MTB Charlton Lemish Loop

After the ride at Waldo, the mind started to wonder about the other trails in the area.  The map showed some decent looking trail that could be accessed via Little Cultus Lake over to Lemish and to Charlton where you could catch the Metolius WIndigo back to Lemish.

There was some snow on the east side of the lake at Waldo when we rode a week earlier but I figured the recent warm up and general aspect of the trails to Charlton was worth a gamble.  It paid off in spades!  The conditions were very tacky and even the loose/sandy spots were packed down!  I could see how hitting these trails at the wrong time of the year might spell beach sand riding in a couple of spots.

The only added adventure to contend with in the area was the hunting crews.  It is hunting season and I ran into a few parties who were out trying to determine where the elk were.  Fortunately, they did not mistake me for a critter with horns but I made sure to keep a vigilant eye on my surroundings.

I did not run into any other riders at all - I pretty much had the trail to myself which was pretty amazing.

Ride details:

MTB Waldo Lake

A couple of weekends ago, we decided to test our luck with trail conditions at Waldo Lake.  I had heard great things about the ride and it was time to explore the trails before the area shut down due to weather.  The weather window opened up and we had two great days of weather which enabled us to get our and ride in the high country.

We made our way to Waldo via the Cascade Lakes Highway and were treated to amazing views of local area peaks as we headed south.  I started to wonder about the wisdom of our decision to try our luck at Waldo when we got up to Mt Bachelor and started to see snow on the side of the road where the Cascade Lakes Hwy officially started.  They usually don't maintain the road in the winter and it gets shut down due to snow.  The first couple of curves were in the shade and still had snow on them from the recent weather.

One of Waldo's claims to fame is that the water is supposed to be incredibly clean (even more pure than Crater Lake) since there are no 'organics' in the lake.  It is a large lake that does not allow any motorized use on it so the integrity of the lake can be held intact.  It provides for a great and peaceful setting with views of Diamond Peak among others.

As we made our way over to Waldo, we missed our 'short cut' turn and took the scenic route.  The short cut takes a rough dirt road up and over to Waldo Lake (as opposed to heading all the way south, then backtracking north on the next road over.  The challenge was that the road is very poorly marked and in some cases has 2 different names/numbers on maps.  It just meant it would take us a little longer to get to the trailhead.

We arrived at Shadow Bay, found the trailhead pretty quickly and proceeded to suit up for the ride.  The higher altitude created a question as to how to dress up.  I decided to not worry about it too much since we would be moving and it was going to get warmer as the day progressed.  We decided to go clockwise (the trail is a loop) which meant we would start on the more 'technical' terrain and then have a nice ride around the east side of the lake on the return.  THe first 7 miles were different in that we rode through a couple inches of snow and there was also a fair amount of downed trees from the recent storms.

The trail meandered along the west side of the lake in the trees and we picked our way through the down trees and snow.  As we made our way up north, the conditions got significantly better and the riding continued to be really good.  The east side is significantly more exposed to the sun so it was dry and pretty much perfect conditions for riding.

There was a little bit of mechanical excitement on the ride....my singlespeed drive train was skipping so I could not really lay down too much force without the chain skipping and threatening to break.  I had to take it easy on steep climbs (very few and very very short).  I had swapped out my drive train and as usual the only thing I did not swap out was the rear cog which did not want to play nice with everything else.  It looked like it should be fine, but unfortunately it was too worn...
The other more exciting mechanical was that one of the rails on my seat decided to bust!  I was riding a Specialized Phenom with titanium rails...based on my bike fit, I set the saddle up such that the seat post clamp was secured outside of the spec'd zone so I had only myself to blame.  I did this knowingly, hoping that the rails would be OK.  The combo of being outside of the 'green' zone and riding a hard tail for a few years mostly likely caused it to eventually fail.  Let's just say the last 2/3 of the Waldo Lake ride were ridden more or less out of the saddle...it was a delicate dance of trying not to hammer on the pedals (thanks to the drive train) and riding out of the saddle.

We bumped into a familiar face on the trail and stopped to chat for a little bit.  Overall, it was a great day out on some new (to us) trail.

MTB Paulina Lakes Newberry Crater

This past Sunday, Trevor and I decided to ride Paulina Lakes/Newberry Crater.  It was new territory for me so it was great to get out somewhere new and ride something different.  The ride starts with a 1,500 ft gravel grinder climb to the peak/lookout area.  If you are in all business mode, you can skip the upper 500 ft of elevation gain and catch the trail that spurs off lower on the road prior to the lookout area.

