Awesome Road Ride with 16% Grade Dirt Road Climb!

I planned a fairly epic (for me) road ride on Saturday. It did not disappoint. First, it was cold - 41 degrees when I left, and stayed that way through the shaded country roads for most of the ride. I made it harder on myself (not on purpose), but not putting my jacket on until halfway through. I had a windproof type jersey on and a windproof fleece-lined vest, but when it's really cold, those just don't keep you warm. Heh, I was also wearing not only a skullcap, but also my Surly wool cap. I wished I had something to close/block the major vents in my helmet though (if anyone thinks a modern helmet like the Giro Atmos makes them hot, they're crazy).

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I had plotted out my ride on Google Maps, targeting 50 miles. Late in the ride I was having some leg strain, so I took one short cut, and the ride wound up being 47 miles. The ride featured just shy of 4000' of climbing, took 3 hours and 18 minutes (ride time), and featured some interesting roads!

The first 15 miles occurred on roads I'd ridden before. From there though, I turned onto Battle Creek, and shortly thereafter things got interesting. The road started out small and right off there was a cool covered bridge to ride through. I believe this was the first covered bridge I've ridden over. About a mile or two later though, the climbing began, and then, almost immediately after that the road turned to dirt! And, to make things even more interesting, the grade just kept increasing. It hit 13% right quick, and then throughout the rest of the climb, there were sections of 16%. Ya baby, mini Giro! Ok, yes, very mini, but hey, I dig this stuff.

So, while I'm loving this, the road of course had to then turn into a descent. Now normally, this would be much welcomed, but two things: It was 41 degrees, and more tricky, it was a relatively steep dirt and gravel road descent. I enjoy this, but had to watch it of course, not wanting to flat. The climb had been a mile or two, and the descent was probably a solid two miles. Chilly, but pretty fun. I was surfing back and forth across the gravel central line looking for the smoothest side. Good times.

Oh, the other tricky point... the dirt roads, with a bunch of little offshoots, didn't inspire confidence that I'd known when I'd hit Panther Creek, or how well it'd be marked. Just as I was getting a bit nervous though, ah, Panther Creek and pavement. I had mixed feelings about the pavement though. I actually love riding dirt roads on my road bike. I'd held off from them for a long while after getting my custom Calfee and riding Reynolds carbon wheels, thinking I wanted to protect them. But these days I've been riding them more (I'm also riding my Campy Eurus wheels though).

The other half of this loop, Wolf Creek, featured a pretty sweet descent. Luckily by this time I'd put on my jacket and was somewhat warmer. The temps were up to maybe 44-46 at this point, but honestly, I was still pretty chilly. Time for some food. Sucked down a Clif Mojo bar (my favorite), and headed towards Crow.

By the time I arrived in Crow, my right leg was feeling a bit strained, like a cramp might be coming on. I realized it was the first time in a long time I hadn't taken Sport Legs before riding, and I didn't have any Enduralytes with me. I stopped in at the Crow County Store, as V8 was calling. After passing by the big dudes buying cases of Bud, I snagged a V8 and some peanut butter/cheese crackers. V8 has got to be the most well kept secret when it comes to mid-ride convenience store liquids.

This is also where I took my shortcut, cutting out about 2-3 miles. I was back on familiar roads. Another freezer descent, but then back into the sun. I was in the final stretches, with of course the final climb being fairly burly (gradients in the teens). Pushed through, with one stop for the nice fall color on the final climb. Arrived home, psyched, but fairly blown. Inhaled some recovery drink, oh, and ya, some more V8. I had also warmed up nicely by now.

Not long after it was off for burgers and Bloody Mary's. And after that, I was in that blissful, yet totally knackered, post big ride, post big food, state - an achy and great, near coma state.

Great, Cold Road Ride

Yesterday I did a great road ride, that was also very cold (which was mostly my fault). I headed out in the morning for a 40 miler. It was about 45 degrees when I left. I was dressed reasonably, except when doing long descents at 35-40mph! I had mapped out a route using Google Maps, but one roughly 4 mile chunk of my ride turned out to be a non-existant road! I should have used the Hybrid view in Google Maps to determine if the roads existed as looking at that I'm sure I would have second guessed it (the road does not show connecting, etc.). It didn't matter though, as the road I was on that I thought it forked off, continued to the same eventual point anyway. But, this particular road, is a 4 mile descent, and a good one at that, with sustained speeds of 35mph+ (I think I hit in the low 40mph's during the descent and I wasn't pedaling much, because I was freezing).

