2 days of downhilling

The last two days I have been getting out some aggression on some of Pinecrest's finest downhill. I didn't think I would ever enjoy Hemlock. After a second run and with the addition of the lower trail Juniper, I have to admit I had a blast. It is without a doubt the hardest stuff I have ever ridden. After those two extremely demanding trials Lucas and I finished off with Dome and lower PCP. I was so tired I could barely hold on. Katie got to try out her new Intense on the lower stuff with us. After freezing her ass off for an hour waiting for us to stop sliding down granite. She worked that bike on Dome's worst and cleared some new sections. Its amazing what the right bike will do to your confidence.

Today I took Sean and Bobby down Sunrise and PCP. I found out that Sean had only ridden PCP once and never Sunrise. Unfortunately I was still pretty worked from the day before. No speed records today. Killer ride none the less.

I don't think Bobby's wife is going to let him ride with me anymore. He seems to come back bleeding a lot. A simple crash in the sand and he's off to the hospital for 8 stitches. Never slowed him down though.

Lucas and I posing in front of the trails name sake on Juniper.

Lucas is going to be mad at me for this but its not often I get to see him make a mistake, especially on camera. We filled that whole in so maybe next time it wont eat his wheel.

This blog was originally started to track the use and destruction of bike parts, so I have to spew a little about Avid Code disk brakes. I put these brakes on my Uzzi not long after I bought it. When they work they are incredible. Unfortunately it seems like they demand constant attention and bleeding. Now I can't even bleed the front one. There must be something stuck internally. I searched online and I am not the only one having this problem. The rebuild kit retails for $55, Lame. Both levers are now touching the bars so I am out of options.

New Trails

Stoker, Bobby and I set out to find a trail that few have ridden yet. We were told it was built at the very end of last season and only know of one group of guys that have been down it. Unfortunately we had little to go on in the way of finding it. After walking all over the mountain for a good two hours we gave up and headed back to a known trail. As soon as we started getting ready to ride Bobby found "Hemlock". I can't really say this was a good thing because once we were on this new trail we discovered why nobody else has been down it. I'm sure there are people out there that enjoy trails with no flow and zero speed rock fields, but not us. It was cool just to find it and ride something new though. After that we climbed up to Avalanche and took that to Dome and lower PCP. Avalanche was new to Bobby and I. It was also a slow rocky downhill, but it had a certain flow to it and transitioned nicely into Dome. Brutal day for a shuttle. Avalanche was extremely demanding on our depleted energy stores. It is the hardest I've had to work at that low of a heart rate. 1271 calories, 13miles, 4.24hrs, 1408ft gain, 4059ft descent.

It took Stoker longer to get his camera set up than it did for Bobby to eat his lunch and find our trail.

Avalanche wasn't very nice to Bobby. I guess it safe to say Trek's have red blood.

Found the creak

My Firebird has been making a creaking sound that I couldn't find for a while. I greased the headset, pivot linkage, seat post, and every other part I could think of. The only thing I hadn't checked yet was the bottom bracket, so I assumed it had to be there. Fortunately Lucas was riding my bike around the parking lot yesterday. He found 4 frame cracks. If it wasn't for his discovery who knows when I would have "found" them. We were about to ride some serous rock trails. I don't want to imagine what it would have been like if it let go mid drop.

It is a little hard to see in the photo but there are 4 cracks. 2 across the I beam and 2 following the weld.

One in the fore ground one in the back. I guess I should have washed my bike more often, then maybe I would have found them myself. Pivot's web site says all there frames have a 3 year warranty, I guess it's time to test it.

New back yard

Its strange how you can ride in an area all the time and still not know it all. I have been hearing about Moraine trail for a while now but I never got around to it. Riding this trail is a humbling experience. Lucas was right when he said it makes all the other trails look easier. There really isn't anything scary but the effort and concentration it takes to clean a section is intense.

Lucas showing me the line. You can't tell from the photo but that rock is so steep I could barely walk down it to get the shot. I then had to climb back up for my attempt at staying on line. This is one trail that I think would actually be harder on the Uzzi. You need a bike that is very responsive, no slacked out DH sleds here.

We had a little bit of a Stoker moment while we sessioned this super fun baby rock drop for the camera.

If I could only get the other wheel in the air it would look way cooler

Lucas is the master of the slow technical rock trails. I did my best to follow his lines but he didn't make very many mistakes. Every time I botched a line he was gone. I am going to have to ride this trail a lot more. I think it will definitely improve my balance and timing.

As much as I loved Oregon it was still kind of nice to hit some one of the local classics. I set up a shuttle ride for Pinecrest Peak. We decided to hit Willow first and then climb to the top of PCP. the trails were in great condition and the weather was perfect. Cody was very pissed off that we had to climb on a shuttle ride. He should know I aways throw some climbing in there. Its the only way to connect trails and make your ride longer.

This is what Cody thought of the 1500ft of climb in the middle of our "Downhill" run.

After several years of trying I finally rode PCP in the dark. Here you can see Stoker, Lucas and I as we are about to take off. It took us about an hour and was probably the funnest run down that trail so far. I don't think we went any slower than we do in the daylight but we sure didn't do it as smooth. Huge thank you to Jeanie for the shuttle, without her it never would have happened.

Oregon Week 2

After Mt St. Helen's every ride other ride is now smaller. I managed to get some more new trails in though. The BLM is doing amazing work teaming up with the I.M.B.A. to make a trail system in the small town of Sandy OR. They know what flow is and just how steep "climbable" is. The signature trail is called hide and seek. I met up with a couple locals that were nice enough to give me a tour. Its like riding a roller coaster down to the bottom after an easy road climb. It was so much fun we pedaled back up for seconds on the lower trail. There were so many rollers and berms that my legs hurt from the downhill not the climb.

You can see the forest is about as dense as it gets. Mike here is coming down Hide and seek.

Alex pulled up the rear. I didn't get a picture of Dennis. I want to thank all three of them for showing me around.

After leaving the Portland area we stopped over in Ashland. Ashland Mountain Adventures runs a shuttle service to the top of Mt. Ashland. The trails that run back into the town are fast and steep. Gage got going fast enough to have his first serous endo. Once he got his confidence back he was able to ride almost every part of the run.

A little blood just shows that you did something.

Awesome single track.

I don't think Jeanie thought it was as much fun as Gage but she had a good time anyway. The next morning I did a solo run at 7 am (thanks for the shuttle Oldpa) and made it back to the hotel in an hour and twenty minutes not to bad for a 4641ft drop. It would be possible to get several runs in a day as it only takes 30min to get to the top. Over all an amazing trip all over the north west. So many different types of terrain. I am looking forward to my own trails finally being free of snow though.

A week in Bend

I took the family to Bend OR for a week.

Sean ,Dan and His wife Dawn met us for a little bit of Bends awesome single track. This is at the Swampy cabin below Mt. Bachelor. 35.98miles, 3hrs 54min, 2272calories.

This may be the last we see of Dan. It might be a couple months before Dawn lets him out to play after this all day adventure. This is Blue pools on the McKenzie River trail. 3hrs 7min, 27.39miles, 3949calories

Ashton loved the trails at Phil's now that he has handbrakes.

Jeanie got to experience Kent's trail on a 29er.

Same spot as last year. We made the Oldma try out some of the Bend flowyness. Both boys rode way better than last year, almost no whining, and no crashing. Oldma can't make the same claim. 1hr, 18min, 4.25 miles 230 calories.

The family wanted to relax and swim. I took them to Cultis lake. I don't do well with the whole sit at the beach and relax thing, so I rode around that lake at two others to get my relaxation. 1hr 13min, 11.84 miles, 1006 calories.

I drove 5 hours to meet Sean and Keith for our first I.M.B.A. epic ride. This loop is called The Plains of Abraham. We started below a lava flow south of Mt. St. Hellens. This was half way up Ape Canyon trail.

There are a few places on this trail that you really don't want to fall. If you look closely you can see Smith Creek at the bottom of that gap. About 2 hours later we were crawling through that creek bed looking for a trail that had washed out. The views on this ride were impossible to capture on camera.

This was taken as we rode across the Plains of Abraham, which is at the base of the volcano.

This is from the same spot as the picture above but looking 90 degrees rt.

After the Plains we rode down one of the sketchiest ridges I've ever seen.

This ride set a new standard that all other "Epic" rides will be compared to. 5hrs 44min, 28.83 miles, 4081 calories, 10hrs of driving. Worth every bit of it.