For my aunt

I kind of let this die. My aunt Linda asked me the other day why I never post here anymore. I'd forgotten all about this site. It's hard to remember to post here, to come up with new things to write about, to find the time to post updates.

A lot has happened. We have a new dog, he likes to run, go camping, and get dirty.






We've taken a lot of mountain bike trips.












I'm starting to get a glimpse of summer and I imagine that means more mountain bike and camp trips. Hard to plan for that when I was just up back country skiing in DEEP powder on Saturday.

Please stop

My riding shoes have been damp for 6 straight days since it rains every time I ride. Really? Today all I could do was laugh on my ride home. It started out with a sprinkle and then just got heavier. Yay, wet gloves, wet helmet, went everything. Sigh. Maybe I'll drive tomorrow.

St George, Hurricane and Red Canyon

Old trails and some new ones greeted us in Southern Utah where we rode for 8 days. St George, Hurricane, and Red Canyon welcomed us with hot temps and plenty of sunshine. The riding in that part of the country is rocky and fairly technical with beautiful views. To me, mountain biking is about going new places, seeing new things, smiling as I ride through desert vegetation, across mesas, along ledges, into canyons. I hope some of these pictures can portray the beauty of the region.

Bear Springs Race

Sunday was Bear Springs Trap race up by Mt Hood. I don't really race anymore, or train, but I still go to the occasional race and can still survive in the Pro category. I don't get first place anymore, but then what can I expect, these ladies are training and racing almost every weekend and I'm just hanging out having fun on rides.

Despite all this, I got third place and took home enough money to pay for dinner! I had a lot of fun, but suffered a great amount as well. It was a tough race and I just don't have it in me to ride that hard for that long.

Last week was the first week of CSA and Derek did awesome using all the fresh produce in our magic bag of goodies. My favorites were the mashed potatoes with leeks, and beet risotto with spinach. Sooo good. When I was little growing up in Washington we lived on property with a giant lot that my parents filled with a vegetable garden. I remember helping to plant and harvest carrots, corn, pumpkins, potatoes, beets, peas, green beans, tomatoes...yummy

A big group of us went camping last weekend out at Shadow Bay on Waldo Lake. It was a farewell to summer trip but somehow I don't think it will be the last riding adventure before fall sets in.

Group Ride

I had the rare chance to ride with Tony Ellsworth as part of the Cogwild Ellsworth weekend on Saturday. I bought an Ellsworth Truth this past spring and have been totally loving it. The ride we did is probably close to my favorite in the area. Big climbs, lake views, long downhill descents with big trees...classical Oregon riding. We rode from Little Cultus Lake out and around Lemish and Charlton Lakes and a few of us splintered off and rode up to the top of The Twins and back as well. All together it was somewhere around 26 miles with at least 3700' of climbing and topped out arond 7100' elevation at the top of Twins. The group was made up of only people who rode Ellsworth bikes which was amusing. I met people from Alabama, Utah, Northern and Southern California, and Oregon. I didn't take too many actual ride pictures, just a couple scenery pics.

Here I am with Ellsworth founder Tony Ellsworth.



Views were easy to find.







Tony isn't riding an Ellsworth here..he's in the campground kids bike race!

Summer Vacation

I took a vacation to mountain bike in Durango, CO. Derek had to work and couldn't join me so I went to visit my friends Matt and Katri. Matt owns Hermosa Tours and we spent the week riding high country singletrack in the mountains surrounding Durango.

The riding in that area is steep and technical with high altitude - some days were up around 11 & 12,000 feet. I took care to drink lots of water and the altitude didn't really bother me that much. The weather was near perfect and I had a blast. Most days we took the Hermosa Tours shuttle up mountain gravel roads and then spent another hour or two climbing and descending as we circled the mountain ranges. At the end of each day I was treated to an awesome long downhill.

As the snow melts I get to head higher and higher to ride. We rode along Tumalo Trail, up North Fork and then across to Mrazek and Farewell. There was only one spot we had to work through snow (about 6 steps) and then there were about 8 trees down on Metolius Windingo. The weather was hot and sunny and the sights were remarkable. Flowers, snow capped mountains and beauty that can't be described. Summer is sure shaping up to be a whole lot of fun.

Change of Pace

One of the best things about Bend is you are so close to everything outdoors. After work the other day, I met some friends to paddle. We packed up the car and were up at Sparks Lake in no time at all. Kayaking until the sun sets and then enjoying some beers. Good times.

Derek and I rode in Oakridge on Sunday - well worth the 1.5 hour drive. The trails in Oakridge are steep and varied. Some sections have steep rocky switchbacks, some are smooth with a jungle feel. This ride ended up being a bit over 4 hours with lots of great views and plenty of heat and climbing.

View down after the first climb. The trail actually started down at that water.



HUGE trees everywhere.




Here is one of the rocky steep switchbacks I'm talking about.



Can you pick out Derek?

Helens

Last week a big contingent from Bend packed up and headed to the Mt St. Helens area for a few days of mountain biking and camping. It was PERFECT weather and I had a really fun time. I lived in Washington when the volcano blew back in 1980 but I was a little girl and was amazed at how much things had grown back. The trails were very different from Bend and we enjoyed the variety of terrain.




Mt St Helens big and bold.



That's the trail along the ridgeline!






That's Mt Adams in the background.

It has been a long time since I've written anything here. Summer is in full swing and I've been incredibly busy riding, spending time with friends, washing my bikes, and enjoying life. We started off summer on the wrong foot with daily thundershowers and sometimes giant hailstorms! I've ridden in the rain more times this past 30 days than in my whole riding career I think. Trail conditions are really nice right now and I'm writing this after having just returned from an evening ride. Here are a couple shots from my past rides. Darn camera batteries having been playing tricks on me lately. Everytime I go to take a pic the battery is dead. Grrrrr - I've missed a lot of good shots because of this.











I can't go overwhelming myself with all these words so I'll save some for another day.