Monday, April 30, 2007

Bear Springs Trap

30+ miles of mountain biking beauty. Sunday was the Bear Springs Trap mountain bike race up by Government Camp. I rode the course before/during the race and had a great ride despite being a little paranoid. I mean, the name of the race is BEAR Springs Trap and I was out in the forest by myself for 3 hours. The weather was perfect riding weather, not too hot, not cold. The pristine singletrack was a treat. The trails in that area aren't documented very well so I don't think they are ridden all that much. The singletrack is rocky with roots everywhere. Derek was doing well until about an hour into the race when, after descending some switchbacks, he went to pedal back up the road and discovered he had lost his chain! He abandoned his bike and hiked back up the trail looking for it. Luckily he found it and was able to get it back on his bike and finish.

Here are a few of the pics I took.

I tried to get too artsy on this one and don't like it now.


Everything up there is soooo green from the recent snowmelt.



It was hard to focus on the tight downhill switchbacks here with views of Mt Hood begging to be looked at.



Yes, all those rocks are the trail.




Friday, April 27, 2007

Friday Flat Day!

Happy Friday! On my ride to work this morning I got a flat. I had decided to take my road bike today since the street sweepers were out to finally clean up all the crushed lava rock they put down in the winter. Derek put a brand new tire on the back since it was worn out from trainer riding this past winter. About 2 blocks from work I flatted though and decided to just ride it in flat. So for lunch I get to change a tire. Woohoo.

Big plans for the weekend? We have a dinner party tonight, then tomorrow I will probably do a long ride and Sunday we are headed up towards Mt. Hood for a mountain bike race. I'll ride the course again before the race - it's a long one at 30+ miles but I really love the trails up there and will bring home some pics for sure so check back!

Have a good weekend.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

You Are What You Eat

I am quite possibly one of the pickiest eaters. A friend sent me this the other day and it had me laughing pretty hard.



Today I think I'll do a long mountain bike ride after work - it's supposed to be near 70 degrees today!!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

God Grew Tired of Us

Derek and I went and saw the film God Grew Tired of Us at the Tower Theatre last night. It's about The Lost Boys - during the civil war in Sudan 27,000 boys from ages 5-10 fled their country to escape from being murdered. They walked hundreds of miles across the desert traveling to refugee camps for 10 years. The US provided aid to some of them to come to America and live. The film then follows their lives here. I highly recommend it. HIGHLY.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Strike a pose

Dirt model:



History time: Harris has been a community since 1890, bearing the name of a pioneer landowner. When the post office was established, residents petitioned for the name of Harris, but postal authorities feared confusion might develop with nearby Harrisburg. I rode out past the lovely Harris covered bridge. The date on it is 1929.



Yesterday was an awesome weather day - warm, warm, warm. I rode up Skyliners at lunch in short sleeves and was sweating! Today is supposed to be more of the same so I think I'll do some hills this afternoon and enjoy the views along the way.

Happy Tuesday

Monday, April 23, 2007

Mudslinger

Yesterday was a race called The Mudslinger over in Corvallis, Oregon. How appropriate - it was indeed muddy. We arrived in town Saturday afternoon and walked around a bit before heading to The American Dream for an awesome smoked gouda cheddar and herb spiced chicken pizza and for me, 3 really good red beers. I wasn't racing so no worries. Sunday we had breakfast at a nice little place and then headed out to the race. It had rained most of Saturday and was all foggy Sunday morning and threatening rain. I rode the course right away before the race went off, and then because it was an ok day, I tacked on an exploratory ride in the area as well. The trails weren't to muddy and some of the singletrack was new. Tough course with a fair amount of climbing, and newly cut singletrack. I snapped some pics of the course.

Green everywhere.







Go Team Webcylery. That must have been a rough ride for the tandem.



You know my love of bridges.



My bike after riding.

Friday, April 20, 2007

96 Hours!

I came across an old friend's name the other day in an email I get from Roadbikerider:

Two roadies named Pete Masiel and Wendy Gardiner recently set a stationary cycling record by pedaling for 96 hours, 4 minutes and 8 seconds in San Diego. The twosome bettered the mark of 85 hours set earlier this year and are submitting documents for recognition by the Guinness World Record committee. Maisel, a former Marine firefighter, and Gardiner, a Georgia resident, made their record attempt to raise money and awareness for the San Diego Burn Institute and the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation. "We were just a vehicle to help recognize the true heroes, the burn victims that have to live day in and day out," Masiel said. The next big goal for the pair is the Race Across America in June -- no less grueling, but at least the scenery is moving.

I went to my first ever mountain bike race with Pete! 96 hours on a trainer is insane, almost stupid really, but good for him.

Let's play a game. No, really, it's easy. Tell me what you think this rock looks like. I was riding along enjoying the sun and solitutde of the trails in the afternoon and saw it.



Have a good weekend!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

April Snow

It's a good thing I went on my big afterwork mountain bike ride on Monday. The sky looked threatening when I headed out, but I made it all the way out to Phils, up to the helipad, and down Whoops and back with only a couple minutes of sprinkling. I finally got to ride my real cross country bike now that the fork is fixed. That bike is so light and snappy feeling. I was zinging around those berms and off the jumps. I only saw a couple other riders in all that time out there and it's a shame because the trail conditions were really nice...and now they may be sloggy because look what happened just in time for my ride home yesterday.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Weekend recap

Busy weekend. We went out to dinner and then had drinks at multiple places on Friday night. Saturday was kind of dreary so I did an indoor workout and then we headed down to the Silver Moon Brewery to listen to local band The Mostest. It was their CD release party and the place was PACKED!

We were wishy washy on whether we were going to do the Hutch's Bicycle preseason century on Sunday. I don't know why they have to start so early. It was barely above freezing when the time rolled around that we would have to leave. So, we decided not to. We waited until the afternoon when the sun came out and it warmed up, and then we did a giant ride around the area. It was three hours of backroads basically.

Look what I spotted off in a field!



Then I made some homemade apple pie to replenish the carbs we burned.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Friday the 13th!

I've been lucky this week. It has threatened to rain most days, it has hailed one, snowed ever so lightly another, and been a bit chilly. However, I think I'm like the opposite of washing your car. It seems that if I go riding then it doesn't rain. Yesterday I rode up Awbrey Butte every imaginable way. That's the only way to stay warm...just ride hills.

The trails are continuing to dry out nicely and before long we'll be riding North Fork! Until then, the lower stuff is sufficing.




Not sure whay the ride plans are for this weekend. Hutch's Bicycle is having the preseason century Sunday but I think I would rather ride mountain both days.

Happy Friday 13th!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Spring riding

Kind of blurry but pretty typical of the sights of the forest this time of year. The trail conditions were perfect for a ride. Storm King wasn't cleared of downed trees until around Memorial Day last year but it's clear already this year!



Trailside art

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Stuff on my mutt

My friend Chandra sent me a link to Stuff on My Cat and I followed a link from there to their sister site, Stuff on My Mutt. Below is one of my favorites.



hahahahahaha

Monday, April 09, 2007

NBC Cycling

It doesn't happen often...that domestic professional cycling races are televised, but Saturday it happened. I taped the US Open Cycling Championships held in Virginia and watched it after the fact. It was horrible weather at the starting line, in fact, the race was delayed because it was was blizzard like and about 20 degrees. They did ride for quite some time in snow and it looked brutal. The cobblestone hill they climbed I think 8 times at the end of the race looked tough. So tough, that Tuft won. hahaha I'm so clever. Sven Tuft ended up winning and he did a great big strong attack towards the end of the race. Good for him.

Sunday Derek and I went for a long mountain bike ride. Snowmelt is happening at a rapid pace this year with the warm March we had.




We rode straight from our house to the singletrack and then spent about 3.5 hours riding some great trails. For the first 2.5 hours we saw NOBODY! It started out rough for me, the potato cheese burrito I had for breakfast left me feeling horrible and I was still burping it up about 2 hours later. UHG

Friday, April 06, 2007

Lunch time flog

I tried to do a couple high intensity rides the last few days - I did a time trail effort at lunch, and another day I did some flat intervals. My lungs and legs are fine and yell out, "bring it!" But my knee is growling at me. So, today, in almost hot weather, I toned it down and did a nice steady ride at lunch up to the top of Awbrey Butte in a roundabout long drawn out way. It was absolutely perfect out. This weekend should involve lots of riding and hopefully some new pictures.

Check out my nephew Cameron in his new Easter outfit. He's quite the ladies man.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Down by the river

Water ruffles by
Sun, pine, the smell of new Spring
The geese are smiling


Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Puppy trouble

I'd almost venture to say that most people have had a puppy at one time or another in their life. My friend got a yellow lab - he's about a year old now, but still having "behavior issues". Here was her email the other day.

"Does Charlie dig? Well, the simple answer is - yes, Charlie digs. Unfortunately its not that simple, Charlie doesn't just dig. Charlie digs under the fence to come and go from the yard, he digs holes to lay in and holes to put things in, he digs holes to uproot tree roots and holes to trip small children, his hole placement has no particular rhyme or reason, they just appear mid-yard where once there was flat, grassy ground. He also chews. Charlie chews tree branches and bush branches right off the plant, he has been known to uproot and completely destroy hardy shrub/trees. He chews peat moss bags into tiny shards of plastic wrap which lay all over the yard, Charlie chews children's sweatshirts of which bits and pieces lay all over the yard, He litters the yard w/ chewed pieces of trees and shrubs that lay in holes that he has dug. Charlie has strewn unopened skeins of yarn across the yard, he has chewed up plastic children's toys and stray socks that then lay in the yard in various stages of chewed-ness. Butter wrappers that once were resting unobtrusively in the covered garbage can have appeared - chewed into hundreds of tiny pieces - all over the backyard, apparently beamed Star Trek-like out of said (firmly closed) garbage can. We need Cesar Milan!"

That had me laughing pretty hard at work the other day.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Busy Weekend!

Friday we went to Kebaba for dinner and stuffed ourselves. It's just a little renovated house so the dining area inside is pretty small and cozy. The food is good - Derek and I shared the Chicken Mezza and loved it. We will definitely be going back there.

Saturday we did a mountain bike ride. The weather was less than stellar - it drizzled most of the ride. I was delighted to find Lower Whoops clear of snow already. That trail always makes me so happy. I was on my 575 with lots of travel since I had to send the fork on my Dean back to Push. It's tougher on the climbs but on Whoops that bike is right at home. I took my camera along and tried to take some pics but it wouldn't work. Never fear, I got it working again last night so I can take some pics this week.

Today was the Webcyclery Spring Classic Ride. It was about 40 degrees when we rolled out at 10am, and really only warmed up about 5 more degrees during the 2 hour ride. It was a lot more intense of a ride then I had planned on doing. I think some of the guys decided to make it a training ride.

Here is a pic from the race last weekend. I don't have my new Webcyclery kit so I'm in a mixture of E-caps and Web clothes.