Oregon MTB Report #2 [from Jul 1, 05]

So I’ve been biking in the High Desert of Bend Oregon for about 4 months now. What a different world ! Most trails are smooth as a baby’s ass, and lots of people here has bikes what don’t gots suspension. Also popular here is single-speeds, since the terrain is mostly gently rolling type stuff. Ok so the trails aren’t all that exciting, but there sure are a lot of them ! Over a hundred miles of trails in an area a few miles wide and 10 miles long – similar in size to the area that holds Alice Lake area down Jack’s and Mashiter to Garibaldi Highlands. And the whole area is tilted, so you’ve got a downhill direction to make things exciting, and paved roads on each side of it so you can do shuttle runs.

I figured my 5+5 full suspension bike was a little overkill for this area, plus I wanted a lighter racier bike. Tried a hard-tail – nah even on smooth trails didn’t like that butt-ramming effect. Ended up getting a 29” softail.

I started signing up for a bunch of races, partly as an excuse to travel and explore new places, but mostly as a chance to get away from my screaming kids (just kiddingJ). First stop was Ashland, OR , the last weekend in April. It’s a small artsy town off of I-5 in the coastal hills of SW Oregon, just above California. I heard vague rumours about this place, something about women … yeah well all I can say there’s something special in the water there, rumours are true. Got there the day before the race so I could preride it, but got lost and confused in the town and by the time I found where it started it was too late. Good thing too, as it was a few thousand feet of climbing and a long loop that would have finished me for the next day. So the race started the following day with 3000 feet of climbing, nearly all on fire roads. Then you plateau onto a ridge for a long way, and I’m thinking “Where is the single-track?”. I catch up to a guy, and he says “Wanna pace ?”. Eh ? Apparently it’s some roadie term for taking turns leading the way and drafting. So we switch off for a while, and start reeling in single riders. Every time we pass someone we ask them to join up. Soon we’ve got a six-person pace line going… what am I doing in a !#$!# road-race at 4000 feet on a dirt road ? After at least half an hour of this, I look back at one point and see that I”ve dropped everybody. Soon comes a bit of single track, then more road. Getting a bit tired, and a couple of pacers go by me – hey, those are the first 2 guys I was pacing with ! So it works apparently. Then hit the downhill : about 3000 feet of swooping single track and gnarly double track – this part is fun. I catch up to Pacer #1 and pass him. We drop onto tarmac for the last mile to the finish line. I see Pacer#2 ahead, and pour it on, beating him by a second at the finish. I ended up 4th in my class – not too bad.

A couple of weeks later my new bike arrives, and my first ride on it is a pre-ride of a race right here in Bend. I show up for the race the next day full of confidence : now on a 25lb race machine, I’m thinking high podium finish. I get a crappy start position, but pass a bunch of people quickly and have a pretty decent race. 2 hours and 20 minutes later I cross the finish line, and end up in … 13th place ?! Man did I have my ass handed to me. This Bend crowd is fast !

3 weeks later, another Bend race. This course is cool – very fast single track, with some high speed downhills and a technical section through lava rocks. I have a killer race, and get… 9th place ? But wait, all Sport class racers were supposed to do 1 short lap and 1 long lap - rumours abound that supposedly several people ‘got confused’ and did 2 short laps instead. So results are skewed – I see several top spots occupied by guys who finished near the end of the pack in previous races – so I placed at least 7th and possibly 5th – but who’s counting ? Still when you train as hard as I do – 7 or 8 hours a week J - it really matters OK ? J

It’s now June, and flowers are sprouting, etc yada. I sign up for a race in Northern California, and bring the family camping for the weekend. Yreka is a microscopic burg in the steep rolling hills of near-coastal Northern Cal. We camp in a great spot beside the Klamath River, popular with rafting companies. The first night the munchkins are pretty freaked out their first time in a tent in a long time, and I basically get no sleep. But next day is just a preride of the course, so no biggie… Awesome course – I can see why they’ve been having this race for like 13 years. Lots of single track right from the beginning, and up the 2000 foot climb. The downhill starts steep and loose, then flows into narrow singletrack ribbon cut into the side of steep open slopes. At high speed the trail feels about 6” wide – one false move and you’d be tumbling. Race day we do a couple of laps of this, and I end up getting 2nd place – so I had to go race in another state to get on the podium !

As the snow melts off, the alpine has started opening up in the foothills surrounding Bend. The trails there start less than 10 miles from town, and climb high up into the mountains with awesome vistas. These are your classic alpine loops : start off with a 2000 foot climb alongside a cascading stream through old growth forest, top out above the treeline with great views of snow-capped mountains, then a fast technical switch-backing descent through open meadows and steep trees. If Squamish had a bike trail going up Goat Ridge it would be like this. And they’re building more of these here all the time. The local bike organization has a great relationship with the Forest Service, which they’ve developed over the last 10-15 years. New major trails are spec’d, approved and built every year. They just got approval on a huge parcel of forest (maybe 100 square miles) where they’re going to build XC and freeride trails over the next few years.

Back to the racing : so I wasn’t really planning on doing the Test of Metal this year, and while I was pondering it for a few days, it sold out in a few minutes so that was decided. Coincidentally, there was this new race in Western Oregon on the exact same day, called the Test of Endurance. With close to 8000 feet of climbing on an 81 km course (2 laps), it seemed like a good replacement for the other ‘Test’. The week before the race, it rained every day there, so I was expecting some mud and other unpleasantness. The morning of the race, woke up in my tent to the sound of – more rain. The only good thing was the relaxed start atmosphere – with only 60 competitors, the crappy weather, and the expectation of at least 5 or 6 hours in the saddle, there was no jockeying for start position, etc. Miraculously, the sun came out 10 minutes before the start, and it stayed dry the whole time I was out there. But the mud remained, lots of it. A few minutes into the first muddy singletrack, I lost my granny gear to the mud. And a few minutes later, I couldn’t shift to my small chain ring. The way it was going, I’d be lucky to make it through the first lap. But the mud would shed off a bit on the dirt roads in between single-track, and I learned not to shift when in the mud – just pretend you have a single-speed – otherwise, chain suck and derailment. Anyways, enough about mud, we’ve all had it this year – boo hoo. So I do the first lap in just over 2.5 hours, and I’m aiming for 3 hours for the second lap. Feeling pretty good until the 4 hour mark, then start feeling wonky and heavy, so decide to slow down a bit and cruise to the finish. Look behind me on an open stretch of road – nobody there – so I guess I can just cruise and hold my position. But a few minutes later, people start appearing on the horizon behind me. Panicking, I pick up the pace a bit and drop them. But soon enough it happens again as I get lulled into slowing down. One guy is now only 100 feet behind me. What if he’s in my class, and ends up stealing my podium spot ?! He looks like the guy who slowed me down in the singletrack before, so I aim to beat him to the next section. I’m really starting to hate these people for making me put in all this extra effort ! The last singletrack is a downhill slop thick with mud – but kinda fun once you figure out how to surf it. I pass a couple more people, and drive hard the last 2 miles on road to the finish. Make it in just under 5.5 hours – good enough for 3rd place (there were only 6 people in my class – but hey 3 of them were Expert’sJ).

Next on the horizon : more alpine riding and miscellaneous races.