I say the cold was my fault, because I didn't take a jacket. Dumb, but I thought I was set sufficiently, based on the ride I'd done the day before that was just about as cold, and where I was dressed a bit too warm. Yet this ride, I was wearing fleece-lined tights (day before had just knee warmers), Pearli Amfib shoe covers (day before none), and then a wind proof and fleece-lined vest (no vest day before). But, that long descent just froze me to the core. The temps were a bit lower than the day before, but still. It took me a good 20+ minutes to get relatively warm again, and for the rest of the ride I relished the climbs. But, it was an overall great riding day, and the ache the cold and decent mileage (for me) put in to my legs felt great. It has motivated me to do a 50 miler tomorrow (Saturday). I've made sure to check the roads with the Hybrid view in Google maps this time. Still some potential for bad, but these roads look more "major" (as far as country roads go :) Oh, and they aren't called "Foot Path", which I think was truly a foot path, and not a road.

With the slight route deviation, the ride wound up being 38.3 miles, 3550' of climbing, and took about 2 hours 38 minutes. The most interesting bit from my cyclometer had to be the max percent grade that occurred during the ride: 18%! Wowzers. I know there are some steep sections along the way, but I think that is bogus. I've climbed up Blanton the steep way, and that seems to max out at about 16-17%, and I don't recall anything on yesterday's ride being as steep, but who knows. It's not exact either of course.

Retirement Tour Off to a Great Start

Sovereign Trail in Moab
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Matt and I have been having a great time during the first two days of our riding adventure. I flew into Phoenix yesterday, and we headed out to ride the old Cactus Cup course. This is a short loop, only about an hour, but mildly technical, and fun. Of course it was pretty damn hot, but that's par for the course in Phoenix. We'd met up with Fletcher, a friend of Matt's, who was in full racer mode during the ride (we saw him for about the first 15 minutes). After that, headed back to Fletcher's house for lunch, showers, then we jumped back in the Sportsmobile and headed to Flagstaff.

In Flag we returned the Niner RIP 9 I had rented, and I requested a refund on my 2nd day rental fee (Matt picked up the bike two days prior), as they were idiots and put what was likely an 18" flat handlebar on the bike. Seriously, no, really, I mean, I felt like I was riding with my hands on each side of the stem. Oh, also, they'd thought to replace the shift cables the day before, but negelected to stretch the cables, and so I had to re-adjust the rear derailleur. It doesn't end there... about half the threads in the pedal hole of the cranks arms were stripped/gone, and I actually had one of my pedals unscrew on the trail. Nice job guys, way to ensure your demo rider has a good experience on the bike!

Grand Canyon
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Anyway, grabbed a quick espresso and sandwich and hauled ass for the Grand Canyon.

Unfortunately we arrived after dark at the GC. But, thankfully I had my tripod and DSLR, and managed to get some shots that make it look like we were there during the day! Pretty amazing place - I'd never been before, need to go back.

Camp outside Moab
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

After that we drove late into the night to 30 miles outside Moab, and found a clearing a ways off the road to spend the night. Nice and quiet and dark, perfect. Asleep before 2am Utah time (lost an hour). Up the next morning to a nice sunrise, got the espresso/moka flowin', and headed into Moab.

Click the photo to play the video

In Moab we hooked up with Michael and Sylvi, and four other friend's of Matt's, and rode Sovereign trail. Absolutely great trail. About a 2hr ride, on prime Moab terrain - very rocky/slickrock, sandy, technical stuff. I rode my rigid Niner, which was brutal at times, but actually quite nice at others (really nice for rolling up and over ledges). We had the helmet cam in full effect. Should have video avail, once we get a chance to edit down the couple hours we have. Matt wore the camera to chase Nicole (former pro DH racer) down, which was sweet (this woman can fly!). I am renting a full suspension bike for tomorrow, as we're doing a mega downhill shuttle (as long as it doesn't snow at the top).

Finally, back into town, had some food, hung out, then a great dinner with Michael and Sylvi at Buck's. Massive double pork chop, wine, stories. Now, back in the Sportsmobile, calling it a night soon, early shuttle ride tomorrow morning.


