Sunday, September 02, 2007

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






2 comments:

fingalingdan said...

why you hurt leg?

bombing4x said...

show us the gash
nice write up