The snow is almost gone here in the city but i still haven't got ride yet. Hopefully soon. I've been killing time easy enough though. Walks to the store with the kid's and stuff. Built a work bench for my basement bike room. Tune up time!

New computer

We got a new computer, so now I'm back in business. Except it's snowing and freezing. The trails are snowed in and I'm not happy about that. I did ride to the store a few times in the snow and ice. That's always fun. Marla didn't like it much but at least she stayed up right.

Broken Computer

That means no posting lately.

Soon though.

Fall Riding

Fall is one of my favorite times to ride.I took Louis and Otto to Growlers Gulch and there we met Jim , Noah,Drew and Brian with his brand new Specialized 29'er. Nice and clean. We rode the usual trails and did the longer extension of the Terminator/Predator trail. Finally we did a death March to the top to find the entrance to the famed KMA trail. I rode it for the first time a few weeks back and was excited to find it by my self. We finally found the beginning and kept getting turned around ,so we had to cut over to the road and do the middle KMA and then out. Saw a ton of road hunters. I'm sure they had good luck driving around at 40 mph drinking their PBR.So, trails were in perfect condition and the weather could not have been nicer. The kid's had a great time and so did i.

Thinking of Fruita.

I've been thinking about Fruita a lot lately and can't wait to get back. Next year for sure. The clip is me on Horse Thief Bench and then Mary's loop and then zippety doo dah.

First Trail-a-bike experence

I was going to head back up to Growlers Gulch today for more riding on the perfect trails and maybe ride a new one again but we found a deal on Craig's list. A trail-a-bike for Olivia. She's 4 and not riding yet so we figured this would be a great way to get her to her ballet class and get comfortable on a bike. We did about 5 miles and went to Home Depot and Trader Joe's and back. She did really good and was trying to stand up by the time we got home. I think I'll try it off road some time in the future.

The Karate Monkey finally see's dirt

So, I've been riding the Karate Monkey for a while now but not off road until today. The K.M. is a 29" wheeled mountain bike. Normal Mtb's have 26" wheels. Mine is set up really simple with a rigid fork, Mech disc brakes and two speeds. Ride or walk. I heard about a ride they we're doing at Growlers Gulch that was for guy's new to the sport so i figured that would be a good way to test it out. I got there early so i could warm up a bit and see how the bike felt. Felt good! I kept hitting stuff with my foot so i guess the bottom bracket is lower than I'm used to, and no plowing through the root's and rocks. Good line choice was my goal for the day. I met up with Jeep and Paul who are trail builders in this system and they do a great job. There was about 8 others i think but i didn't really catch their names. I rode a few new trails and they were a blast. Good downhills with a climb thrown in for good measure. There's always a climb on the dh sections at Growlers. I really liked the Karate Monkey on dirt, even with the rigid fork. I think i should have had a different gear ratio but that is easily fixed. Looking forward to riding up there again soon.

Around Town

We like to these long-ish around town rides. Sometimes i take the kid's sometimes i ride with Marla. Last time Marla and i rode a lot of the perimeter of Portland. 65 miles worth. No shifting problems for me. Check her blog for a write up. http://ourtrail.blogspot.com/

Shuttle Day

Another shuttle day at Falls City. This one was put on by the W.T.F , which is a trail advocacy group. Chip and i headed up the night before to meet up with Jamie,Raul,Joe,Jake and a new guy..Carlyle. We did a dusk run and then 2 dark runs. Man it was fun! I had never ridden the Falls City trails at night and they were crazy. Not to much Carnage Asada other than Chip smashing his light and breaking his visor. No blood was donated from me this time. No riding pic's but some dumb night time pic's and a video clip .

Farmers Market

Every Saturday morning ( if I'm not riding in the woods somewhere) Marla and I go to the Farmers market close to where we live.... by bike, of course.

Scappoose night ride

We thought we'd ride some trails closer into town this week so we hit up the Scappoose trails. We had Fat Larry, April, The Causey's (it was Debbies first night ride) and myself. Jamie missed out because his work went longer than planned. He has a job that require's him to work now so it gets in the way of his riding sometimes. The ride was great, though we should have started later so the whole ride could have been in the dark. Debbie seemed really enjoy the whole riding in the dark thing. April realized that a pre-ride meal of Dorritos and Hummus is not a good idea. Larry stood up the whole time and ...well....he just kept going. Terry was going crazy leading us through the maze , which is Scappoose. And Me? Mashing on the singlespeed and laughing all the way.

Browns camp night ride

It was time for Jamie's yearly XC ride and once again it was Browns camp. We figured we'd start late and make it a kind of night ride too. We had Fat Larry,April,Crazy legs (out of retirement) and myself. Started off with the 1/2 mile switch back climb which seems harder than it should be, and then to the flowing singletrack. I was riding the Bianchi SS, Jamie was on the 100 y/o cannondale, April was on her cool Turner 5 spot and Larry was sporting the Sinister free ride Hard tail, standing up all the way. Larry kind of bummed me out , as i was expecting a lot of coughing and maybe some throwing up. Nope. He was mashing the pedals all night. I'm not to sure about that guy, seems to be some sort of all around mountain biker or something. Up and the picture spot we ran into Whiplash and the Don. They showed up a little after we left and were getting on it to catch up. Now we're having fun as the group grows.When it got dark we saw some bat's and it started sprinkling and cooling down a bit. Trail was in good shape with a few wet spots that are typical in Oregon any time of year. Super fun ride. We're going to start weekly night rides so I'm excited about that. It was Larry and April's first time riding at Browns camp and i think they liked it. I sure did.

