Lot’s of ride’s this year

This was a memorable year as our family did a big road trip and had a great time checking out a lot of different area’s . Nothing as good as what you can find in Oregon. I rode in so many places with so many people it hard to keep it all straight. Good thing I took a lot of pictures. Here’s some to check out.
2008 should be great and I’m all ready planning some MTB road trips. Can’t wait!!

I should have known when I got to Trail Head Cycles for our night ride and saw the young upstart Derek finishing putting his bike together it would be interesting. It’s always good to have your bike dialed before riding at night, or any time really. Regardless, the Red Raja and I we’re determined to ride so we took off ( latter than planned) for the trails. 20 feet from the gate the young upstart’s chain broke. Turned out it just fell off so I thought maybe the ride can be salvaged. Not to be. His chain came off every 5 feet it seemed , so after fooling around for about 2 miles we called it and sent him down the fire road and the Raja and I rode one last trail. Waste? Nah. It’s always good to get together with some friends and ride. Even if you stop every 5 feet.

Too cold to stay home.

Generally when it’s 31 degrees the last thing on your mind is to get up just as early as a work day (or earlier) and hit the trails. Well….unless your us. In my often overstated opinion, winter time is one of the best times for free riding. ( is it one word?) I rode my DH bike over to Josh’s house and met up with Whiplash and his little woman. We headed to the trails and watched the temp go from 33 to 31 on the drive. Started hiking up to the warm up area to hopefully warm up and hung out there for an hour. I was warm by the time we got the 2nd run in to Basic training. Soon the usual characters began to show up. Flying J , Crazy Jake, Dirk, Dirks buddy, Mtn Rider, Rubberdown, Maing,. I think that was it. There was some guys I didn’t know and we saw Fat Larry when we we’re leaving . The ride was great. Mtn Rider got the first tracks on a new ladder to gap on a section of Sunday stroll that is being re-done. That was cool to see. I hit 2 things for the first time , so that’s always cool. Maing ate it on the road gap and jacked up his neck I guess. I didn’t see it but he said he landed a little sideways and then went down. Crazy Jake tore off his der. Hanger and rode chain less. Rubberdown was sending it with his new bike and it was good to ride with him again. The vid clip is Me, then Whiplash then Mtn rider then me again. Another great ride. Minus the Chamois butter story.

It’s not the destination, it’s the ride.

Didn’t I hear some one say that once? Maybe. I probably read it in a bike mag or something. Well some ride’s don’t really have a destination, you just ride around and around. Today was a ride within a ride. I was to meet Terry at his house in the morning to ride some of our favorite local trails.
Terry is my go to guy for XC, so when everyone is hitting the DH trails Terry will usually do a XC ride. He’s a really well rounded rider.) I figured I should ride the bike there and then catch a ride with him and then ride the trails. (Jeep Donaldson would not be pleased with us riding on the road, but he’s from Colotucky and things are different there) Marla was getting ready to ride her cool cruiser to the store so I got to ride along with her for a bit which was fun. When I got to Terry’s he said something like
“ Your crazy” I’m not sure if that was a general greeting, or because it was so cold and I rode to his house. Maybe just because I rode to his house. So we loaded up and drove to the trail head , which was close enough to ride to but it was kinda cold ya know. The trails we’re perfect. A few muddy spots but nothing to bad. This was the first time I had done a geared XC ride since Moab in April. I have a crap fork on this old bike so it was like riding a rigid. Maybe I should just put a rigid fork on it and be done with it. We rode some of the classic trails and a few new ones. No crashes, but Terry fell over trying to do…..something. We ended as usual on the Lollipop trail, which is a fun twisty, turny trail, then Terry showed me a newish log ride. Then it was back to the car and his house so could begin my ride home. About half way I started smelling all kinds of restaurants and it was getting to me. All of a sudden it turned out to be about the destination, or at least one with hot food. Which was waiting for me when I rolled up to the front door.

A fine Fall Day

One German,

One Austrian,

One Oregonion ..three mountain bikers

two singlespeeds,

one geared…three Mountain bikes

32x18 , 32x20 , 22,32,44x 11-34

one trail,

one crash, one smashed finger,

one bent brake lever

One great fall day in Oregon.

Vid from Spring

I was always gonna post this litle vid from when i was in Moab and Fruita in the spring. It's nothing special but good memories for those who were there. HORSE THIEF BENCH!!!!!!!

Crazy day!