The extra 500 feet are well worth the time and energy to check out the nice 360 views overlooking the lakes, the rim, and the lava flow.

The trail was generally pretty fun.  The ride went quickly enough as actual ride time was just under 2 1/2 hours.  With stopping for a few pictures here and there, our total time was just under 3 hrs but was well worth the moments to gawk and snap.

Some sections of the trail were a little loose but all things considered, it was a great day to be out on the bike.  We came across a couple of people on horseback but generally, there were very few people on the trails.  By the time we finished our ride, the heat was starting to rise and we started to realize how happy we were that we started the ride relatively early (as opposed to in the heat of the day).

This will be a great ride to add to the quiver of local options.

MTB MRT Ride Stats & Pix

Ride stats for the MRT out and back from the lower trailhead...everything is just slightly understated (by a little over a mile) since I must have hit 'stop' on my GPS computer un-intentionally while riding....so add about a mile......

buff trail in the beginning:

 hmmm - woodpecker?  termites?

 big O trees everywhere!

 one of the many many many many many bridge crossings

 duck that head.....

 Josh getting his RIDE on!

 sweet mossy loaminess

 Holy spores batman!  This little growth on the side of this tree was about the size of 2 basketballs!

 The Falls:

 cool little built in steps along the trail

 Clear Lake

 Don't let the paved  trail fool you...riding the east side of the lake is burly!

MTB MRT Out n' Back

The Mackenzie River Trail had been on my hit list for a while since moving out to Oregon but weather and schedules had not been able to synch up until this past Sunday.  The weather forecast looked good, the smoke from the pole creek fire simmered down, and the pass was free of snow (thwarted my first attempt).  It was go time for MRT...

Josh was a willing accomplice in heading out to the MRT and chasing the dirt paths along the river.  I had no idea what to expect in terms of terrain or ruggedness of the trail so it was a bit of an open question in regards to whether or not we would be able to do the full out and back starting from the bottom of the trail.  The plan was to get out, start riding and then determine how long the ride would take us along the way (and see if the legs would hold out).

The drive over Mackenzie Pass was amazing - the views were breathtaking and it added to the overall vibe of the day.  The road climbs up to about 5,300 ft to amazing views of Sisters on one side and Jefferson on the other.  Once you peak, you drive through a long stretch of lava beds that seem to go on for quite a way.  The little two lane road snakes up to the pass where it feels dry and arid because of all the lava beds and then once you drop about 500 feet in elevation the contrast to a super green lush forest is pretty rapid.  The east side of the pass is much drier and arid and once you drop to the west side, the ferns start to grow thick thanks to the moisture.

We enjoyed the drive down the pass and eventually hooked into Mackenzie highway where we would find our trailhead.  The bikes were unloaded and soon enough we were on the trail shortly after 9 a.m.  The jaws dropped as we rode through old growth forests that had moss growing off it like a decade old uncut beard covering entire trees.  It felt primordial in a way.  In part because it was new trail, but also thanks to the early crisp-ness of the morning and feeling like the trail was all to ourselves.

The first 1/2 of the ride (in the direction from bottom to top) was fun, fast, and buff (or loamy as those crazy Canadians say) which only raised a little red flag in our heads because we knew that the whole trail could not be like this...At about the 1/2 way point, the trail started to dish out a little luvin'.  We hit a gnarly lava tek section that quickly raised the heart rate and upped the ante on getting yo' tek on!  The slight uphill of the trail made for challenging terrain as the tek sections quickly changed direction and you had to adjust accordingly to pick your line and stick it.  These lava sections kept you honest as an unplanned fall onto that sharpie stuff could spell carnage.

We picked our way through about a mile of tek wonderland and then the trail wound through the forest away from the river and road for a couple of miles where it once again hugged the river.  At this point the trail kicks up and there is some steeper climbing but you are rewarded with spectacular views of good sized waterfalls as they cascade into pools.   We passed a group of hikers who commented they had never seen anyone riding 'up' the trail....and we started to understand why.

After getting through the waterfall zone, we hit some more tek and then got kicked out to some pretty nice smooth riding at Clear Lake.  At this point we were about 3 hours into our ride and it was time to figure out what the plan of attack was.  We decided we should indeed just finish the ride since we were that close and so we trucked on through fast trail on the west side of the lake.