For all the pictures, check my Retirement Tour tag on Flickr.

McKenzie River Trail

Tim riding the lava section
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Saturday was my first ride on the famous McKenzie River Trail (MRT). BIKE magazine named the MRT one of the 10 best trails in their December 2004 issue, and I was excited to see why.

I heard about the ride on the DoD mailing list, and joined up. The DoDers have been good at showing me trails, and this was a great opportunity, especially since riding the MRT involves a shuttle. Nine of us met in Springfield to carpool: Candy and Steve, Laurie and Bianca (her dog :), Lee, Mike, Tim, Chris, Chris, and Chris (me).
Tim rode with me, on the 45 mile drive out to the bottom of the MRT, where we dropped one car. From there, the remaining cars drove another 20 miles up Hwy 126 to the top of the MRT.

We all saddled up, and headed out on the trail, primarily guided by Steve and Laurie (although I believe at least a few others had done the trail, and some had done parts).

About 10 feet into the trail, the stunning scenery starts. Right off we cross a bridge with a beautiful river and the beautiful color of the turning trees surrounding it. We jumped into the singletrack, and a short bit after, we're riding above a lake, again with just amazing scenery. We were barely even getting warmed up, and I was already wanting to stop every couple minutes to take pictures! This vibe was brought down a bit shortly thereafter when Mike broke his chain, for what would be the first of four times (yes, you read that right). Luckily he quickly fixed it, and we were off again.

Mike's first broken chain
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Continuing on, was more stellar singeltrack - really fun stuff, great flow, super fun. A brief break next at Sahalie Falls, which is a really cool waterfall. It was hard to get a great photo of it, but was quite nice to see.

Bring On the Lava

The top half of MRT is known for it's lava sections of trail. This is a really killer, technical section of trail. Hands down this was my favorite length of trail. It's not as hard as somewhere like Grouse Ridge, but there are definitely a few tricky sections. I was able to ride everything, except I believe two or so tiny "climbs" (more like quick upturns in the trail). The lava took its toll on tubes though! We had several flats in the group during this section, and also found two people had tubes with tears at the valve stem of their spares. We wound up scrunching one of my 29er tubes into Tim's rear wheel.

I can't wait to get back to the MRT to ride the lava section again. While technical, everything still had a great flow to it, and you could really get after it. I was rocking this on my full rigid Niner, and just loving it! In my past cycling life, I would have thought I was nuts to ride a rigid, but the Niner particularly ripped it up through here. I survived without flatting, and couldn't wait for the rest of the trail.

Lunch at Blue Pool

Mike's first broken chain
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Backing up a minute (got carried away thinking about such a great section)... A ways into the lava, we stopped at Blue Pool to eat. I sucked down a PB&J, while we waited for Mike who had stopped just a bit up the trail with a flat. I talked to Laurie while we hung out, and watched Bianca take after her (wink wink, Laurie). Mike had still not shown, so Lee walked back up to find him. This is when we found out his spare tube, had a rip at the valve stem, and then his pump broke! Dude was not having a good day, mechanically.

After the lava section, the trail turns more buff, and gets going faster. I was following Laurie for most of it. Laurie was spun out on her 29er single speed, with Bianca trailing close behind (man can that dog run!). We were pushing it nicely, and it's darn good I had someone in front of me to show the trail. We both could have gone faster (if Laurie had gears, and if I was being smart and knew the trail), but it was perfect as is. Somewhere along the way I think Mike broke his chain one or two more times. We were probably two-thirds of the way at this point.

The rest of the trail is pretty consistently super sweet, twisty, fast, flowing, fairly buff singletrack through the trees. We stopped occasionally to fuel up, and then got to a point where Mike broke his chain for the final time. He was about out of chain, and it was getting late. We had to send Mike out to the highway at this point. It was a bummer for him, but a good call.

Laurie and Bianca
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Through the last sections of trail, it was gorgeous... The sun was getting lower in the sky, and the cool fall air had crept in. It cooled things down enough to rev up the goose bumps both from the cool air, and the great trail. This is the kind of ride that you really don't want to end. Ok, maybe stop for some monster burritos, then keep going.

