As we walked from the parking spot, we noticed a group of tanks over on a bluff. So we checked em out. Before we were even 100 feet away, Adam was calling out model numbers and explaining to other visitors that they were all Russian tanks. He’s a smart guy and he knows his shit.

I think this may have been my favorite vehicle in the group.

But we weren’t there to look at tanks, although they’re awesome. We stepped inside and immediately were overwhelmed by the giant plane taking up the entire hangar. That would be the spruce goose, which is impossible to take pictures of in it’s entirety. So, here’s the tail. The small tail below it is from an F4, which is a largish fighter jet itself.

They let you check out the inside, but you can’t really explore too much. The H4 is actually made of Birch, and was made of wood due to the war effort. It flew for a couple miles at around 25 feet above the water. Amazing.

Moving on to other pieces of the museum now. A replica of the plane the Wright Brothers created was really cool. The use of chainrings, and chains, and bicycle hubs was really cool. In fact, the engine used to power the first airplane was built by the Wright Bros bicycle shop mechanic. He built the engine in six weeks from crude drawings. He died a poor man.

Eventually we made our way to the B17 Bomber. For a few extra dollars, you get a personal tour of the plane. We took them up on the offer. Apparently I’m the right size for the two worst jobs on a B17 – the ball turret gunner, and tail gunner. Damn my 5’8″ frame.

After the B17 we were all a bit overwhelmed. But we still managed to check out the rest of the hangar. This guy must have been a real badass.

The Evergreen Air Museum is well worth the $20 I have to say. The story behind the museum and it’s founder make me wonder how much they’re really telling, but the result is a great collection of historical achievements. After sitting in traffic to get back to Portland, I was desperate to get on the bike, and as soon as I got home I jumped on the cross bike and headed north for beer and beer related activities. It was awesome.

So yeah.

It’s been really hot here in Portland. Anything above 80 degrees is when it gets uncomfortable. So when it hits the high 90′s for a couple days in a row, all motivation comes to a halt.

But we’ve been working on a rock wall for the last couple of months and the plan was to finish it this weekend. So heat or not, we started out early on Saturday and Sunday and got it done.

We forgot to take a before picture, so this is from Google Maps.

So, working an hour here and an hour there this took us about two months. Now it’s ready to grow food.

Having accomplished all this, and being done at noon, I started getting antsy. It was really hot, but I needed to get out of the house. So I packed up Marv real quick like and headed to the Sandy Ridge.

If you haven’t been there, or it’s been a while, you’ll be impressed with the new infrastructure. Not only have they finished the bridge over Little Joe Creek, but they’ve installed signage, and built a map kiosk at the top.

I had been wanting to check out the new Three Thirty Eight Loop, and today proved to be a great day for that. Despite the temperature being a good ten degrees cooler than Portland, it was still really hot. After ducking into the woods, I quickly found a good sitting rock and refueled. Chamois heart!

The new loop is still undergoing development, but already shows signs of great design. I’m really anxious to see how this develops. Moving onto Hide n Seek, I found the trail in great shape, at least up top. The bottom section has a lot of pitting, but i think that’s due to the high levels of use and little to no rain to keep things solid. Currently the lower half feels very sandy. But up top still throws great riding. I really like the little root pops they’ve built the trail around. If you hit this one on the left side aiming right, it drops you into a perfect line for the berm coming up. It’s really sweet.

Things like this encourage faster riding and soon after I met my trail nemesis and we battled again.

See, near the bridge there’s a berm that feeds a sharp left turn that hides a large root that sits about two and a half feet high. It doesn’t sound like much, and I’ve cleared it many times, but recently it’s been giving me a hard time. Today it took another pot shot and I went overboard. But I’m not discouraged. I’ll be back soon enough to try it again.

From there I dropped over the bridge and rode the lower half of Hide n Seek a couple times before heading home. Driving home, Marv was running smoothly, the sun was really golden, and that post mountain bike glow was in full effect.

It was a short while later that two of us sold our interests to the last remaining member of the Cranked crew. He put out one more issue and then put it to bed, presumably due to the cost of producing a color magazine with a shoestring budget and small readership.

So four years later I’ve been looking through those old magazines, what I have left mind you, and thought that maybe, just maybe, someone might be interested in seeing what we once did. This was before Cog became the great publication that it is. We did it on our own, without the approval of management, behind closed doors, and on our own time. I’m very proud of what Cranked did for me, and I’m pretty sure the other two are as well.

Disclaimer: Cranked is no longer produced. It hasn’t been in print since 2006, so advertisers and content is way out of date. This is only for posterity. I did this.

Click the image to see a larger version, or click to download the pdf here! All images open in new tabs for easy viewing.

Same path. Farther north. Blurry pictures will have to do, as the stench of old cigarette butts and bus patrons puffing on the path is really hard to stomach, especially after so many beers in the park. Gross.