We looked at the map and rode around the lack until we saw a trail marker that indicated which way MRT went.  It pointed us to our right which did not feel right because it seemed like the trail should go left.  After about 2 miles we figured out we were going around the lake and that the trail on the east side of the lake was pretty burly.  There were some 'get your attention' tek sections that provided the good old 'Jane Fonda Full Body Workout' routine as we trudged through it.  About the time we were ready for the tek to be over, the sharp lava rocks turned to......pavement!  There was a little paved trail about 18 inches wide that wound through and around the lake for about a mile....hmmmm....weird....the paved section was still challenging in a way as it was steep with some really tight switches.

We worked our way around the lake and got back to the junction we had hit earlier when we got to Clear Lake.  Our return to the car was now officially ON.  The return was much faster as we got to reap the benefits of the climbing on the way up.  The tek sections that seemed super burly on the way up now seemed pretty casual on the way down...with a couple of exceptions where you had to be on your game to pick the right line and be brave enough to hold it.  A lady commented that we were brave to be riding that and at that point I started to question my sanity a little.

I officially debunked the myth that you can't go over your handlebars on a 29'r.  I hit a steep section and was sloppy enough and I paid the price with what must have looked like a pretty spectacular fall.  Josh also got a little taste of the dirt a little earlier so in this case misery did indeed love company and we considered ourselves fortunate to have not suffered any considerable damage to either body or bike.

The last 1/2 of the ride was a challenge to dig deep and find the fortitude to polish off the ride.  I was looking forward to the uber fast, flowy, fun singletrack that awaited.  Somehow the trail seemed bumpier than it had felt about 5 hours earlier going in the other direction.  After 5+ hours of riding on the hardtail singlespeed, the body was starting to talk to me telling me it was not in its best form.  Soon enough we hit the goods and tried to enjoy the last miles of fun before we got back to the car.  Eventually the car was in sight and we were back at the trailhead where the adventure had started over six hours earlier.

As per my Garmin, we rode 45.3 miles which was understated because I inadvertently hit stop on the computer.  We lost about a mile or so of GPS'ing.  So in my book, it was a 46+ mile ride with about 3,700 ft of elevation gain through an incredible area that threw a little bit of everything at you.  Ride time was about 6 1/2  hours (accounting for the 'lost mile)'.
It was tougher than I had expected in that you were on singletrack all day long so you had to be ON and the top 1/2 was a little tekkier than I was expecting.  GPS info to follow on next blog post....

MTB Flagline Profile

Ride Stats from Sunday's ride:

MTB Bend - Flagline

Sunday was the day I finally got to ride Flagline!  A combination of weather, seasonal closure, schedule, and daylight made this trail elusive since arriving in Bend.  Many had mentioned that it was a MUST DO trail and I kept thinking I needed to make time to go ride it.  Sunday was the day.

I dusted off the singlespeed and went up to the Skyliner parking lot where I caught the connector trail up to Tumalo Falls and rode North Fork to the junction for Flagline.  North Fork is always enjoyable and Sunday did not disappoint.  Once I hit the junction to pick up Metolius Windigo/Flagline, I was in for a real surprise.  The super buff trail snaked through old growth and it just continued to climb for a while.

There were a couple of moments where I forced myself to stop because the scenery and trail were so stellar.  It was easy to just get lost in the flow of climbing and riding.  After another 1,000 ft of climbing, the trail topped out, but not before seeing some sneak a peak looks at the Sisters Wilderness with great views of Broken Top.

 As I was taking these pictures, I heard the whirl of helicopter blades and watched a helicopter with a big water container heading to the Pole Creek Fire (SW of Sisters and NW of Bend).  I was not at the ready with a camera but it was a little surreal to be in such pristine country on the only clear day (due to smoke) of the past 2 weeks and remember that the fire was not yet fully contained.

The trail definitely made you feel like you were riding in alpine country with meadows everywhere and the lungs reminding you of your elevation.  The top out of the trail was at about 7,000 ft.  Towards the top, I took a little detour to a road that provided amazing views of Sisters and Broken Top.

I re-traced my steps back to the trail and then started the fun and fast downhill.  Along the way I was surprised to run into a little snow drift!

I got to another junction where a guy could pop out at Dutchman Sno Park.  I turned left to stay on the Flagline trail that would hook into the Swampy trail system.  Once I hit the warming cabin, it was time to head down South Fork which was fun since I had never ridden down it, but had always opted to ride up it to gain access to the trail systems on the ridge.
It was a fun, fast downhill and soon enough it put me back along the river trail that I rode back to Skyliners.

