Black Rock Shuttle Day

I ride down at Falls City a lot over the winter, you hike up and ride down. So when a shuttle day happens I'm there. 135 riders,3 trucks and as many runs as you can get in. I rode down with Daver and Jeff. Dave had been before but Jeff was a first timer. We hooked up with Frisco right away then Whiplash and Raul ( the local border jumper). We went to the top and hit Bonzi all the way down. They've added some great stuff at the top. Then on our 2nd run we hit the upper part of Granny's kitchen. Whiplash and Frisco hit the cheese grater. That is a cool move. Down to the E.T. ( Endless Tranny) jump. I hit it right after it was re-built and it was HUGE. Now as it's so dry it's a really fast run in. I hit it twice and was laughing all the way. We headed down to the Halo area. The drop to long ladder to drop is really fun. I think the next run we lost Frisco and Whiplash so we took Sickter nar all the way to behind Basic Training. The next run i forget and finally we hooked back up with Whiplash,Frisco and Flying J and BIG Craig. We took Middle Bonzi to the mighty E.T. jump. We sessioned that for a while. I did a couple Fonzie style. I guess i was getting tired. We rolled to the bottom and Jeff,Daver and i left. I think both Dave and Jeff had a great time. Dave had a couple of small crashes but nothing compared to his Helicopter crash. Flying J did a 1 handed no footer to keister slam. I thought Mtn Rider was the king of that move but Flying j's a close second.

The Video clip is Frisco on the cheese grater.

Week day ride

Had Friday off so i took Otto for his first trip to Post Canyon in Hood River. We met up with Dave and his brand spankin new Iron Horse 7 point and headed to the top. Geared up and we we're off. Otto was getting worked by all the big rocks. His bike is a little specialized with 24" wheels and a mini fork. He had his full face helmet and pads so i figured he would be ok. Probably. After the rocky single track right before 2 chair we took another sweet,rocky single track down,down,down. I took a bad line and got sent over the bars landing between big rocks but not on them. Yay. After that it was flowing trail with ton's of turns. We were laughing. Otto did great and Dave was loving the new bike. We came out at the bottom of Egg hunt and dropped into 8-track and Dave got to test his bike a bit more with some cool roll downs. Otto was getting tired and had a few crashes. We fooled around at family man and Drop out a bit then headed to the bottom. Only one run but it was like 6:30 when we got to the bottom so we needed to head out. Gotta love driving home through the Columbia River Gorge.

We Rode to the grocery store

It was a 27 mile ride. We live 2 mile's from the store. We took the long way.

Browns Camp

I was going to do a ride with Dave and Louis and Otto at Post canyon but it was looking wet and it would have been too muddy for there first time there. So we went to Browns Camp instead. Dave brought a friend Jeff and we we're off. It was wet from the get go and just got greasier as the ride went on.Louis leading. He is always in the big ring for most of the ride. He gets all excited and has to be in the lead. His biggest problem is shifting. I climbed some stupid sections on the SS. Lucky i guess. Otto had a little crash but other than that there was no carnage. Louis was so wiped out that he practically fell asleep in the back of the truck before we left.

Fun ride.

Sleepless in Spokane

The Beacon Blast Off was the first Down Hill race i ever participated in. The Red Raja and i went in 04 and we were so stoked. I've been trying to get back there for a while but this year i made it. It was Maing, Irish Rob, SSdomination, T-mac and I, and we were ready to ride. We arrived at like 2 am Sat morning , so not much sleep before Main and i loaded every ones bikes to go to practice. We walked the course and checked out some lines and realized it was getting HOT. Practice went good. I had a small crash, but mostly i was dieing pushing my bike to the top.After practice we headed for the room and mexican food and then the rain,wind and thunder started. What a change. Mexi food was good even if the waiter was rude. After that it was Toby Maguire frozen then at last SLEEP. Up at 7 or 7:10 and to the hill. Conditions we're much better than Sat. The rain was on our side. Raining on my first run and it went ok. I knew i didn't push it since i didn't puke. 1 hour break between 1st and 2nd runs so i watched Maing and SS domination on a jump. BIG! 2nd run was better for me. Cut 7 seconds off my time which was good. I could have done better on some sections but oh well. Long drive and to bed at midnight, Up at 6 for another day. Man ...i wish it was Friday .

