I work so that I can ride, eat, drink, and sleep. I ride so I can drink more. I eat so that I can keep riding. I drink because it makes me a better person. I sleep so that I can do it all again tomorrow.
Archive for the ‘Dirt’ Category
Nothing wrong with Thursdays
Saturday, July 24th, 2010Keeping things dirty.
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Almost dialed in full
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010The top portion of Sandy Ridge may not be open, but the lower portion is nearly dialed in. There are a few gravel turns still needing to be bermed out, but for the most part it’s close to perfect.
The old pinball section has been reworked with steeper walls, and a couple choice tabletops. We went out on Sunday and rode the section five times, each time a bit faster. I can’t wait for the top section to open next week. I think I know where I’ll be on the twentieth.
I’d have photos, but I’m a numbskull and I forgot my camera. Bummer.
Wreck’d on the Umpqua
Friday, July 9th, 2010Where do I live? I live in paradise. It seems like around every bend is another beautiful mountain, river, trail, or valley. I truly am a lucky man. My luck also has something to do with working for myself. Which means that when I received the call from R Kelley about a four day mountain bike adventure in Southern Oregon, I didn’t have to ask the boss for the time off. Well actually I had to ask the wife, she’s really the boss.
And so Friday morning we loaded up the bus, and ventured south on I5. Somewhere around Sutherlin we exited and worked our way up the mountains. The campsite we found wasn’t very private, but there was a small loop to ride around and the hot springs were just a short hike away. After four hours in the bus, and what seemed like two in the market stocking up, sitting in the sulfur water was amazing.
Bright and early the next morning, before the hippies descended and before we hit the trails we spent a little more time in the tubs. If I could soak before every ride, I think I would. But we didn’t drive all this way to sit in hot tubs all day. We came to ride.
We were camped at the bottom of the “Dread and Terror” section, so we took the gravel road to the top. Thirteen miles of loose gravel in the hot sun.
When we finally hit the turn off, Mason and I were greeted by a mint Westfalia that looked much like Marv, but in much better condition. It was indeed a sign of good things to come.
Down the road a bit, before the trail started we crossed Lemolo Lake and got a great view of Mt. Thielson. Another half mile down the road we found the trail.
About a mile and half after dropping in we paused to check out Lemolo Falls. A 102 foot tall waterfall that we sat on top of. I climbed down to the edge to find an beautiful site. I have never seen colors so vivid before. We put our feet in the water, ate some food, and stared at the waterfall for quite some time.
Having ridden only a mile of singletrack all day, it was finally time to start moving. While I never felt dread or terror, this thirteen mile section of trail was a doosie. Technical rock sections, multiple streams running down the trail, constant ups and downs, and steep drop offs into the river far below made this a long day in the saddle.
Close to the bottom, on the brink of running out of drinking water, we came across a pool of turquoise water. I must have stared at this pool for a good ten minutes. I’m thirty years old and I’ve never seen colors like this. It might have been the dehydration, the beer, or the grass, but everything in Oregon looks good.
The next morning we broke camp and headed towards Oakridge. Highway 138 comes ten miles from Crater Lake, and being the tourists that we are, we tacked the extra miles on to get a couple pictures.
We finally made it to the bottom of the Alpine trail, set up camp and shuttled to the top. I know what you’re saying, and I would have gladly ridden to the top, but this is a democracy we live in. I gave in and was happy sit on my ass the whole way up the mountain.
It’s been a couple years since I last rode this trail and wasn’t quite sure where the drop in was, so when I finally found it I celebrated with a “frosty” beverage while I waited for the others to arrive. From there on out it was nothing but yeehaws! and woo hoos! all the way to the bottom.
I offered this trail in contrast to the Umpqua section we rode the day earlier and it was met with much fanfare.
Back at camp we broke into the Four Loko. By Ryan’s suggestion we bought four of these horrible cans. Fruit punch and blue raspberry. I pretty much blacked out after I took this photo. I also poured some on the shrimp we were cooking. This is a great way to make sure you feel like shit the next day.