After 5.5 hours on trail (although only about 2.5-3 ride time) we arrived back at the remaining car at the end of the trail. A really great ride, good company, and stunning scenery. The route (GPS data/info) was 25.5 miles, with about 1070' climbing, and 2700' descending. The drivers piled into Lauri's mobile, and retrieved the cars at the top. We all then hauled ass home, I'm guessing most of us thinking about what we'd ride next, or when we'd get to ride MRT again...

Full set of photos available here.

Gear Testing Ride

RidgelineTestingOfG9-19
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Did a quick ride at Ridgeline this evening, mainly to test some things before tomorrow's big McKenzie River Trail ride. I was testing a few things:

• New 7" rotor up front


• Camelbak's energy drink pills


• New Specialized BG Comp shoes


• New Canon Powershot G9 camera


• New Novara/REI gloves

I had to stop twice to reposition the caliper on the disc brake, but by the second time it was dialed: no rub, no sounds when braking, etc. And, yes, more power, nice.

The Camelbak drink pills were interesting. Very light flavor, which is nice, and the flavor was pretty decent, not ideal, but pretty close. I'm thinking I'll go with my tried and true Powerbar stuff for tomorrow, but then continue to try the Camelbak stuff (which will ba damn convenient for travel).

The gloves worked well, and were a nice deal at $19 on sale. I will ride these tomorrow for sure, while I wait for Troy Lee to send me a new pair of SE gloves (story on that in a future blog post).

The shoes... Well, I'm a serious fan of Specialized shoes, and had simply worn out my last pair. These new ones were dialed pretty quick. They do need some breaking in, although oddly, the left shoe felt great, and only the right shoe had some slightly less comfy points. I actually "downgraded" this time around, not going with the most high end shoe, mainly for reason of cost, and not feeling I needed the carbon soles. So, I went with the BG Comps.

Finally, the camera. I bought this camera for the sole purpose of being able to take lots of pics on rides. Carrying around my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR was just way too much. I also wanted something that was quicker to get going on the trail. The G9 is killer, because it's basically most of the features of the DSLR packed into this tiny unit. IT's not as small and light as many folks' point and shoot's, but it's got way more features, such as adjustable ISO, all the normal Canon shooting modes (P, TV, and AV being the key modes), hot shoe, and it shoots video, etc. It has some other really slick features. And, best of all, or well, a great thing, is that it shoots RAW (or JPEG of course).

This little camera kicks ass. I have it in a neoprene type pouch secured to my Camelbak strap. So, I don't have to take off my Camelbak, and can get to the camera really quickly. The particular pouch seems extremely secure (it's a very tight fit on my camera, a bit tighter than I'd like, but even if the flap opened up, the camera wouldn't come out, and it's got a super secure attachment to the Camelbak strap). The camera takes excellent pictures, and I'm just ramping up on full use of it, and all the features. This will just be great to have.

Can't wait for tomorrow's big ride...

Waldo Lake Inaugural Ride

Waldo Lake Typical Forest Section
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Today was my first experience riding the Waldo Lake trail. What an experience it was! This has to be one of the most beautiful trails, scenery wise, I've ever been on. It is also a superb ride. 22 miles of rolling singletrack through the forest, as you parallel the lake's edge.

I began by driving out to Oakridge, where I hit the Willamette Mercantile bike shop to pick up a forest parking pass, as well as the USFS map, which has a lot more detail than the Tread map. McKenzie was there, and gave me some good tips on the ride. He and another guy suggested starting at Shadow Bay, instead of the North Camp, which I'd planned to. This was a much better choice, as it was a fair bit less driving.

Upon arriving at the Shadow Bay boat launch parking area, it was a rather chilly 43 degrees! I quickly suited up, and went looking for the trailhead. It was actually right across from the parking lot, but then that teed into another trail. A bit of map and compass work and I figured out the particular point, and headed out, looking for the next important trail junction which was the key to getting started properly for a counter-clockwise ride.

Once on the trail, it was a joy. Buff, yet frequently rooted singletrack, all rolling. I don't think I did a climb all day that was more than probably a 50' elevation gain. In the 22 miles of riding, it was a mere 1670' of ascent. I turned the gas on, to get warm, and to keep the pace high, as I knew I was pretty time limited today.

I made it up to the North Camp in 45 minutes, at which point it was another bout of exploration to find out where the trail continued. Weak signage, and I had to guess a bit, but it worked out. Interestingly, in this area, the sun peaked out briefly, which was quite welcome. Into the large burnt section of forest I went. This was a real change, and felt desolate. This section started to have a few more technical sections. Nothing overly hard, but kept it interesting. I ran into some hikers here who I talked with for a while, and then another rider. I motored on.