What a great day!  This might just be Bend's premier trail and for good reason,  It has a little bit of everything mixed in and I secretly kept thinking that it is a good thing the trail involves a fair amount of climbing and is only open part of the year (due to the high elevation and closure for elk calving through July).  The combo helps to thin out the herds of riders and keep the trail in good condition.  I ran into a couple of riders along the way but was content to have the trail to myself as I could feel the batteries getting re-charged and the soul getting fed.

Ride details to follow...

MTB Bend: Forks Figure 8

As the daylight hours shrink into Fall, it becomes a race to eek out every minute of daylight after work. Tuesday's shenanigans took me out to the Skyliners parking lot where I met Josh and we embarked on a mad dash to do the Forks Figure 8:  up North Fork, through Happy Valley, down Farewell and then back up South Fork, along Swede Ridge and back down the connector trail back to Skyliners.

With little time to spare we hopped on the bikes and pedaled into therapy.  It was about 2 1/2 hours of ride time with a little under 23 miles and a little over 3K of vertical gain.   There is a definite nip in the air and soon enough it will be time to bust out the long sleeves and fingered gloves.

MTB N Fork Farewell Loop

As the days get shorter, the mad rush to squeeze in post-work rides is ON!  Many of the lower elevation trails in Bend are getting a wee bit dusty so I have been avoiding them over the past several weeks.  The goods are up higher and the higher the goods, the better the riding!  The conditions are better (not as loose) and the added bonus is that there seem to be much fewer people on the trails.

My once a week go-to loop at the moment is heading up North Fork through Happy Valley and back down via Farewell.  As usual, it did not disappoint.

Ride details:

MTB Sky Tum North Farewell

After work on Tuesday, it was time to rally and load the car up in order to get a post-work ride/therapy session in.

The plan was to head back up to North Fork from the Skyliners parking area and ride to the top and head back down via Farewell.  There was a nice crisp feel in the air and it is time to accept that the winds of seasonal change are upon us.  The days are shorter, the nights cooler, and the possibilities for getting out after work are reduced.

It was a great ride at around 15 miles but with a nice little elevation gain of around 2,000 ft in a little over 1 1/2 hrs of ride time.  I managed to crank my heart rate up during the climb up North Fork and once again took in the all sights and sounds as I grunted my way up.  I ran into 2 riders...1 on the way up, and 1 on the way down.  The upper elevation trails are riding really well and there are fewer riders up there so it is a win win...it is nice to avoid the craziness that can be the Phil's parking area and trail system.

Elevation Profile:

 North Fork climb going up clockwise, and Farewell coming down on the right:

MTB COB North Fork

Saturday's ride around Bend/Beyond took me from the house, to the Phils network of trails where I followed the trails up to Skyliners and hooked that into the Tumalo connector trail that takes you to the North Fork trailhead.  Once on NF, I crested up in Happy Valley and followed the trail to the junction which gave you the option to head downhill on Farewell (3 miles) or downhill on Mrazek (13 miles).  I wanted to do the bigger loop through Mrazek which would put me over by Shelvin and a little closer to home.  All in all it was a great day to work the cobwebs out of the legs and get some soul therapy in.

Ride specifics: 44.5 miles, a little over 4 1/2 hrs of ride time and a little over 4K of elevation gain.

North Fork is an uphill only trail so it seems to be holding out better than many other trails due to the lack of brake chatter/bumps from bombing downhill.  It makes a lot of sense to me to have directional trails like that, especially when they are multi-use trails that see many a hiker.  I would think part of the concern of bombing downhill on that particular trail is the possibility of launching off the trail into a water fall which would be enough to really ruin a guy's/gal's day.

To date, North might be my favorite local trail.  It is super scenic with some amazing waterfalls along the ride (and I am not talking the little trickle falls but more so the full on loud cascading type) and the best part is it gives you access to the upper elevation trails where you can link to all sorts of sweet sweet nectar.

mental note, take a camera for some pix on the next ride....

High Cascades 100 - Follow up Pix

One of the consequences of signing up for the High Cascades and the TransRockies was that they were separated by all of one week.  One of the follow ups from the High Cascades was getting some pix that were provided as part of the entry...so here are some of the High Cascades hundie photos:

High Cascades100 Thoughts

The legs are recovering and the mind is starting to make sense of the High Cascades hundie this past weekend.

All in all, it was a great event with an awesome course.  The course is generally pretty fast as the uber fast guys were coming in sub 8 hrs!  The singlespeed winner came in sub 9 hours!  The singlespeed category as a whole was fast.  To take that thought a step further, I was the 23rd out of 27  singlespeeders to cross the line and 153rd overall out of 320 (if you count the DNF's).  So overall I was solid mid-pack, but as a singlespeeder I was on the back end.