In the morning, with the sweet taste of hangover a couple of us rode up the mountain to take one more swing at the trail. Two hours of climbing in the sun was rewarded with an hour of shaded descent. At the bottom, Mason was ready to roll, I was exhausted, and the reality of it being Monday started sinking in. We had to go home. When you work for yourself, you can’t blame the lack of production on anyone else.
God damn I love Oregon.
In the days since, my legs still feel like jello
Friday, June 18th, 2010
One of the benefits of working for yourself is deciding how to split your workday up. Getting up with the alarm and stumbling into the “office” to get a jumpstart on the day means there is time to work on bikes in the afternoon. After typing on the computer for a number of hours I finally got to work on overhauling my Kona for the race on Sunday. As with most overhauls I do on my bikes, I start late and have a couple beers in the process. This usually leads to cleaning the important parts (pieces that touch eachother) and leaving the cosmetic stuff the way it is. This is more true for the mountain bike than the rest of the stable, but so it goes.
I am not the most attentive mechanic, meaning that I let things go for quite some time before I give them attention. But today I found myself with enough free time to pull the rear hub apart. I’m really glad I did. This is after about 15 rides since the last overhaul, most of which were in typical Oregon weather.
It would seem that a good cleaning should be done on a regular basis. Sounds fair enough.
Summer sun + beer + racing = ouch my head
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010Frankly, I should know better. But that doesn’t stop me from doing it over and over. After a prolonged wet season (which doesn’t seem to be giving up) we finally got a weekend of sun here in Portland. Two weeks after the Westside the remainder of the food was bbq’d at Ken’s while we watched the Mississippi Crit. Sitting right on the course we spent a couple hours drinking, heckling, and shouting.
As can be expected, the sun fried our collective brains and bad ideas became good ideas. Tradition stands for something right?
Full of meat-on-a-stick and number of tall boys I headed home to prepare for the 6 hours of Mt. Hood.
We woke up at 5 and hit the road at 5:30. The weather was top notch the whole day. Hot in the sun, but a nice breeze kept the staging area cool for the most part. The course had a good flow, although the climbing started to really wear me down by the 5th lap. By lap number 6 I had reached my goal and felt perfectly ok with calling it a day. The other riders in the solo singlespeed category did more laps, but I was really only racing myself. Being that this was my first “endurance” race I kept a reasonable pace and enjoyed the work.
Team Beer had a strong group out, most notably being that English fellow who completed 8 laps from what I understand. And he was part of a two man team. Balls!
After the sixth lap I devoured a giant burger and polished off a couple beers. I was babbling, exhausted, and in a state of euphoria. Partly sad it was over, partly looking forward to next week.
Finally we made our way down the mountain. I was drained. Misia was sunburned. We were both happy that we had spent a nice day in the mountains among friends, but it was amazing to get home and pass out.
6 hours of unrelenting singletrack
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010First the source: Portland Racing
The Cthulhu caravan is leaving Portland at 5:30am on Sunday morning. Destination: Mt. Hood. Reason: why not race for six hours. After our monthly meeting last night all is in order for a good race. We’ve got the bbq, pop-up tent, music, and plenty of beer to ensure a good time. And as of right now the weather looks like it’s going to be cool.
In preparation for this race I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road. The mountain biking has been non existent thanks to the torrential downpours Portland has been receiving. So the team is going in cold for the race.
My dad however has been getting some riding in down in California. Kernville looks dry, but the presence of waterfalls is always a good sign. Here’s hoping we get to ride this weekend too.
Picture from this guy. Thanks for the photo.
Getting the dirt in and dreaming of touring
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Mason through the switchbacks
I’m averaging two to three days of mountain biking per week right now. I guess I would say that I’m making up for lost time after my broken foot last year. It didn’t happen on a bike, but it happened at a bike “event.” I’ll spare you the details on that one. Suffice it to say my summer last year kind of blew.
This time around things are much different. A successful freelance contract is keeping me busy work wise and I have plenty of free time. Sunday I met up with Mason and Billy to ride some trails. We headed to Bingen and took in some pretty intense cattle trails. Lots of off camber, foot-wide, eroded trails on steep climbs. Once at the top of the gorge we chased some cattle down the trails and then bombed back to the bus. The trail we took down had a rather wide section with small boulders down the center, kind of like large lane markers. Small boosts on the for about half a mile made for some sweet little airs.
