Christmas Ski

Yesterday after some homemade pancakes in my belly, we went xc skiing. 4 hours of breaking trail in deep powder was exhausting. All we could do after is sit on the couch and eat. Perfect day.

XC Ski Weekend

Saturday we were up early and went xc skiing at Swampy. It was a lot of trail breaking in deep powder since we were the first ones up to the Swede Shelter. Plenty of snow and relatively good weather. Sore legs.

Sunday we skied downtown to The Summit and joined some friends for beers. It was then settled that we are going to try our hand at homebrewing in the new year. That's an easy enough resolution to keep.

Sunday up at the shelter.







Derek on his way for beers.



Me skiing along the river on the way downtown.

Ski!

The snow was so light and dry today for my first ski. Everything just felt right shoooshing along. Afterwards we stopped and snowshoed in for a Christmas Tree. It's always quite an ordeal to find just the right one. This time we went to Wanoga Snowpark and hiked back up in for a nice 8 footer or so.





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Delicious

Last night's dinner was sweet potato tamales with goat and cream cheesed stuffed jalapenos and red snapper with a chipotle sauce. After that digested a tad we topped the night off with fresh from the oven Chocolate Lave Cake. I'm fueled up for today's adventures now.

Portland was fun - we spent the weekend watching cyclocross races, drinking beer at some new to us breweries, walking around, and having fun.

Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday and Derek cooked me an awesome dinner and then for dessert, a Sacher Cake. It's a Viennese cake, probably the most famous chocolate cake of all-time. It consists of chocolate sponge cake cut into three layers, between which he put a homemade cherry syrup. The whole cake is then iced with a velvet-like chocolate. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!

It was really nice weather for riding yesteray and took advantage of it and went for a spin after lunch. Fall keeps chugging along and I'll take it while it's here, but I'm ready for snow too!

Group Ride

What another wonderful day for riding! Still no snow so we're having an extended riding season. The ride took us from Wanoga Snowpark into town. Great time.

Pyramid

Thanksgiving was great! We loaded the Bob trailer and bikes up with beer, potato gratin, green bean casserole and chocolate bourbon pecan pie and rode over to Stu and Linda's.

Funner

After a night of eating and drinking we slept in and then rode the new Funner trail up at Wanoga yesterday. We did it as a modified loop by heading down Funner and then up Tiddlywinks to the singletrack connector and then back up Funner. Fun stuff. It was the first time we've been all the way down the trail so we took a couple of the jumps pretty easy. Good times, decent weather and nice to pedal for a couple hours.

Movie Night

Last night was Webcyclery movie night so off we went. We started with some beers by the outside fire at McM's and then headed inside for the showing of 9 Ball Diaries. Very entertaining footage of some unbearable weather!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey, Take a Hike!

I hiked/jogged up Tumalo Mtn on Sunday. It was cold but very sunny as I started up the trail. The snow never got to be more than about 8" so I was fine in my hiking boots. The hike up was about 1.8 miles and gained 1,200 feet where it tops out at 7,779 feet. Brilliant views.
















Mt Bachelor across the street and starting to get a bit of base.

The last couple nights have been pretty chilly for my ride home. My observations: Jackson's Corner is VERY popular. Every night when I ride by it, the surrounding streets are lined with cars and it's buzzing inside. I need to try that place, seems promising. I saw that they lit up all the little trees in the Old Mill...looks nice. I love this time of year.

What a great weekend for riding! We did a nice road ride one day and mountain biked the next. Just for the record....Happy Valley has a lot of snow still and that storm we had a week or so ago caused A LOT of blowdown on the trails. It's weird riding through snow when it's 70 degrees out.





The snow started to show up at the river crossing and it got thick for periods.

Sweet

Someone left this on our door while we were out drinking Friday night. It pays to drink.

It swirls and whirls, leaves dribble along the surface then shoot up into the sky, this way, that way, chaos.

What a nice windstorm for my rides yesterday. Coming back from the pool I'd be humming right along and then BAM hit by a windgust and nearly stopped dead. Standing at the light waiting for it to beam green I watched the signals swaying in the wind and the trees being buffeted. It was comical to ride with the hands of wind pushing on my handlebars.

Where is winter?

The trails called and I answered

More great fall weather this weekend. We got in a nice ride and apparently we weren't the only one with the idea because we saw more people on the trails Saturday then we ever have.

I always have to stop and look out across this open area to admire my surroundings.






Sunday I went swimming and sat in the sauna and steam room to relax afterward. I hope it doesn't snow/ice too much if any this week. I still haven't switched over my tires on my bike to the studded ones. Pretty soon I will be going through the morning ritual of putting on the balaclava, neoprene booties and extra heavy gloves to make the ride into work.

Fall is awesome. We headed out for a quick ride Sunday morning. I peaked out the blinds looking west and there were some spots of blue sky but the ground was wet and it had clearly been raining sometime recently. The sky to the South was grey with a big cloud bank. What the heck, we went for it. Up at Swampy Snowpark it was snowing ever so lightly, really tiny itsy bitsy pieces that were more like hail. They trail was damp and AWESOME as we winded up and around. About 15 minutes in we hit some actual snow that was sticking to the ground. It never got to be more than a dusting though. The air was soooo fresh tasting and smelling as I cleared the ridge and started downhill.

Thanksgiving Pies

Help support the Central Oregon Culinary School by purchasing your Thanksgiving pie from them. They are selling Apple, Chocolate Pecan Bourbon, and Pumpkin for $12 each and all proceeds go to the 2009 Italy Culinary Trip. Really, all proceeds will just go to your belly! Pies can be ordered by calling 318-3780 or by e-mail at jdarwin@cocc.edu. They will take orders up until Friday November 21, 2008 for pick up after noon on Wednesday November 26, 2008.

Cache Mtn

Saturday we had plans to meet some people to ride Cache Mtn but they called and canceled feeling sick. Derek and I soldiered on alone. We hadn't ridden Cache Mtn since the fall of 2004 as part of the Bend Fat Tire Tour. On that particular day we rode the 20+ miles in a heavy snowfall at times, rain at others. IT WAS FREEZING that day. This Saturday was a drastic difference. It was a perfect autumn day about 65 degrees, no wind, and spectacular color. Back in 2003 the B&B Complex fire devastated this area burning a total of 140 square miles. The regrowth is in full force.

Dance Stars