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.