We’re headed to Mollala River tomorrow and probably Sandy Ridge on Sunday. If this is what they call training, then I’m totally game.
And if that wasn’t enough I’m set to take off for a 4 day bike tour to Seattle in June. It’s in preparation for another tour I’ll be taking in September. I’ll have more on that later.
Step throughs, roots, beers, traffic, and the wind in my hair.
Sunday, April 18th, 2010And it’s pretty decent, If you can find the office to fill out the paperwork. It took some searching but I finally found it. Ten euros to get started, 5 for the card, 5 for the initial loading.
Once you sign the documents you can find a bike. From our apartment there are a couple locations, none of which are very close. The closest being right near the forum and coliseum. I didn’t want my first ride to be in such a hectic place so I headed east and found a bike in a much more typical city setting.
I had chosen a large park as my outing as I figured I could find some dirt to pedal on. It’s been 14 days since I was atop a bike and I’ve been missing the dirt immensely. The park I found, Villa Ada is Rome’s largest.
The park is filled with wide dirt paths that circle around and criss-cross each other.
Eventually I took a break for a sandwich and a couple beers along the little lake.
After a light lunch I set out to find some singletrack. While I didn’t find much, I did come across a couple little ribbons that were obviously for two wheels. One wound around a horse compound and dropped right back to the lake I had lunch at. On a cruiser bike with marginally functional brakes, this was a real thrill. I wouldn’t suggest a cruiser for going uphill, but downhill was awesome.
I’ve still got 4 euros left on my card so I think I’m going to take another couple spins this week. 50cents per hour is a pretty good deal for a bike.
Recently at the Sandy Ridge Trails
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010Cthulhu makes a weekly trip to the mountains (if not more) for some rad getting. At the risk of blowing the lid right off this place(it’s not like anyone reads this but me) I’ll link you to the BLM site itself. Built in conjunction with NWTA/IMBA these trails are state of the art. Sustainable, thoughtful, and fast.
Currently the fire road is the best way to the top, but plans are in the works to create a two-way trail that will take you all the way back up, keeping you off the fire road and the main trail, which is best ridden in a downward direction.
As a joint Wreck/Cthulhu endeavor, we hit the trails on Saturday in near perfect conditions. 65 degrees, spotty clouds, and a nice breeze. Summer is here if you haven’t noticed, and we’re taking full advantage of it while we can. And then Tuesday another expedition was made for further dirt analysis. Jason2 and I found the trails in slightly muddy conditions, but the majority was tacky and fast. A little slop is good though, as it keeps the nerves on point.
This being the third trip I’ve taken to the Sandy Ridge System, I felt a new route might help out better. Luckily we live in Sellwood, so jumping on 224 to 212 to 26 cuts out 15-30 minutes of Powell Blvd bullshit. This is good and bad. Good because it’s a quicker trip, bad because sweet trails are that much closer.
A return trip is planned for this Saturday. It’s supposed to rain, but we’re leaving for Rome in two weeks so we’re getting all the dirt in while we can. Take my advice and get there.
This ain’t no regular unit. It’s a G-Unit.
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Photo by Brujo of course
Pictures for sale
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Oregon Velo Photos from Echo Red to Red
Anyone want to buy me a picture of me?
I always wonder how many people actually buy photos after races. They’re usually good, but never something I’d spend $12 let alone $113 for a 12×18 print. In these photos I’m usually drooling or making a really awkward face. When I’m coming around the corner and spot the photographer I do my best to make a I’m-having-a-great-time! kind of face, which usually turns into a look of pain and desperation.
But if anyone wants to buy one, I support that decision. Actually this is probably one of the better photos of me racing…
Smooth and Fast.
Friday, March 5th, 2010Every day for the rest of my life.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010Boy do I wish
New Content. New outlook on life.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010It’s time someone stepped forward and said enough is enough. I’m not sure that’s me, but hell, I stare at a computer all day now so I might as well do something productive.
Velograph is back.