The burnt section ended, and I was back into some truly beautiful areas, right along the water's edge. So peaceful. If it weren't so chilly, I'd have gone down to the water, but I needed to keep going. I then came upon Day Camp, and this cool little bridge crossing a really nice little creek. At this point, I said to myself I had to take some pictures, even if it was just with my camera phone. Also popped a Gu.

Continued on, and not too far after this was this sweet section of shale. It reminded me a lot of Glass Mountain in Tahoe, but not as challenging to ride.

I cranked on for a while, and then came across the most technical section on the trail. The pictures do NOT do it justice at all. This rock chute/slot was very much like the rock slot area on the Watson Lake section of TRT, but I'd say harder. There were two tough drops, but making it harder, was how to make the turn between them.

I had to try this four times, and was feeling like it wasn't going to happen. My fork is also not happy with me, as I managed to scrape a good chunk of paint off of it, as I ground it across one of the large rocks during a failed attempt. On number four, it came together, and while I had a foot out at one point, I rode it all, including having to hop the bike around a bit to make that turn. Sweet!

There was an alternative line that involved going all the way down on the right side, but when I tried it, my rear tire wanted to make sweet love to my ass in order to let me pass, and, well, I wasn't into that.

It turned out that the next about 4 miles included a bunch more technical sections. Nothing anywhere as challenging as this one, but it was a really killer few miles, both of techy descents, and some tricky climbs. Rode it all!

From there, it was a couple miles of, quite damp at this point, singletrack back to the car. There was one climb I was unable to ride. It was very steep, and by now I was feeling the ride, and just couldn't swing it with the 1x9 (it'd have been a trick with a granny gear too, but rideable).

At the car, I quickly stripped off my wet clothes, and donned a nice toasty hoody, and headed off to Oakridge. When I left Waldo, it gotten up to about 46 degrees I think. Arriving in Oakridge it was completely sunny and 68 degrees! I stopped off to quickly thank McKenzie, and ask for a burrito place. Hit Mazatlan, for a bit more than your average take out burrito (burrito on a plate, smothered). Scarfed half that down, and headed home. Awesome day.

Ride stats... 22 miles, 1670' climbing/descending, 2 hours 37 minutes of ride time, about 3.5 hours of total time. Complete set of full size photos here.

Stellar Ride Today, and I Think I'm Back!

This morning I headed to Brice Creek for a ride.  After navigating my way through the 2200 roadies taking part in Cycle Oregon (which I may try to do next year, just found out about it this morning), I arrived at the trailhead, where it was 52 degrees.  Luckily, the slight rain had let up, and the trail was likely to be in perfect condition.  I was riding my Niner 1x9, and was excited to see how the 1x9 worked out on this trail since it's a rough trail (check the potential chain jump), and has some extremely steep climbing.

I took off and immediately began to work up a good sweat.  I had arm warmers and a vest on and shed the vest pretty quickly.  The trail was feeling great, and I was going nicely.  I made it to the trail junction for the waterfall in 45 mins, and started up the climb.  The climb was brutal, and I walked at least half of it.  It was like doing intervals, because the pitches are so steep (even to hike), and then you get a short breather, and then another bitch of a pitch.  All of a sudden I reached the falls, and quickly realized, I'd screwed up again, just like when I rode it with Matt!  I went up the descent!  Argh--I'd promised myself not to do that.  The problem with this direction of climbing, is that it is 700' of gain in 1 mile.  Yep kids, that's a 13% grade on average.  Uh, huh.  

However, I was actually pretty psyched that I'd done this in 25 mins, as memory says it took Matt and I like 40 minutes (of course that day it was also in the 80's, and I know I was suffering on the hike much more).  I thought for a moment that I'd turn around and head back down to enjoy the descent, but then said, no, I want to see how I screwed up and turned too early, so I headed down the other side.  This is a fun descent as well - rolling on the top half, and steeper on the bottom.  Got down, and now know that I have to ride the trail until I get to pavement, then make the 20' hop up the pavement to where the proper entry into the climb lies.  

