..i finally got a single speed. A Bianchi just like my Wife's. Her's is a S.A.S.S. Fully rigid and steel. Mine is a W.U.S.S. a hard tail and aluminum. It's white,got a rock shox REBA team for a fork( air and coil spring) a 32/16 ratio at the moment and crappy grips. The tires are very skinny compared to what i'm used to. 2.4's are coming real soon.

So today was the first ride on a trail. Heck..it was my first ride on a SS. And with Mech disc's, plus i've not ridden a hardtail since last winter so that was wild. I usually ride a hardtail (a 98 gary fisher hoo koo e koo) in the winter so the mud stays out of the pivot's and bearings on my enduro. V brakes in the mud and rain is exciting. Anyway....today my Wife Marla and went to Growlers Gulch which is in SW Washington. From the car it's a steep 1/2 mile gravel road climb to the first trail. The Terminator is a twisty,turning ,root strewn trail which doubles back on it self so many times you think your actually going somewhere. When you come out on the road your not too far from where you started. A well made trail for sure.Oh ya..the bike. It excelerates really well with that grear ratio until the hill get's me. I rode relly well (surprisingly) and tried to attack the hills early. I statred really having a good time when i came around a corner to an up hill section with a log across it. oops! That was about as close as i came to eating today. The geomotry is quite different than my normal bike(bikes) so it took a while to get comfortable. I was wacking the pedals frequently so the bb must be lower than i'm used to. The next 2 trail's (Beauty and the Beast & Belly of the Beast) have some climbing and rolling decending sections but are relatively smooth. Marla really liked that as she can't sit much on the really tech trails. I found that if i pedaled out of the corners i could make it up the next climb. I'm sure there are lot's of SS techniques i'll be learning in the next few hundred ride's. We rode the Creek trail which had lot's of rocks. More than i remember actually. I guess riding a 5" travel trail bike makes you soft and lazy. I had forgotten how much i liked riding a hardtail bouncing through the rocks. We rode a few more trails and then called it a day. I did better than i thought i woud. I figured i would be really worked but it was'nt too bad,and i made quite a few tech climbs. Maybe i have a future in singlespeeding. We'll see..............

Mt. St Helens

Riding next to an active volcano sound's like fun. Right? A few weeks back my Wife and i rode Ape canyon and the plains of Abraham right through the blast zone. It's not the most tech trail, unless you fall off a cliff or the mountain erupts, but it's a great ride just the same. The Ape canyon trail is a switch back climb through the forrest that escapes the blast back in 1980. Tall trees and a view of the Mtn here and there. At the top it changes so fast it's really strange. Almost like going from Hobbiton to the moon. In fact riding across the Plains of Abraham i felt like i was on the moon. With gravity. and i could breathe too. Riding on pumice rocks,ash and around and through other volcanic rock that i can't name, but my kid's could. Near where we turned around there some ridges that remind me of Fruita. Knife blade style, fast and skechy. We estimated the mtn to be about a half mile from us on the trail which seemed even closer when we realized it was smoking. my Wife asked " How do we know it's not going to erupt today"? I responded like the experianced rider and loving husband - " Just keep pedaling"
Great day and another notch on my Wifes bike. As always...if your in the area and the trail is not closed from recent eruptions you should ride this trail.

Surveyors Ridge

This is one of the must do trails in Oregon. That's what I've always heard at least. I think it's true. Last week my wife (Marla) and I rode it and had a great time. It's about 17 miles outside of Hood River, Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge. You can do this trail many ways. Some loop it by adding other trails and /or roads...etc. We chose the out and back. It was a perfect day with no clouds except around Mt. Hood. That's bad 'cause the view of the mountain is one of the great things about this ride. Oh well...I see it every day. The first 4 miles were climbing with some really tech rock sections ending up with a great view of the Hood River valley and an obscured Mt Hood. After that the trail was rolling along with woods and exposure sections mixed in. The dirt was perfect. Moist but not wet and not too dry. Late in the season I hear it's a dusty ride, which is ok if your in the lead. I was kind of struggling as I was geting over a cold and alergy problems. Plus I had ridden 2 times in Hood River after work this week. Why not? It's only 140 miles round trip (A good after work ride). Marla was getting beat up a bit on her ss ridgid but was doing great. She rode through some of the really rocky sections smoother than I thought she would. She hasn't been riding seriously for that long but is doing great. The descents through the rocks on the way back were super fun with no "off the bike" happenings.
So....we ended up only doing 17 miles. Marla was really worked and said her legs had never hurt that bad (that's a good thing right?) Looking back it was a great ride and I'm glad we were able to share it. My wife is a Mountain Biker!

