South Sister Hike

Our final play day was focused on getting up in high country and seeing what was in store.  We decided South Sister as the objective for the day and woke up to a little bit of a surprise when we looked west in the morning and saw a fresh coat of white on her.  The wheels were in motion and plans in place so we forged ahead.

On the way up, the gas light came on and we all did quick calcs in our head to see how luck we felt about making it back to town.  Fortunately, we could postpone having to cross that bridge until after the hike.

We were collectively psyched to get an early start and Abe and I poked angry panda for his selection of shorts for the day.  The good news was that it would get warmer as the day progressed...the bad news was that it was chilly as evidenced by the snow up high, and the ice in the parking lot!

The hike started quickly enough until we realized we were on the wrong trail...we backtracked and found our trail that would take us up the little hill to 10.3K in elevation.  The hike starts with a pretty steep section for about the first 30 minutes until it relents and you walk along some rollers that give expansive views of BrokenTop and S Sister.  The views were amazing and we started to see where the snow line was.  It looked like a light dusting so onwards and upwards....

After a couple of pictures here and there and a couple of obvious junctions to navigated, we made our way up the big chunk of earth.  As we started to gain elevation on her side, the angles increased again and we found our way as we plodded along.  It was cold enough that a lot of the loose sand and scree was frozen so we had timed it just perfectly...it made the ascent fairly solid.

The snow line was in view and in no time, we were in the snow and following the footsteps of others who preceded us.  There were a couple of spots where we had to kick-step our way up but we kept enjoying the views as we grunted up.  Soon enough we were at the ridgeline and followed it along the ridge to the true summit where the views to the north opened up.  You could see both N and Middle sister as well as further north towards Mt Wash, Jeff, Hood, and Adams!  It was a beautiful clear day with views for miles and miles.

We stopped, had lunch in a spot where the wind was relatively chill and then started the descent.  As we descended, we remarked on how our timing for the ascent was really fortuitous.  The conditions on the way down started to warm up and it meant the frozen scree we came up was now loose.  Early bird gets the easier ascent....

The descent put the hurt on all of us and we were happy to reach the parking lot and make our way back to Bend.  Total time car to car...6hrs...total moving time 5:15...around 12.5 miles and close to 5K in elevation gain/loss...mission accomplished.

Alpine Trail East Coast Taster

Day Three of Abe's visit included a rendezvous to Oakridge where it was time to introduce him to single track heaven that awaited.  Dan joined us for our adventure and reminisced about his trip three years earlier that planted the seeds for an eventual move to paradise.

We decided Alpine was the go-to trail for an initial visit.  We humped our way up the forest road and just tried to get comfortable for the long grind up.  I kept hoping I had not overcommitted Abe....and kept insisting that the pay off was well worth it.  In the back of my mind I knew he had a high threshold to suffer so he would be able to dig deep.

We eventually made it up to our trailhead entrance and did a little more punchy climbing until we got to the alpine meadow full of beargrass.  After some quick pictures and breather, we looked forward to the mostly downhill trail....wink wink...

I warned the boyz there was still about 1,500 ft of climbing left on the descent and that we were not quite done pedaling.  That is the sneaky thing about Alpine...it continues to dish out some punishment on the descent.  Despite the long grunt uphill to start, there is more uphill on the downhill.

There was some verbal abuse about the trail not being all downhill but I could tell there was big fun being had!

Fall hung in the air and we enjoyed the crisp temps and amazing views that were made a little more magic by all the leaves dropping as we rode.

Some pictures from the land of giants...

East Coasting in the C to the O - Flagline

A good buddy rolled into town last week and the pressure was on to show him the goods in Central Oregon.  We rallied for a trip out to Smith on day 1 and then did Flagline trail on day 2.  Day 2 was pretty sweet riding.  The last time I had been on Flagline about a month ago, there was snow up high so I did not know what the trail conditions were going to be like.

Let's just stay they were just about perfect!  They were tacky and the temps were just right.  We rode from Dutchman up Flagline and tied into Swede Ridge to Sector 16 to Upper Whoops, to Whoops, to Phil's Canyon...a nice ride with views galore and smiles a plenty!

Smith - East Coast off the couch

Abe rolled into town on Wednesday of last week.  I took Thursday and Friday off from work so we could go get our play ON.  Day one was penciled in as Smith Rocks.  We got our gear together in the morning and headed out to Smith where we enjoyed a nice full day of climbing while trying to avoid the sun.

After hibernating from climbing for a while, Abe roped in and proceeded to crush it!  Smith has a distinct heady and crimpy style that can often be a bit of an acquired taste but Abe was right at home pulling on knobs and pebbles.

It was a great day out and it was day 1 of 4 days of playing....we stopped at the Terrebonne Depot for an after climb beer where we drank in the post-climb glow with some Central Oregon hop nectar.

Not a bad introduction to Central Oregon for my east coast homie....Thx to Abe for the pix!