Now is where I start getting pretty excited about my ride though.  I was feeling good, and so I turned around and rode back up to the falls again!  Ya baby!  Climbing this direction it's also 700' of gain (probably more like 850' given that you do a few mini-descents in there, which I saw were 50' of drop or so), but in 2.5 miles.  As an interesting comparison, this climb I was able to ride much more of, and it took 27 minutes - much longer mileage wise, but the milder overall grade means it only took 2 minutes longer.  Sweet.

I proceeded to ride the full rock wall section, and then up and under the falls, and then ripped the descent.  This side of the descent, being a lot steeper, is just a ton of fun.  And at this point, I was truly in the zone.  I was just flying, and maneuvering the bike like nothing else existed, really working the front end hard, and at one with the bike and trail.  Combine this feeling with the happiness of being able to want to do the climb again, and I was quit high (no Rich, not like that).  

At the bottom of the climb, I could smell the campfire of a nearby camp, and boy did that smell good.  Just added to the buzz.  I also realized how little time it'd taken overall so far.  With that in mind, I put it in race, and flew over the remainder of trail back to the car.  I finished up the ride, in a total of 2 hours, 44 minutes, for 2800' of climbing.  Not an epic by any means, but very stoked.  Further, during various points in the ride, I was doing a lot of standing up and hammering, and it was the first time, in, well, I can't remember, that I actually felt I had some power in my legs.  This was a really big deal for me, and I am just so psyched!  It has no doubt helped, that I've ridden 4 times in the preceding week (which is about 3-4 more times than normal ;-)

The weather was extremely helpful for me today.  As folks know, I don't like the heat at all, so the temps today (stayed in the 50's all day) were outstanding.  I did wind up putting the vest back on on the first descent, and never took it back off (even for the 2nd climb).  Again, just an outstanding ride for me as everything came together, and it is the best I've felt on a ride in a long, long time.  To top it off, I wasn't even tired when I finished, and had contemplated going back out for another lap, but knew that I wanted to save some juice for tomorrow, as I'm hoping to go ride Waldo Lake, which I hear is about 4-5 hours.  

Lastly, the 1x9 worked out just fine.  There were a couple sections I could have ridden if I had a granny gear, but the majority of the super steep pitches I'd have had to hike even with a granny gear.  I had two close calls crash wise: one where I hit my pedal pretty hard going round a corner at high speed, throwing me a good bit, but rode it out, and second where I lost the front wheel in a fast corner, having it slide a ways, but then I think it caught on something and carved out the rest of the turn.  A very good day, can't wait to see what tomorrow brings...

Mountain Bike Oregon 2007

This past week/weekend, eight friends and I attended Mountain Bike Oregon.  There were some rough edges for the event, but we wound up having a pretty great time, and some superb riding.  Matt took his new Sportsmobile on pretty much its maiden voyage here, and I slept in the top bunk during the trip - very cush, and certainly nicer than camping.  Some of the others had an RV, and Rich and Barry each slept in a tent.  

On Thursday when some of us had arrived, we did a quick two hours on the south side of the Salmon Creek trail.  This is a really cool trail.  I'd expected something kinda lame, since we could just ride to this, and heard it was just a quicky loop from town, but it was very good!  Very scenic bridge/river crossing bit at the end too.  

Friday was the big epic shuttle of the Middle Fork.  33 miles I believe, about 5 hours +/- riding time.  The chaos began in the morning with a bus ride gone wrong: driver got lost.  What was supposed to be a 1.25 hour shuttle, became 3 hours!  John, our Google Earth guy, used a GPS and the map and got us on the right track, and we all made the ride and loved it.  

Saturday we did the Tire Mountain/Alpine shuttle, which was just awesome.  I was totally knackered on the climbs, but the descents were so sweet!  Lots of long, flowy, fast, tight singletrack, some extreme switchbacks, and just great stuff!  I ran out of water with about an hour to go, which sucked, but oh well.  This was a really great trail. 

Sunday it had rained all night the night before, and was still in the morning, and most of us had to get going, so we just packed it in and headed out after breakfast in the rain (the MBO folks had put up some tents/EZ-Ups, so it was fine).  

A few of us took pictures:

• My pictures
  
• Matt's pictures
  
• Jay's pictures

I rode my Reign for the duration.  It was great on the Middle Fork, but I think I'd actually rather of had my Niner on Tire.  There were some rough spots, but I just love my Niner, and the lower center of gravity.