Gear Ratio - I ran a 32:20 for the race and the legs felt fine throughout the day.  I am thinking a 32:19 is probably a good ratio for the race as you won't be quite as spun out on some sections and none of the climbs were too steep, and the steep ones were hike a bike regardless of gear ratio (unless of course you are not a mortal).

The body hurt more after this race than it has after any other hundie or enduro event.  For some reason, this course beats you up!  There is less climbing than other hundies which for me translated into the legs feeling OK, but the body feeling like it had been put through a meat grinder.  I think it is because you are on singletrack for most of the race and the middle 30 or so miles are technical rocky sections that just beat you into submission with all the lava rock.  The hardtail selection of bike just exacerbated the pain the last 30 miles.

Tires - I was glad I swapped out tires prior to the race and went with re-enforced sidewalls.  I still cringed as I went through the long tech sections that kept popping my tires as I went through it.  Running tubeless is definitely the way to go.

Mudslinger did a bang up job on organization and clean up post-race.  Those guys have this dialed in.  

High Cascades 100 Race Report

After the usual toss n turn night the day before the race, I showed up at the starting line a wee bit groggy from the night of broken sleep.  The 5:30 start came early but it was a perfect start time as it was already daylight and nice and crisp.
I was looking forward to the day (well, sort of considering the dark places that you have to visit while on these journeys) and felt like my fitness was OK, and I had pre-ridden about 2/3 of the course and somewhat knew what to expect.

The starting gun went off and everyone followed the pace car on pavement for about 6 miles.  For us singlespeeders, we got left to our own high rpm spinny cadence.  I saw many a gearie pass me up on the road and took the approach of finding a comfortable cadence to spin and not try to keep up with the guys/gals with gears.
I knew that soon enough, we would hit the dirt and it would be time to start trying to reel some riders in.

After about 6 miles, we turned onto a quickie paved downhill section for about a mile until we turned off onto the dirt road that would take us up to the Larsen trail.  The dirt road helped to thin out the riders and helped us singlespeeders to catch up to some folks.  Once we hit the Larsen trail, we hit a couple of bottlenecks on some 'tek' sections where people were dismounting and walking.
I decided to accept the conga line place and just ride it out until we hit some areas that were more open and would spread people out a little more.
We took the Larsen trail over to Tiddlywinks and up Funner to Wanoga Sno Park where there was the first aid station.  About 1 1/2 hours into the race, I noticed I was cramping!  whhhhhhaaat?  It was weird because I had not been hammering and did not feel like I had been working too hard yet.  I quickly downed a handful of endurolytes and made a mental note to be diligent about popping a couple pills every hour for the duration of the day.

We got to Wanoga and I skipped the Aid station knowing that I had enough water and calories to take me to Dutchman (50 miles in).  There was also another mini Aid station before that so I took the opportunity to keep moving.

Once we left Wanoga, we followed a trail for about a mile until it kicked us out onto a dirt road where we would continue to climb as the road got steeper and sandier.  Once we hit the underpass I remembered there would be some hike a bike for me as a singlespeeder when the road got pretty steep and really soft for about 200 yds.  If I was on a shorter ride I would have tried riding it but part of riding singlespeed is knowing when to dismount and hike a bike on some steep stuff in order to save your legs a little...The sooner you enter that red zone, the sooner you run the risk of bonking and considering we were only about 2 1/2 hours into the day, it was too early to go into the red zone.
We continued up from Vista Sno park until we hit the turn off for the connector trail over to Swampy Sno Park.  We climbed for a little bit until we hit some fast flowy downhill.  Soon enough we came up on the mini Aid station at Swampy and I did a quick water/calorie check and kept moving through the Aid station without stopping.  I had enough to get me to Dutchman....
From swampy, we took a connector trail up to Swede Ridge where we picked up Sector 16 and bombed downhill until we hit Upper Whoops.  Somewhere between Sector 16 and Whoops, I bit it!  My front tire found some soft sand and before I knew it, I was on the ground dealing with a bit of a yard sale!  Doh!  I had been messing around with my Garmin on my bars and got distracted enough to bite it!  My garmin attachment that is held on the bars with rubber bands was not wanting to stay in one spot.  The rubber had stretched and so it kept want to slide to the smaller tapered area of the handlebars where it dangled.  After the wreck I took it off and stashed it in my pack...it would be up to me to guesstimate when I needed to eat, take in endurolytes, etc....I usually go by the clock on the garmin to make sure I eat on the hour every hour, etc...