It's hard to have a better day then sat was. Rode at Black Rock with Jim, Whiplash, Debbie and Mike. Hit some of the fun drops. Sessioned Basic for a while until the kiddies started showing up. Rode Dino's re-route twice and it RIPPED. Jim and i had fun hitting the drop next to the Halo drop. It's probably 8 to 10 ' when you land. Next time I'm hitting the Halo. Whiplash hit the Cliff drop. Like 18" or more. He landed way out there. After that we hit Bridgeport ale house for dinner then went to the premiere of New World Disorder 8. It got a Little out of control and i ended up wrestling with Fat Larry on the stage and people were piling on us. My head got slammed a bit. Black eye and cuts on my head. No pic's sorry. Another typical Portland premiere. Chaos and destruction. ( and don't forget the chaos)

The Black Rock trails

Met up today with Jim(a recent transplant from Idaho) to ride the fine freeride trails in Falls City. AKA: Black Rock. We hung out at Basic training for about an hour, hitting different jumps and warming up a bit before the big hike up the hill. We rode Banzai, sickter nar, and most of Granny's Kitchen before we were done. I think Jim is hooked. Another satisfied customer. the pic's are Jim on the wall ride.

Farragut State Park, Idaho

We're in northern Idaho visiting friends and checked out a Little bit of trail with the kid's and 2 of Leon's kid's. Pretty cool trail, dusty and not much elevation change but really fun. Saw quite a few deer and ended up getting a Little lost but not too bad. Everyone had a blast. Leon was riding his SS rigid and it seemed like a good trail for that. Not too rocky. Marla would have liked it.

Deep in the woods

Riding #*)!@'s Trail

Had a great time today riding +*#$'s trail in BMTEIR. It was built by a semi-pro DH racer we know and it rip's!! It was Frisco,Flying J, irk, Don Coyote and i. It's a really steep trail with jumps,berm's and more jumps. I cased one of the BIG doubles so hard it blew both feet off my pedals! Funny. Dirk took some nice pic's and we got a litle video. Not much. Frisco hit a cool step up between some trees. It was sweeet. No crashes but we did see a bow hunter. I think he got off a shot but we we're so fast he missed. Gonna try to hit this trail again this week. So fun. ( Pictures by Dirk)

Waldo Lake

Waldo Lake is a must do ride in Oregon. It covers 10 square miles at an elevation of 5,414 feet on the west side of the Cascades and is one of the purest large bodies of water in the world, along with Oregon's Crater Lake and Lake Baikal in Siberia. The first time i ride this was in 05 with John and Kevin from Cali. It was a late season ride and when we arrived at the trail head there was a lot of snow. It was a great ride anyway. This year i went with Terry and Debbie and i was excited to ride this trail when it was dry and warm. It's 22 miles with about 1600 ft of elevation gain. I knew it would be a struggle for me this time as i was getting over being sick. After our 3 hour drive we hit the trail and we're having a blast until the cyclo cross section started.It was in a burn area from a few years ago , quite a few down trees to step over. I guess there was a re- route around this section but i missed it. After that the trail was flowing and i was having a blast. Great lake views and buff single track with root and rock sections that were sometime hidden in shadows. We finally got to the tech section i remembered from the snow ride. Really rocky, tight and into a left turn. I rode it in the snow so i figured I'd ride it in the dry. When i caught up to Terry he was saying that he rode it clean, so i went down and rode it pretty clean. Lost a foot off my pedal, but other than that it was good. Then i spoke those words that always seem to get us into trouble. " Let's go back up and take some pictures" Terry couldn't get it together again and ended up denting the lowers on his fork. I tried 4 times and on the last one fell to the side and drove my knee straight into a big rock. Ouch! A nice gash at mile 11 or so. That changed the ride for me. Not to far after that i started to get a cramp in the other leg. Still not hydrated after being sick for a week i guess. I ended up pulling out about 5 or 6 miles early and waited for them to pick me up. So now my knee is discolored, sore and stiff. Kind of screws up my ride tomorrow. We were riding this dh trail built by a semi-pro dh racer who races for our shop. I think if i took another shot to the knee i might explode. Not exactly how i had planned the ride in my head , but hey...That's Mountain Biking

Wilson River trail

Headed to the W.R.T. today with Terry and Debbie. A couple of people bailed as it had rained all night. If i canceled rides for rain i would never ride. Anyway... We only rode a part of this trail from Jones creek, west. Super flowy with some nice wet roots and rocks. Up and down was the order of the day. The last climb where we turned around was one of the longer one's. It's always cool to ride in such a lush environment. We're planning to head back soon and do the whole thing. Can't wait!