The Specialized folks were at MBO, and I got to take a quick spin on their new 5" travel 29er.  No doubt about it, that's my next bike - will be getting rid of the Reign for that.

Figuring Out the Percent Grade of A Climb

You always hear about the percent grade of climbs during the grand tours, or other road races. The final climb up to my house after any road ride is a fairly harsh way to finish up a ride, and I wanted to see what it was.

I realized I wasn't truly sure how they determined what the percent grade of a climb was. As it turns out, it's pretty simple, it's just rise over run, or the tangent of the angle. So, you can easily figure out the average gradient of a climb by using Google Maps for quick distance, and Google Earth for the elevations. You don't need addresses in Google Maps, just find the area on the map, and right click to set start and end points. In Google Earth you can just hover over the spot and look at the status info at the bottom to see the altitude (in meters). Using that, I found that the average gradient, over the .7 mile last climb to my house is 9.2%. Not too shabby.

Now go figure out the pain of your local climb...

Brice Creek Ride On Niner

I rode Brice Creek today. This is an excellent trail, and was perfect for what I wanted today. It's on the shorter side as compared to the mtb rides I've done here in OR so far, as I spent exactly 2.5 hours out on the trail, which included flailing around at one trail junction trying to figure out where to go (which turned out to be relatively easy, but I had mis-interpreted the directions I had).

The trail has some nice rocky bits, and superb views, of both the river/creek, and the waterfall. The pictures linked to above show the waterfall, which is cool, because you can actually ride behind it. This was certainly the first time I've ridden behind/under a waterfall.

I rode my Niner today which was wonderful. I just have so muc fun with this bike. Sure, it does float over the rocky bits, or land airs like my Reign, but it's just a ton of fun, and is a nice change of pace.

Drove home, and as I got into town, conversed with the family, and picked up some excellent Mexican at Fina Taqueria, and ate at a park. Gorgeous day too.

Crawfish Ride

I rode Crawfish yesterday, which you can do starting at the same place as
Brice Creek. Here's the map. Many say Crawfish is better. I'd seen these pictures of Brice Creek and was eager to ride it. The DoD guys had just ridden it last weekend, but Brock suggested Crawfish, possibly hitting Brice at the end. We wound up not doing Brice, but that was no problem.

We did Crawfish as a full loop, but many shuttle to the top, because the
initial climb is 6 miles up gravel road, and took our group 2.25 hours
(and I was the first to the top, so you get an idea of the group's
climbing speed :) Four of us were riding: Brock, Steve, Sarah, and myself.

But then the descent just rocks! Best ride I've done so far here.
All singletrack, all the time. And, there were rocks! The descent
had full on rock gardens, including a couple uphill sections, and then
just tons of twisty, sometimes rooted, singletrack that went on for
2.5 hours. Superb.

Brock and I loved it. Sarah and Steve were not as enthused, as
they thought it was a bit too technical. Sarah commented at one point that we were riding down a river bed, not a trail. Heehee, that was one of my favorite sections! I do love the rocks. We were going to tie in Brice Creek at the end, but everyone needed to get back, and/or was wasted.

Total ride was over 5 hours, with 5000' of climbing, 16.7 miles, two broken spokes (Brock), and this was the first mtb ride here where I didn't run out of water!

Big Ride at Alpine (Creampuff course) on Saturday

Did a big ride on Saturday with Dan. We rode the Alpine Trail, which is also the course for the Cascade Cream Puff 100. Of course we only did it once, they do it three brutal times. The ride worked me over! It's 16 miles of climbing to the top, then you do the descent, which has a bit of climbing mixed in as well. All in all, 5260' of climbing, in 32 miles is what I registered. By the time we got to the top (about 3.5 hours for me :(, I was pretty much wasted. I was also out of water, which really sucked, because we had about two hours to go! The Alpine trail singletrack descent is really nice though. Very narrow singletrack, super high quality. It wasn't technical, but it was fast and fun for sure. I used my GPS and posted the map.

I am fairly eager to go back to Alpine, because honestly, I wasn't fully able to enjoy the descent. I was out of water, bonked, and so was mainly working to get down fast, not cramp (any more), and so on. It was also raining a good chunk of the time, although mostly the latter half of the climb, at the top where it was fairly cold (there was still some snow left). So, I know at minimum I'll be riding this again in August during Mountain Bike Oregon, and we'll do it as a shuttle, so that'll be very nice.