Memorial day ride

Hit up Post with Flying J and Dirk. Met up with Robholio and his buddy Noah later. Ended up doing 3 runs and conditions were a lot better than Fri. Sunny, windy and sunny. Flying J had an off the bike that rattled him a bit but he was bruised but not broken. Dirk was hitting some jumps on his XC hardtail, and i was riding and not crashing. Went to the tippy top and that was great. Rode some singletrack that we rode on Fri and it was sweet. It was a good day as always.

What a difference a day makes

or in this case 5 days. Last Sun we rode with the bug's in the heat and now it's raining. I got off work really early today. Only worked 2 hours so i hooked up with the Maing and his wife and went to Hood River. It was kind of an adventure ride, as in we took a bunch of trails that we we're sure where they would end up. We started farther up than i ever had and it was more of the same. Rocks and rocks. Then we rode a section we always do then it was all new for me. Single track with embedded rocks, little steps, deep woods. Cool stuff. After that it was flowing trail through a meadow. Did i mention it was raining? I started having some fun and was sliding around corners but i remembered i was wearing my work clothes and no armor so i started to be more carefull. It got more and more muddy and the descents got more and more sketchy. I went down once and almost hit a tree. We made all the way around to the new re-built FRANKENSTEIN trail. Steep and steep. cut straight over and hiked up to cut into drop out and down seven streams. By this point i had been soaked for like 4 1/2 hours and was ready to get in a warm truck. Awesome day but really difficult conditions. If it was predictable i probably wouldn't like it as much.

Back to Post Canyon after a long winter

When you ride a lot your bound to get injured or witness an injury. Today started out with sun and blue sky and Rubberdown and i ripping down the upper Post Canyon trails. It ended with blood. We headed down and met up with Flying J , Whiplash, Don Coyote and Josh at two chairs. A quick stop and then down. Fun stuff. Good to ride the trails again. Got to Drop out and was stoked on the changes. What was 3 drops was now even better with a couple of step ups thrown in. Flying J and i took a new single track. Fun. Back to two chair and down. We got to XchorusX and i was watching the real riders hit the big lines. Whiplash hit the first line on the left and wanted the 2nd also. He said " Don't film me" so i did of course. Big crash! Over rotated and hit hard. His glasses cut him good on the forehead but it didn't stop him from riding the rest of the way down. Rubberdown hit a tree and jacked up his leg and i bailed from a ladder and twisted my ankle. that's how it goes sometimes. ended up wit pizza at Cascade Locks.

Check the vid of whiplash's crash. Pardon the rough language but it was a tense moment.

Falls City and Bugs

Today i took Louis (12) and Otto (10) to Fall City for the first time. And it couldn't have been hotter. Record eat for May in Oregon, 90's or something. Anyway..the bugs we're out BIG time and reminded me why i mostly ride there in the winter. It was hard to talk without breathing them in. SO this was my first ride on the Gran Mal since i hurt my rib's about 4 weeks ago. Maing,Chip and Noah went as well. Maing is on the Rib program as well, so he was taking it easy. We kept it pretty mellow but it was really good for me. no pain really, and the bike seemed to be working well Otto and Louis had fun but the heat was getting to them. We rode the new and improved sictor gnar and it was really fun. It was cool seeing Otto riding over logs on his little hardtail with the 24" wheels. Louis and Otto had some fun on the teeter totter in Basic training. I saw Maing sneeze and then double over in pain. I guess he's still healing. He was getting a kick out of Otto and Louis going over the teeter totter at the same time. pretty funny. Of course we ended up at paddingtons for pizza but you probably guessed that didn't you.

Local trails

Did a short ride this morning with Dave and Otto and Louis. Just the local trails(which are becoming WAY too crowded) Short drive, short ride. Rib's are feeling ok. I love riding with the kid's, they really make me laugh when they get tired or when they almost crash. On a really steep , straight section Louis was all over the place trying to not hit a tree . Then i came down and i yelled up to Otto " Walk your bike". He has v-brakes on the Little Specialized and i was worried he would start skidding and lose it. Dave started to ride around since there's no underbrush , so i yelled to Otto to follow Dave for the safe way down. Then Dave crashed. " Hey Otto, don't follow Dave". Otto rode a little ladder over some fallen trees. That was cool to see. It's only a couple of feet off the ground but he's a little kid. I'm still on the Bianchi SS hardtail. It's been so long that I've forgotten what gears are like. At least for XC riding. My Downhill bike has gears. Looking forward to getting my Enduro built up again and doing some Looong epic rides this summer.