Moab/Fruita and back again

Once again i drove(alone) 1000 miles to Moab for the 3rd Bomb gathering. The drive's tough but so am i, so i kept on drinking coffee and moving forward. I rolled into town about noon thirty and hung out with a couple of cali guys for a bit and then finally talked them into checking out Amassa Back. Kind of a warm up for the week. A few miles of goofing around, and it showed them what was to come. The next day we went to Fruita and ride Joes ridge,The Kessel run and Zippety Do Da. Boy was that fun. Those Cali guys had kessel run on the brain and i think they did it like 6 times in a row. We also hooked up with Rollo-matic in the afternoon before we did zippety so that was cool. Great to see him again and what a great rider. Drove back to Moab to eat and sleep my 2nd night on the gravel.(5 more to go) The next day we (Cali guys,rollo and i) did most of a new-ish trail in Moab called "baby steps" near the klondike bluffs area. Single track in Moab? cool. Fun trail what we could follow. Pac man and pac man jr. turned back for more water and Rollo and i trudged on. We rode about a mile down a dry creek bed trying to find the trail but no luck. We finally found more trail but finally gave up when we saw black clouds and lightning. When we arrived back at the truck(after riding into the wind for a few miles) it was raining pretty good. Back to Moab and found out it hadn't rained. But my Stinky deelux blew over. Strong wind. Wed we (rollo,me,pac man, pac man jr and new arival Chip Chiperton) cruised back to Fruita and hit up Zippety again. The mighty Pac man and buddy opted to do the Kessel run again. And Again. Chip almost pile drived himself but other than that it was uneventful. You know...riding 12" wide trails on skinny ridges ,going down REALLY steepsections and back up the other side( if you stay off the brakes). The typical stuff. After that we headed over to the Mary's loop area to try to meet up with Mike Goertz and some Denver people. We were late and they were gone. So we took off on the trail. Awesome trail right above the Colorado river. Very rocky and lot's o' ledges. Just what i like. All the way i'm thinking " I'm gonna ride the Horse theif bench entrance this year".I had been thinking that ever since last year and i was prepared to do it. I failed again. I did ok but that matters not. Rollo came close but had a massive dab so, no can count. The Horse theif bench trail was great. Last year Jeep led the wrong way so this year we went the way the book says and boy was that fun. Rollo was tearing it up and puting me to shame. Anyway...we rode and rode and rode and rode. and it was hot. After that we headed back to Moab for the lightly attended meet and greet. I was to dehydrated to do much greeting. Thursday i hooked up with John W and ayhooch...they missed out on the Wed Fruita ride so guess where i went......again.....Fruita. Maybe i should have camped there instead of the tent of much snoreing. We pretty much did the same trails that i did the day before and i tried the Horse theif entrance 2 more times. The 2nd time i made it the farthest yet. but i still failed. I was having shifting problems all day from trying to ride through too many landslides. So i limped back to the car and called it a day. Back to Moab AGAIN for more sleep in the gravel.Next day off to the big downhill. Porcipine rim from way up. 8000 ft to be exact(kinda) Big bike comes out.
We were stoked for the 27 mile (mostly) dh ride. My goal was to ride and not walk any difficult sections. Well...i did all right but a couple were trying to kill me so i walked. It was fun trying to go as fast as i could and still keep it together. Saw a guy crash on a jump and break his helmet. Saw a lot of good riders and basicly had a great day. Can't wait to go back next year.

Spring riding makes my hands sting

I've been geting some good day's of riding in despite the off and on rain that spring in the N.W. brings. So it seemed like a good idea to get the big bike out and head for Hood River in the columbia river gorge to do some jump filled riding at Post Canyon. The Flyin' Hawaiian went a couple of days before and said " it's good to go" So we(Me, Chipped, Whiplash and the Flyin' Hawaiian)went. The day before the weatherman said the whole state of Oregon was going to be socked in for rain and up to 2 feet of snow in the mountains. What do they know. It's almost may ya know? SO it rained all night at my house and rained almost all the way to Hood River. Not too bad though. We dropped off Chipp's truck at the bottom and headed up. Chip say's " The snow level is 2300 feet today. How high we going? I say " 2300 ft probably. Then Flyin' J say's " Hey it's snowing! Yes once again i'm riding in the snow. 1st it was in Bend w/ Jason and Erin where we rode from the Mountain back to town. (on my Stinky) Then it was with MTB John and his buddy at Waldo lake. (21 miles in the snow) and now Post canyon. The first part of the decent is really fun as there is a lot of ruts and holes. But i couldn't see 'em. Fallen tree's were also fun to crawl over when covered with snow. After decending a while we get to the section where the trail is covered with lot's of rocks. (softball,football sized) I love this kinda stuff. When you can see it. I tried to ride as fast as usual but one rock got me and i got side ways, flew off the bike, flipped and landed on my back. Did i mention how fun i is riding fast in snow? And oh so quiet. Anyway..everyone was really cold at this point and we realized we weren't going to be hitting up a bunch of drops and jumps. Once we got below the snow line the mud started. The mud at Post is lame but a litle more predictable. I ended up hiting two 6 foot drops and ruining my brake pads.
The moral of the story? Every ride has good parts to it. Even if you can't figure that out until your out of the shower. and if you go home after riding , not to the hospital then it's a good day afterall.