Oh, last bit. This was the maiden voyage on the Lyric fork. It worked great so far. I did notice that it's a bit taller, and I don't have the Flood Gate dialed in, so it was diving under braking and steeper sections more than I'd like. I think when I get the Flood Gate going it'll be sweet, as when I played with it quickly, it clearly has the platform type effect.

Oakridge: Middle Fork Ride

I gathered with 14 other riders for a ride setup by the Disciples of Dirt, which is Eugene's very active mtb group (which mostly amounts to a slew of folks on the same mailing list, who do a lot of riding, and a lot of trail maintenance!). Two of the folks, Andy and Megan, had driven down for the weekend from Seattle. Andy was probably one of the best riders of the group, and Megan hung just fine (and was a Daily Distraction to boot). This was a "Slow Boyz" ride as the DoD group has a few self-classified sub-groups (others include the "X-Men" who are the hardcore guys that are out to win the Creampuff (which makes the death ride look easy), 3 of which we came across going the other way, as they did the 50 mile variant of our ride, primarily on single speeds).

The ride was aptly named Slow Boyz. There were some good riders, but it was a bit of a party ride - each stop was a bit longer than at least I (and a few others) would like, but that's also par for the course with 15 people on a ride! The people were all very friendly and nice, and it was a nice mix, likely age range from about 30-50 (I know one guy was 50). The courtesy level was very high, and the DoD hosts were great about keeping everyone together and ensuring folks knew where to go, etc.

We rode the Middle Fork trail in Oakridge. This is a great trail. There was still snow at the top so we put in a bit lower (Chuckle Springs), but overall got in 22 miles of 100% singletrack! We were out riding for 5.5 hours. During that time I kid you not, we must have done 20 creek crossings, about half of which were not really rideable, and also went over these awesome log bridges (probably a half dozen of them - killer views of the river while walking across - wish I had my camera). The trail was primarily flat/rolling - even with 23 miles, we only did 1100' of climbing, and 2600' of descending.

Not as technical as I'm used to, but I got the impression that it was on the more technical side for the area(?), as there aren't a lot of rocky trails there (technical = rocky, for me). It sounds like the more technical or harder trails there tend to be super steep stuff. I plan to get out to "Heckletooth" and "Larikin" (sp?) soon. Also Tire Mountain and I think it was Black Bear or something. I've ordered up the super sweet laminated Tread maps of all this stuff. And then there's Willamette Pass, which is a small ski area, but does the lift-served stuff in the summer, and puts on a bunch of DH races, etc. I will be hitting this hopefully, as I hear it's quite good. There is also Oregon Adventures ( http://www.oregon-adventures.com/) that does shuttle and guide service. Randy and his crew sported two vans to shuttle us up to yesterday's ride. This was very cool, and I plan to use that service again for sure (as well as possibly some guided rides, so I can learn the trails faster).

Anyway, the trail is a river trail, meaning we followed the river the whole time, crossing back and forth a few times. I rode my rigid Niner (to the disbelief of nearly everyone on the ride - there were a couple Nomads, a few other Santa Cruz's, a Turner, two Reigns, and then a couple hardtails, etc.). The Niner performed superbly! I am absolutely sold on the bigger wheels acting like a form of limited suspension. I won't say it was a plush, but the thing just charged that trail, and I love it. I am fairly beat today - my feet are sore, and my shoulder is sore from all the bike portages over creeks and bridges (I usually hang my saddle on my shoulder, which isn't overly comfy to begin with). I also ran out of water with over an hour of time to go.

After the ride, we hit the Trailhead Coffee Shop, for beers and dinner. The whole thing with at least the Slow Boyz is very social, and it was a fun time. Nice that folks are so welcoming and friendly. THC has got to be making a good half of it's revenue from mountain bikers, as 100% of the folks in there at dinner were post-ride, and we met there in the morning as well, where some folks were grabbing breakfast, we got coffee, etc. Anyway, finally drove home, and rolled in about 10pm. A pretty long day given that I'd met the carpool folks at 8:30am. All in all a lot of fun, and I'm psyched to see the various other trails. I definitely plan to ride with the Slow Boyz again (the Creampuff is not my idea of fun).