Another Whistler trip in the History books

Fat Larry and skinny April planned and headed up this trip and Flying J, S-huit and I tagged along. We took off on Fri morn a little later than we planned but we stayed up and watched Drop in so you can only do so much. Drop in takes precedent over sleep. About an hour later i realized i left my bag of food Marla made me in Larry's garage. Great. Now i have to eat Canadian top ramen or whatever they call it up there. Met up with a friend of Larry and April's in Seattle who thought my name was shameel or shamozzle for some reason. He was nice guy and a great driver. We had a good time on the drive heckleing April by messing with her MP3 player. Jamie had it in his hands and was moving the plug and she thought it was the plug going into the radio, and she kept messing with it but it was us. Too funny. About 15 miles from the border we we're talking about identification and stuff. April was saying how she was going to renew her passport after this trip since it expires at the end of Aug or so she thought. When she got it out she saw that it expired on Aug 3rd. Oops!! Jamie and i started talking about how we we're going to be riding in Northern Washington since there was no way we would make it across. (since the border is so secure) She was freaking out and Jamie wasn't helping. While we we're waiting in our line a few cars a few cars from the front a lady rear ended the car in front of her. A diversion!! The guy got out and was yelling and when the Mounties we're checking him over and his car ,we started thinking maybe they would let us go in the commotion. April played cool and answered the questions and then the guy asked if we say the accident and she told him what she saw. She offered him our documents and he said Nah and waved us through. Too funny. I guess Jamie and i could have brought our Glocks after all. Now we we're excited to get there and ride, Weather was nice and traffic was ok. Stopped in Squamish for food and hit Whistler about ..i forget. Hooked back up with Shawn who was riding with the Seattle race car driver, got all our stuff minus my food into the cool house we had and started drop in again. O and played cards. I'm good at cards. Don Coyote and Stephyao showed up later. There like almost Whistler locals. The Don transforms in Canada into a crazy rider. Up early to head to the lift's so we can ride until we drop. About a 5 or 10 min pedal to the lift line and Jamie and turn around and no Fat Larry or April. Wait 10 more min then we figure we'll see them in line. Turns out Larry's wheel seized up and he had to go back for another. He bring's extra wheels everywhere because..well...He's Fat Larry and he needs a LOT of wheels. First run down was Crank it up which is a cool warm up trail with small jumps and some cool wall rides. After that its a blur of riding and riding. Larry tore off his derailleur about 10 feet into Scheyler and i got a flat on Dirt merchant. Highlight's for me we're No Duff,Crabapple hits and Scheyler, Ninja cougar, Karate Monkey and not crashing. Eventually I ran into The mighty Red Raja, Robholio and a guy I'd never met Jaeel.( i think) Did a few runs with them and found Larry and April again. Upper mountain was good except a lot of trail was gone. Rode part of Freight train, that was cool. I was sitting at the bottom looking at the lift line ,eating a sandwich that April made me(thanks) and i heard a siren. To my left i saw an ambulance heading up the hill. Too bad. 2 hours later i found it was Crazy Jake, one of our riding buddies that we hadn't run into yet. Not good. He got a real bad concussion and a bruise the size of your average wall-mart shopper. StephYaow rolled a really cool line that was near vertical and she was a little excited.

After riding..more goofing off, and more of Jamie and I singing Bernie songs. We seem to have a talent for that.Up late and up early to head home. Didn't ride 'cause you couldn't even see the mountain through the clouds and rain. Stopped at Shannon Falls in Squamish. Really cool. Off to the border to see if April can go home. We waited an hour or so at the border and hit the duty free shop so we could cut in line farther up and saw Jake. Bruised, battered and repeating himself but other than that he was ok. SO we prepared for a long wait when April was denied entry. Larry handed him the passports and he scanned them all and sent us on our was. Great border security eh? Ton's of traffic and home late. Another great trip .

Post Canyon campout #2

Hood River

Had a really good ride today at Post Canyon. We rode from the top and hit up the super D course that is for the Gorge games that are next week. A lot of down with a few serious hike a bikes. Wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't mid 90's and pushing a 46# bike. Oh well. From the top we could see a forrest fire on the Washington side. Looked big. Riding today were a few of the usual suspects. Flying J and Chip. I was stoked to ride with Andy for the 2nd time in a year. He was flowing the DH trails with style. Crazy Jake was there with his Sunday and was hard to keep up with, even while pushing. Also present was Fat Larry and Skinny April. It's always a kick to ride with them. Larry managed to not break anything on his bike and April had a ton of quick,witty comments as usual. O..and no wrestling. The first run was a really long combo of steep hikes and steep descents. If it were about 30Deg cooler it would have been great. It was still great but we were dying. Next run I drove the truck down while they sessioned some stuff. I was spent. Great day as always.

4th of July

usually we do a big ride on the Glade trail but the snow is still there. So, we went to Hood River and camped.