I brushed myself off, shook off the cobwebs and continued the downhill bombaroo....albeit a wee bit more cautiously.

We caught Skyliners and connected over Towards Tumalo where we would eventually connect to South Fork and work our way all the way back up to around 6,000 ft of elevation - it was time to settle in and find the happy place....I managed to pass several riders as they were spinning up the climb and I was forced to ride the bigger gearing on the singlespeed.  I had ridden this section a couple of times before and knew what to expect so I just kept the cranks turning.
We eventually got back up to Swampy Cabin area where we took a connector trail back over towards the dirt road above Vista Sno Park,  Instead of going back towards Vista, it was time to go the other direction to Dutchman where I had dropped off a couple of bottles for reloading on water and calories.  I remembered climb up towards Dutchman as being steep and loose in a few areas so mentally I had made Dutchman a key point in the day where once we got there, most of the climbing would be behind us.
I got to Dutchman and swapped out bottles, got more water, and did some quick grazing before I hit the  road again....did not want to linger too long and get too comfortable off the bike!
The next section of trail would all be new to me.  We caught the Metolius Windigo trail that goes on the back side of Bachelor (or west side).  This trail was totally different than anything I had ridden in the area and I became very alert to the real possibility of flatting due to all the sharp lava rock and techie trails.  It was slow going in some areas and you could feel the day heating up as the day got hotter and we were not descending back the warm stuff.  After about 11 miles, we hit Lava Lakes and another mini Aid station where I tried to keep moving through.  The next few miles were a grind!
It was a steep climb out of Lava Lakes, with some nice tekkie loose ugliness thrown in for good measure.
Many of the geared guys were hike a biking through some sections so we kept each other company as we talked about what lay ahead....
The legs were feeling decent but the body was starting to break down...I could tell my riding was getting sloppy because my body and mind were getting tired.  I took another spill - a stupid fall that seemed like it happened in slow motion as I hit another beach sand spot that gobbled my front tire and sent me off the bike.  At that point, I knew it was time to dial it back a notch on the downhills and see if I could find the flow again.
We eventually crested the climb out of Lava Lakes and it was time to look forward to the next Aid Station at Edison Sno Park.  This is where I had another drop bag with some goodies for the last 20 miles.  For some reason (probably wishful thinking) I had thought we were done with climbing once we hit Edison Sno Park and that it would be mostly downhill until the finish.

There was a mean climb out of Edison Sno Park that added insult to injury because we were getting clobbered by midday sun and the trail was relatively soft so the pedaling was hard.  We eventually hit the top and once we started heading downhill, I knew that it was mostly down back to the finish.  At this point the body was achey and rebelling on the downhills which made it hard to find flow but the finish kept reeling me in like a magnet.  We headed down Tiddlywinks back down towards the paved road we had turned off of about 10 hrs earlier...ahhh, now it was just 6 miles of pavement back to the finish....the miles went by relatively quickly and when I crossed the finish line I heard the announcer say, another finisher sub 11 hrs!

To my surprise I was able to finish just under 11 hours....now it was time to clean up a bit and hit the food, and most importantly find my finisher growler!.....all in all, it was a good day.  I had a couple of dumb falls but I can't complain about the course or the race.  The race was really well put together, organized, and laid out.

Thanks Mike (Mudslinger) for a great day on the bike!

MTB Peterson Ridge - Sisters

The plan on Sunday was to head over to the Mckenzie River Trail and do the infamous MRT as an out and back from the bottom to the top and then back again.  It looked like the weather was going to hold up but as it turns out it would not be possible to get to the trailhead.

The McKenzie Pass is still closed...so on to Plan B....I figured I was in Sisters already and it might be a good idea to explore that area.  I had heard good things about Peterson Ridge and decided to go explore that trail system.
Those trails are fun but not exactly very demanding in terms of exertion.  I rode for almost 4 hrs and managed to maintain an average heart rate of 101!!! yes, 101...as crazy as it might sound, I was on the single speed and was just cruising.

The trail system basically is a big loop where the east trail is called PRW, and the east trail called PRE.  There are a handful of connector trails that connect the two.  I did a couple of laps on the system and then also took any/every spur/connector I saw to try to eek out more saddle time.

The best thing about the trail is the views.  There are a couple of spots where it just opens up into great view of the Sisters Wilderness area.  Pretty sweet:

 Jefferson: