Never mind the Linkage, here's the Jet Pistol

Dang, after 3 days on sub-par wheeled metal, when I launched you forth today, did not you respond with uncanny acceleration and groovy trail-hugging vibes ? Was not I giddy with pent-up excitement that vented itself so excellently via the conduit of your gracious design ? And tho I thought little of taking us to the top so expeditiously, did not we set new records ? Aye Crafty Steed, so we did.

Jedi Mountain Bike Festival

I remember Cliff saying last year he wasn't planning on holding the 'Return on the Jedi' mountain bike race the following year, as turnout was low and it was too much work. But something changed his mind, because this year he and the Pistis crew went all out, providing 3 days of quality biking adventure in the Onion Mountain outback.

The setting for the venue was Sam Brown horse camp, a remote and uncrowded camping area that is reached from the Rogue River basin by traveling 13 miles up a winding single-lane road. Free camping and beautiful scenery - I think I've gone over this before in reports from the last 2 years.

The Pistis' (church related group who've gone especially nuts about mountain biking this year) set up the Blazing Saddles kitchen in the main pagoda, where they dispensed breakfast lunch and dinner from Thursday to Sunday : free for the volunteers, $5 a meal for the general racing public. 3 races were being held : a short track and SuperD on Saturday, and the main event - the grueling cross country race - on Sunday. Short track sees you spin around a short 1-mile loop of fire roads and single track, for as many laps as you can manage in the alloted time - usually around 45 minutes. SuperD is a cross-country downhill - nothing 2 technical - with a few climbs thrown in.

Leading up to the weekend, I had decided again to race the old (heavy) Giant. The fork for the Jet9 had been repaired, but with the suspect linkage, didn't want to have it break on the first of 3 days of riding and then be stuck with nothing to ride. But in a climbing course like the Jedi, with some 5500 vf of uphill, the Giant was going to be quite a bit slower - probably 10 or 15 minutes. Since I theoretically wouldn't be doing too well in the race, I figured may as well sign up for the short track and SuperD as well, since there was no sense in 'saving myself' for the XC race. Similarly, decided to do a ride on the way down on Friday, and probably another ride that evening, when would met up with the Sorenson's at the campground.

So hit Diamond Lake around noon on Friday, seeing there was a cool trail climbing up Mt. Bailey. A few thousand feet of gain, but probably wouldn't get that high due to snow and time restrictions. Sure enough, hit snow quite low down, but got in an enjoyable 1.5 hour exploratory ride.

Got to the race site campground late afternoon, had dinner and a couple of brews, and caught the shuttle to the top so we could do a practise run on the SuperD course. The top part of the course was all fireroads with loose rock - sketchy at high speeds - then it flattened out a bit, with a few climbs, then onto the twisty Jedi trail to the finish. Note to self : riding with a stomach full of spaghetti and beer is not a good idea.

Next morning, time for the short track. Cool little course, but sweltering heat abounds, and race gets delayed until it's baking at 11:30 am. People poke fun at my heavy bike, and in no time I'm in last place in the group of 15 or so. Feel gassed from the first climb, but end up not finishing dead last. So few participants, finish 3rd in my class and medal anyways. A few hours later, and it's downhill time. Another long slow ride up in the shuttle craft. Then a crazy Lemans running start and we're off. After the practise run yesterday, am feeling ballsy, and hammer it well down the sketchy rock roads, making it probably into the top 5. But then hit the flats ands subsequent up-gradient, and get swarmed by half-a-dozen climbers who blow past me and I never see again. Still, finish second in my class, and another medal. The great story is ChrisS and another guy who show up walking across the finish line an hour later, 3 flats and a broken chain between them.


Thunder and lighting make an appearance that night, but only a light sprinkle follows, so terrain still hot and dusty the next day (of course nothing like the real dust in Central OR). The main event is under way at 9am - still acceptable temps at this point. During the prologue loop - which winds its way through trails around the campground - including the famous deep creek crossings, I'm experiencing major sluggishness and overall fatigue, and I slow down and relax, knowing I'm going to be out here 3.5 hours anyways. Then start the 1 hour climb to the top - yep all systems are reporting efficiency levels way below normal - so at this point really stop racing, and decide to just enjoy the ride. ChrisS has gotten way ahead, climb for a bit with DerekF, but he too grows weary of my languid pace and soon moves on. Much later, I walk my bike up the last rocky bit to the top, and who do I see but ChrisS, engaged in what looks like major surgery on his bike. Apparently his Stan's has spewed forth, and he's trying to repair the subsequent evisceration. I stop and offer him tubes and air, but he's got enough of that (as opposed to yesterday, when he didn't have any :). So move in, thinking he'll probably catch me later once he's rolling.

I enjoy the awesome 3000 ft downhill, and resuscitate myself leisurely at the water station at the bottom. After this its only 1000ft of more climbing, onto the Jedi and done. I smirk disconsolately partway up the climb, as I see my elapsed time of 3 hours, 15 minutes, at which point I'd already crossed the finish line last year. Eventually get there, and I'm 33 minutes off last year's torrid pace ! Wow that's a big gap. I ponder how I could be so much slower, and arrive at a 'rule of 3rds' conclusion : 1/3 of it was because I was just whacked from all the riding and racing the previous 2 days, 1/3 was due to riding a bike that was 6 lbs heavier and less efficient, and the other 1/3 due to lack of training. There is some consolation that nobody in the expert class beat my time of 3:14 last year. And another amusing thing is somehow I'm only 1 point out of first place in the overall points classification for my class ! This is partly due to the Jedi being the State Champs race this year, which means double points. Too funny, considering I've missed a bunch of races this year, never been on the podium, etc.

But overall, a great weekend experience, and thanks to Pistis for going all out. They're even producing a DVD of the event : they had high-def video cams all over the place all weekend.
Almost forgot about another great episode of the ChrisS equipment malfunction saga : shortly after I saw him repairing his wheel, he finally got back on his bike, and then his carbon seat-post shattered, so he had to finish the race 'sans seat' - yikes ! And for extra good measure, he left the broken shards sticking out of the seat tube, just in case he had any misguided idea about trying to sit down after that. I'm telling you, these light-weight racing parts just ain't worth it ! :)

Cracked tooth blown fork race

It was with some trepidation that I prepared for this year's Pickett's Charge race in Bend. My race bike was spending time in the shop, as its fork had been releasing copious amounts of oil, causing it to bottom out and otherwise generally malfunction. Additionally, there was a recall on part of the rear shock linkage, and it was recommended not to ride it until the manufacturors had remedied the situation. So I resurrected the old 31-pound Giant VT full suspension, and slapped some well-worn racing semi-slicks on to give it some decent acceleration (and consequent limited traction and braking). Seemed to work OK in test rides, though felt a mite skittish.
Then next bit of misery had to do with the teeth in my head, not on my chainrings. One had been paining me here and there for years, so finally decided to get some crown work done on it on Tuesday before the race. But this backfired, as it flaired up in major pain afterwards. Two more trips to the dentist that week, along with various prescriptions to kill the pain/inflamation. So cranky all week, and couldn't ride much as blood flow exacerbated the pain. Observed that increasing my alcohol intake to 4+ a night helped assuage the pain, however that probably wasn't going to make me any faster on Sunday. Then Saturday, after starting some new high dose adrenal inflammatory depressant drug, went to the gym to languidly move some pieces of metal around, and yanked something in my shoulder.
So started the race Sunday in pretty bad shape, with a bike I know is slower than my race bike, a throbbing toothache, and an ailing shoulder. But the upside of this is that I was totally relaxed, and didn't give a shit how I did.
The gun went off, and I nosed into the dust cloud created by the front pack. Actually the dust bowl effect wasn't that bad, having been mitigated somewhat by thundershowers the previous evening. The first of 2 20 mile laps went by rather quickly. Felt great and noticed my split time was good, even with the CIA technical section they added this year. Was having a blast - full suspension just plain makes racing more fun. Not much to report on this race : temps were great, no controversies, racers very courteous and allowing people to pass. Had a good surge at the end, and passed a couple people on the downhill, which is rare.

Things you can pull out of your dog's ass

was just one of the many interesting dinner conversation topics at Chris's house the evening after the Firecracker race. I guess we were tired and strung out after a 2.5 hour race with 4500 vf of climbing. The course was brutal and fun, with an awesome downhill - continuous from top to bottom - and a steep slog back up to the top on singletrack. We had to do 4 laps of the fun/pain cycle. I didn't preride the downhill, so it was all a surprise on the first lap - especially the table-top with an unexpected steep runout, which cause me to land too front-heavy and go flying over the bars, towards an old-growth tree that didn't look like a soft impact. Managed to twist my body and only graze the big old conifer, resulting in upper and lower body scrapes. Otherwise, was fortunately OK, and back on the bike in less than 30 seconds after untwisting my handlebars and re-railing the chain. Hmm, I better setup the rebound correctly on my rear shock, as the the crash shouldn't have happened under normal circumstances.
The Crash made me a bit hesitant afterwards, as lost confidence in my bike setup (I found out later something was wrong with my fork, as it was bottoming out on any sharp hit). Caught up to the people who passed me while I was down on next climb. But then for the next 2 laps got in this annoying cycle where people who were climbing faster than me passed me 2/3 of the way up the climb, then I would get stuck behind them and their feeble downhill skills for half the descent, virtually twiddling my thumbs waiting for a passing opportunity - there was no way to pass unless someone in front of you screwed up or crashed, as the downhill was continous narrow single track. This was the only failing of the course, and a critical one if you got caught behind the wrong people. I don't usually get pissed off or annoyed during a race, but I'll admit I was unhappy to not be getting full enjoyment out of the downhills. Losing time was secondary to loss of enjoyment :) Finally on last lap I had the downhill to myself and had smiley face syndrome, though was hard to hang onto the bars after 2.5 hours of racing. Actually almost missed the free ride, as a climber came up behind me just as I was entering the final downhill. Put over a minute on him on the final run - so the downhill times actually have some impact on final results, unlike most races. Ok enough whining :) Many people commented that I should have been more vocal, asking slower riders to pull over lest I run them over. Yeah maybe I try that next time - but these weren't like beginners, just slightly slower Experts, so not a big deal to me at the time. Anyways had I not crashed, I probably would have able to avoid being caught in the downhill slowdown cycle. Shit, are you still talking about this ? Shutup already !:) Now start working on slow-rider harpoon.

Official beer of the Kermit Green Jet9'ers


Post race hydration


Trail work next day


Post trail work hydration


Chainbreaker break


Mid ride log ring

Going Nowhere Fast

The skies have been pissing down rain here for a week now. This is highly unusual, and most unwelcome. I haven't been out on my mountain bike for almost 2 weeks (insert short violin solo). Got a race coming up this weekend, so needed to get some workouts in.

On Wednesday, I decided to leave work at 5pm if it wasn't raining, and take my road bike up and down the Butte beside my house for some hill climb intervals. At 4:59 pm, went to the window to ascertain the weather situation : some dark clouds, but no rain, and the streets were drying out from earlier rain. At 5:01 pm, exited the building, and it was pouring down rain - WTH ? But the deluge was localized, with no rain at the house, so out I went. Several minutes later, rain. It proceeded to rain hard for the next hour, while I gamely pounded up the steep hills. My 'all-weather' booties soon filled up with water, and each foot gained an additional 5 pounds (glass half full : better workout, right ?). After 4 climbs, dragged my soaked self home. (Insert cartoonish pouring out of 20 gallons of water from each boot).

Thurday, serious rain all day. Had optimistically packed my mountain bike, but no way Jose was I heading out for a sad soaked muddy ride. Upon arriving home, decided to ride the trainer in the garage. This is for me a most unhappy proposition, as I can't stand riding in one spot for an hour or more, with no distractions save for pounding loud workout music. In fact, I never last more than an hour, ejecting myself jubilantly from the enslaving device at that point. But gotta endure it somehow - no other choice. I make up some over-under type workout, where go very hard for a minute or 2, then tone it down a bit for double that time, then rest for the sum of the hard parts. Soon I'm sweating from every pore, the liquid dripping in a steady stream all over the bike and the floor. Man, don't remember ever sweating this much. Every time I take my hands off the bar for a breather, and then replace them, the water squishes out of the half-gloves I'm wearing. Soon I've saturated every towel and other pieces of clothing, from siphoning the sweat from my oozing head. Am I working too hard ? My heart rate monitor broke a year ago, so no feedback beyond the raspy breathing and pounding in the chest.
When it's all over, head back into the house, and holy shit is it freezing in there! Check the thermometer - room temperature... ? Take a shower, head back into the garage, and it's like entering a blast furnace ! My workout must have raised the temp in the garage by 20 degrees ! (insert some vague idea about recapturing energy to save on heating costs...)

Bear Springs

Team WebCyclery/Niner headed up to the race Sunday morning, with 3 full-suspension Niners in the bed of Dan's pickup. Rob and my kermit-green Jet9's were eager to demonstrate their prowess once more, after their initial testing in the Chainbreaker last weekend. Dan was hoping to redeem himself after an early exit from that race, due to a brutal crash that ensued after his pedal clipped a large unseen rock whereupon he catapulted over the bars and made contact with the ground head first. Actually wait, Rob needed some redemption as well, as a maladjusted seat-post height had caused massive leg cramping, resulting in him not finishing the race either. I was also somewhat apprehensive, as I wondered if the good showing I'd had on this new bike was a fluke. Today's race would be quite a bit harder, and the potential for debilitating cramps much higher. I had a secret weapon though maybe : rummaging through some old boxes full of various race gels and bars, I had found this sample tube of electrolyte replacement I'd picked up at some race last year. Mix with 32 oz of water it said, and enjoy increased performance and eternal happiness - or something to that effect. Of course it's one of the major taboos to never try anything new on race day, but it tasted ok, so in it went.

The race start was the usual cluster-fuck, with a steep rutted hike-a-bike right after we'd turned off the road into the singletrack. Dozens of racers rubbed shoulders scrambling up awkwardly in stiff biking shoes, and several end-arounds were possible with quick-thinking creative route finding skills - I observed ChrisS execute a couple of these, and jump ahead several spots. Many sections of snow confused the issue as well. Soon we were spread out somewhat on the rolling singletrack, which helped dissipate some of the adrenalin. Not too long afterwards we crossed back over our initial trajectory, to the cheers of the roaring crowd - well all 8 of them. Another steep doubletrack climb, which was going to be difficult to clean due to the throng ahead of me. Oops, there goes one sideways, with a domino effect taking out a couple of riders. A minor karfuffle ensued, with much use of sailor language and use of the bike as a wacking device. Cooler heads managed just to prevail, and I was able to scoot around a large clot of walkers/wankers/wackers. Saw DanW ahead, but only briefly as he dropped his chain near the top (add foreshadowing music here:).

The singletrack was a blast, and the Jet9 was eating it up nicely. Got to the long talus field section, replete with large jagged rocks, and was hoping to drive the dually through there to see if I could make it. However a large group of riders just ahead had all dismounted it and were walking it, so I followed suit. Near the end of the section, some 'hero' came behind me still on his bike (or had just gotten back on) and attempted to call us to move over so he could ride through. Uh sorry buddy, when you see a big crowd like this in front of you walking, you've got to walk too. He attempted to ram through anyways, his tire catching the back of my leg. Ok, that's it, I turned around and popped him in the face. Just kidding :) well hopefully he got the message when we didn't all jump aside.

After a great downhill we hit a longish fireroad climb, and I saw the other Jet9 - with RobU aboard - just up ahead. Caught up to him, and that little extra effort seemed to initiate the nauseousness that dogged me for the rest of the race. Coulda been the new Electrolytes, or perhaps the 5 beers I'd consumed the night before. But overall felt great, even with the temps in the high 80's. Had been slurping go-juice at an accelerated rate all day, and sucking back more gels than usual, all in the hope of warding off the big 'C'. And mostly that seemed to work. Also noticed that riding a full suspension just makes a race more fun - I mean it was fun on the old DosNiner as well, as that thing sliced and diced it at a pretty high level - but this here ol' Jet9 just cranks it up to 11 mates !

Catch up to SpencerS, and am I hallucinating or are the cicadas just going insane around here ? No - it's Spence's Juicy7's with extra squeal appeal. Man those things are deafening ! After 10 minutes or so of languishing in his screech trail, I overtake him to put it all behind me, but he latches onto my pace and the painful high frequency sonic bath continues. RobU is also hanging with us, enjoying the sounds of nature too.

The race is almost over - or is it ? With all the corkscrew wacky windings of this crazy course, it's really hard to tell. They lopped off a few miles this year due to snow, so I'm figuring about 2.5 hours total - only half an hour to go. Usually this is a most excrutiating 30 minutes, and this year is no exception. At the start we had been warned that water levels are unusually high due to melting snow, and this will only be exacerbated by afternoon runoff with today's blazing sun. We hit the section with multiple dismounts and wading through water, and the cramps start hitting hard. I start whining/muttering about it aloud, and am comforted to hear the same stream of complaints from others in the vicinity. Am still hanging with Spence and Rob, and we get to watch each other crash spasmodically on the wet roots, and then try to remount with cramp-stiffened legs. Some of the sections are just crazy obstacle courses, with a couple of feet of icy cold stream water (actually felt real good on the throbbing swelling sore hot feet), interspersed with log sections that had been placed for us to hop on (and slide spectacularly off of:).

Now comes the steep climb out of the marshy madness, and as usual you can find pockets of exhausted riders taking a breather - maybe these are beginner or sport class riders - leaning on trees, massaging unresponsive limbs, etc. Around 10 minutes to go I announce, and Rob and I push ahead. I have sucked my Camelbak dry a few minutes before this, and hope I'm right. Soon enough the canal bank approaches, and then the ensuing road back up to the finish. Rob and I see no one behind us, and the Jet9's cruise to the finish together. Why such amicability ? Well we're in different age groups, otherwise @$%@$*%! :) No photographers are around to witness history in the making, but at least you've got me to tell you this here story. Another awesome Bear Springs - a truly classic single track battleground.

P.S. : now what of that mentioning of foreshadowing earlier on ? Well we see DanW at the finish, already changed from his biking attire... wtf did he go flying past us while we had our heads down commiserating in cramp-land ? Nope, chain-sucking and chain-dropping woes finally caused him to abandon ship - better luck next time Dano! But at least Team-Full-Susser-Niner gets 2 out of 3 finishes today, an improvement over the 1 for 3 last weekend.

Chainbreaker

Another dusty CB ? Showers were promised but not delivered.... but it wasn't too bad. And had the new Jet9 frame to try out, as the parts from my DosNiner had been tranferred over earlier in the week. Well this bike plain rocked - felt totally at home with the cockpit set up the same, and the buttery smooth ride even resulted in a 2-lap time that was less than 20 seconds off last years pace ! Wtf ? This non-training regimen might actually work ? Well, I think if I'd had to go another mile I might have collapsed, as all muscles went into rigor-mortis mode a few minutes after the race while I was spinning it out trying to de-lactic-acidate. Tried to drink a ton to ward off the crampies, and it worked for the most part, but with the cool temps couldn't assimilate much liquid - it started getting all sloshy in my stomachy - and had to reduce intake. Came across the line with over 20oz left, an annoying weight to have had to carry along the whole ride. But felt great - a little bit weary in middle of 2nd lap, and got passed a bit, but had a great finishing kick and passed a minor nemisis with less than 1k to go, who had called me out at some race last year, and thus is satisfying to beat.

Racing season is back...

Hohum... Time for the Ashland Spring Thaw. Actually this is usually a fun time - see people you haven't seen in a while, nice weather, etc. Decided to make a weekend of it, head over Fri nite, race Sat, and ride somewhere Sun.

[Hmm a week later and I still haven't finished this... writing about racing is now tiresome - it's the same old shit over and over. The races are still a blast, but the stories starting to repeat]
Anyhow I camped out Fri nite at my usual spot - well, been there once before - at the top of the pass on Route 66 between Klamath Falls and Ashland. The mega snow pack made me think I'd be camping on snow - and sure enough when hit the turn off at 10:30 pm or so, there were banks on either side of the dirt road that leads to the reservoir. They apparently plow it though, so kept going to see what I'd find. Well, tons of fishing cabins and other signs of habitation. Found a pullout on the West side of the fake lake on the other side of the road - spotted a somewhat dry and fairly even patch of ground up in the woods a bit, and setup the tent. It got cold quick, but had time to quaff a beer and play a little guitar under the stars.
During the night was serenaded by various wild bird sounds, especially at dawn when the waterfowl went nuts. Headed for race by 7am, and got there in time to get to the free parking slots. Awesome day shaping up as got ready for the early 9am slot.

As mentioned many days earlier, course reroute due to snowpack - so 2 laps of shortened course. Sounded a bit lame, but this was the best version yet, as got to do the awesome singletrack descent twice. 2200 feet of climbing up the fireroad each time was somewhat labourious, but worth it.

Was eager to see how I would fare with my new training regimen, or lack thereof. Sure enough, started to cramp on the 2nd lap, and had to go into survival mode on the climb. Still able to enjoy 2nd downhill though. I dropped into the bottom 3rd of the class, oh well.

So yeah my new training idea is to not do any training, which was growing tiresome. Unwilling to increase training time, in an attempt to compete for podium spots in the difficult Expert 40+ class, I decided to do no training, to see what this would feel like. Well, so far it feels like cramps ! The racing is just as intense - I go all out - but did not have much finishing kick. But it's not like I sit around on the potato, eating couches and playing video games - I'm still riding a bunch and getting in 8-10 hours of miscellaneous exercise a week. Just no weeks and weeks of doing intervals, sprints and whatnots. Well, I did do some intervals up Pilot Butte last week, like I do often during the year to measure fitness, and my times were down almost 8% from last year, which is quite a chunk of time if you extrapolate it over a 2 hour race - 10 minutes or so. I figured last year b4 Spring Thaw I'd put in 26 training days of long rides and intervals, and this year did about 6, of which 3 were kind of half-assed.

The post race raffle was annoying as didn't win anything, so felt like a loser. They had enough prizes to give everybody something, but often threw 3 or 4 prizes into 1, and then put even the winners back into the main draw for the grand prize bike frame.

Was hoping to hang in Ashland overnight, hit the Biker's Bash and maybe go riding somewhere the next day - but no plan developed, and going to ChrisS's house for dinner seemed like a better plan - so did that, and had a great ride the next day at Brice Creek - though the intense climbing did sear my legs good.

Boring

Not much happening on this blog. But someone told me it got linked into some other sites, so I guess I should write something. In any case writing about biking has grown tiresome... It's more fun to actually do it of course. Kinda like masturbation vs sex I guess.

This morning, did a nice 15K ride.... on snow ! Yep the skiings still great but biking is sucking bad. But I realize that even a mediocre day on snow is still better than road biking. So I wouldn't mind actually skiing year round, as long as the snow wasn't present in the lower altitudes on the mountain bike trails.

Glad I'm not training for bike racing this year, otherwise I'd be majorly stressed out. Intervals on the road bike in 30-40F weather - yuk. Some mountain bike races have gotten postponed due to the extremely deep snow pack this year. The Spring Thaw happens in a week and a half, and in normal years there's usually some snow in the higher trails. This year they're going to have to reroute - I bet it's 6-feet deep up there now. I don't feel like doing this race, but according to my contract, I guess I have to :) Hmm, the things I have to do to get shop discounts, the savings of which get negated anyways by travel expenses to races...

Stop!

Stop with the snowing already - I've had enough ! Yes that was me back in early December, doing the snow dance at the SnowPark when we had a 1" base. I'm sorry, I won't wish for so much snow next time, I just got carried away. If this keeps up, the bike trails won't melt out until July ! Please stop it - I'm starting to feel the stirrings of Snow Madness.

Ice Ride

Since I mentioned biking season was over last post, and it was time to talk about ski adventures, what do you know I end up going for my first bike ride today in months.

I was getting an oil change on my car at lunch, so I decided to pack my bike, and go for a short ride while the work was getting done. The bike of choice of course is the IceJammer - hardtail with studded tires. I guessed there might be a few icy patches on the nearby Deschutes River Trail, so decided to check it out and see how the tires gripped. On the way there, encountered several frozen mini-ponds (in between a puddle and a pond), and on these flat icy surface the tires gripped well. Then hit a steep icy pot-holed climb, and made it up that too.

Got to the trail, and my eyes lit up at the huge expanses of solid ice. This was high quality ice too - a thick hard transparent layer. We had some heavy snow recently, then a thaw where everything got wet and slushy, and then a deep freeze. This was the kind of ice that ice climbers love. A very uneven surface too - pockmarked with frozen footprints.

Was railing along quite happily, the tires only slipping briefly every now and then, when came to the first long steep climb - a granny gear grunt-up. Amazingly, was climbing up this with minimal slippage. Right near the top was a little step up, where you have to torque the pedals pretty hard to get over it, and sometimes get off the seat a bit and transfer your weight forward. Since was already probably at the grip limits of the tires, decided to step off here, or risk a nasty clumsy spill on the ice. But as soon as my foot (clad in hiking boots), touched the ground (solid ice), down I went with painful suddenness, and started sliding down the incline along with the bike. Tried to get up a couple of times, but there was virtually zero grip on this slick solid ice. Now bruised and not so brash, I managed to make it up the hill by bushwacking up to the side of the trail. I guess if you've got studs on your tires, you need them on your boots too !

Hit a few sketchy downhill ice sections - these are really nerve racking, as any braking force has to be applied ever so slightly, lest the wheels lock up and go sideways. Studs work great as long as the tire is rolling - but when motionless, maybe only a couple of studs are gripping.

So now I need to buy studded boots and maybe studded gloves too. Hell, a studded body suit would probably be best ! Or I could just wait until Spring until I hit the trails again.

End of the Year Address

Wow a lot of shit has happened, and I have been remiss in writing about it here. Another great mountain bike season has ended (sniff), with many epic rides and experiences. I'm not going to bother putting any of it down here - it will remain in the deep recesses of my mind - and maybe on my deathbed you will hear me babbling about some rock that pinched my tire and launched me over the bars, or the butterfly I was observing when I rammed into a tree. In any case, here's a few random observations :

Racing : I was thinking about getting hardcore about racing this year : increase training time, maybe hire a coach, etc. Since I was often only 5-10 minutes behind the fastest guys in a 2 hour+ race, I figured I could be contending for top spot with an increased training regimen. But sometime this year I decided this would be too much work and a waste of that precious resource called 'time', and that just assuming that I could be the fastest if I did all that extra crap was good enough. So after the initial spring/early summer races, I just rode for fun the rest of the year. And that's what I plan to do next year. Of course if my ass gets kicked frequently and hard, I will be rather pissed, and probably my race participation will dwindle. But now I feel like doing longer endurance races anyways, rather than the 2-2.5 hour typical XC race. Yeah, 100-milers might be fun. Maybe some multi-day stage races.

I had several more insightful observations, but can't remember any of them at this point. Anyways, biking season has been over for a while - time to talk about snow!

Genius

Sometimes I feel I have achieved a stroke of genius - but usually I have really only temporarily lifted the blinders of stupidity.

Lycra vs. Lava

And the winner is... Lava !

Ya gotta respect the lava. It is unyielding, spiky, dangerous stuff. I've heard many lava pain stories, involving cracked bones and shredded tendons. So as I was grinding up one of the lava field climbs, and the way through began narrowing, the fear of flesh-ripping should I lose momentum and tip over caused me to unclip a foot as I neared the top corner. On the other side, a short slope descending into much smoother stuff. So I pushed off, planning to clip back in after I'd rolled the last bit of lava chunks. And then without warning, my front wheel jammed into a depression between two rocks, and I began a slow but certain pivoting over that front wheel, powerless to stop it as one foot was still clipped in. All I could do was brace for impact, as my body arced over the front and slammed hard into the even harder surface.

Several intense points of pain as I untangled myself from the bike. Right knee gashed nicely on the outside - not too much blood, but a view of white tissue through the rent skin. Left hand throbbing, but only sprained. Right pinkie finger flaring in pain - possibly cracked (those things break easy), but still able to flex it. Hmm, only 15 minutes into the ride, what should I do ? All injuries appear to be superficial - the knee is most problematic, but pain is minimal as is the bleeding, and it seems biomechanically sound. So all I've got here is a sh!$#@!load of pain - so I can keep riding - it's just mind over matter, right ? So on I go. The left hand is the only thing really painful, which I don't get, since it seems to work OK. I stop and peel off the glove - OK there's the problem, a large flap of skin has separated from the palm. Doesn't look too bad - keep going.

Manage to fight through it and actually have a good time, though I'm more tentative on the technical sections which is not good. Finally after an hour or so, the knee starts throbbing. I have to get off the bike for numerous bridge crossings, and walking on it is very painful. Hmmm, maybe it is more than superficial ? Soon the pain is traveling up to my hip. Starting to get concerned now - maybe I've nicked a tendon or something. Finally after an hour and a half of this, I decide to turn back. Blah, blah, the pain gets worse and worse. Soon I'm mostly pedalling with one leg. Back at the car, down a couple of Ibuprofin [hmm, maybe should keep some of this stuff in my pack - what's that thing you're supposed to carry around - a Primary Helper Kit or something ?]. OK, let's drive to the clinic I guess, for some bodywork. It's an hour drive, and the vitamin-I has kicked in nicely. The clinic is empty and I get first-class service. The knee gets stitched up - after the doc spends a while extracting dirt and small rocks from the wound - let's add bandages to the Kit next time too. Finger is X-rayed and not broken. Palm is cleaned out (ouch), and taped up.

Pic one week later :


OK lessons learned :
1) This one I already knew, but unfortunately made exceptions to : don't one-foot it through possibly dangerous crap - just walk the bike onto level ground before remounting
2) Ibuprofin - a few of these in the pack would've been good for another 20 miles easy
3) Bandages. Ok pain you can take - a minor bloody wound isn't going to kill you. But inviting dirt and other crap into your body with the broken seal of an open wound is not good.

That's it. Only 1 day off. I was lucky, or unlucky as it were.

Rip9 Test Ride

Whenever I ride my 29'er (DosNiner soft-tail), I am amazed at how it surgically carves turns at high speed, and how easily it gets up chunky climbs with the big wheels. But after a 50 mile ride on it, my butt is sore for a few days.
When I get on me 5+5 full suspension rig, my body is thankful for the extra cush, but the handling is twitchier, and at 32lbs vs 25lbs on the other bike, it takes more energy to crank it up the hills.

So it would seem that a full suspension 29'er might be the best of both worlds, and it was with great anticipation that I borrowed the shop demo Niner Rip9 for a day.



Picked it up the day before, and got in a quick checkout ride around a familiar loop. The first thing I noticed was that it took a bit more energy to drive this thing up the small climbs than my DosNiner - I was always dropping to the granny ring on stuff that I middle-ringed on the other bike. I was sure that the gearing must be different, but a tooth-count when I got back home showed it be the same as my other 29'er. The other thing I noticed was it did climb well over rough-terrain - and in some cases better than the 26'er (as does my other 29'er). It was also nimble on tight switchbacks.


I tweaked the geometry a bit, and next day headed up to Oakridge to meet CWS for a ride up Middle Fork Willamette trail. I'd heard from someone that this was a great trail - well it was nice meandering river trail, but nothing too exciting. The Rip9 handled great around the many tight-steering corners. But again had the sensation that this bike takes more energy to push along the flats and climbs. Descending, it was great. So a mixed bag. And that's about it for the review as it (and you all) have grown tiresome.

Last race / cross

I guess I should fill in some words here ! Way back on Sep 9th or so was the last race I did. I hadn't raced since early July, and was having a blast just riding for fun, with the occasional lunch-hour training sessions thrown in, such as the Awbrey Butte Climbing Star : 5 different steep climbs up that Butte, 6-8 minutes long. I wasn't going to do the race, but then I was curious how it would feel, since I hadn't trained nearly as hard as last year. So went up to Ski Bowl, where the familiar race trails are starting to get boring. But this time they added a nice little twist : every lap (and there were 3 of them), near the end you got routed down a 'downhill' trail, with big rock drops and other treacherous features. This was tough on the soft-tail, and I think this was the first race where I consistently bottomed out my fork. The 3 laps were all a bit different, so race turned out fun.

There were 11 in the 40+ Expert class, which was great. 2 new guys, and 2 'fast' guys, so I figured 3rd was possible. However 1 of the new guys turned out to be faster than the 'fast' guys, turning in a time over 10 minutes faster than the other regular fastest dude. And the other new 1 was not too far behind. So I came in a respectable 5th.


Then I did a couple of cross races in dusty Bend. Cyclocross is fun, except for the fact that you have to get off your bike and run over objstacles, and you do lap after lap of the same course. Hmm, but that's the whole point of the sport - oh well I guess I'm not too into it. It's a good workout though, certainly better than running the treadmill in the gym. The first race I did pretty well. The second race I couldn't get motivated what with the repetitiveness of it all, and I faired poorly. The 3rd one I did lap-counting volunteer - part of the bike shop sponsorship requirement. And there was 1 more which I just didn't bother about. A lot of poeople are nuts about it here, and will travel 3-4 hours to get to a race where they compete for 45 minutes. Not me - I'd rather get my money's worth with a 3 hour mountain bike race. But there is a cool social scene I hear - beer gardens and live music.

Log Ride

North Umpqua Trail Epic

For many moons I'd been hearing little tidbits here and there about the North Umpqua Trail, a rather long trail that winded along a river in South Western Oregon. Something like the Mackenzie River Trail, but supposedly bigger and better. Lots of tough sections, and great scenery, etc. Ok I guess it should be investigated. After last weekend's successful uber-long ride, I reckoned that the 80 mile Umpqua trail would go down well for a 2 day weekend ride. I bought a map, did a little research, and it seemed like a good idea to camp around the middle of the trail, then the first day do an out-and-back in the uphill direction (around 35 miles 1-way, but maybe turn around after 25 miles or so), then the second day do a 45-mile shuttle ride in the downhill direction. I proposed this to the Sorenson Gang, and they readily accepted.



Friday night we met up at Toketee Lake campground, which at first seemed like a nice spot : campsites about half-full, lots of families and miscellaneous travellers, and only $7 a night. Well that first night sucked, as there was 1 group of campers who kept us up all night. Everything seemed fine at 11 pm when we hit the sack, but I was awaked shortly before 1 am by the sound of loud trucks unloading crap, the chopping of wood, and loud talking. Ok, some late arrivals, no big deal, and an hour later the truck departed and it was relatively quiet. But then an hour later, back it comes, more wood unloading and chopping and noises, and this went on all fucking night. Now, it wasn't the loud music, screaming yahoos type of noise that would make you yell "Shut the fuck up !", it was just a continuous stream of minor noises that prevented restful sleep.



The next morning, Chris surmised that it must be meth-heads who couldn't sleep, and just kept their fire methodically burning all night while what little brains they had were bouncing around inside their heads unable to sleep. But later we noticed that it was just a conglomeration of fishermen, kids, etc. Whatever. But obviously ignorant oblivious people who had no clue how their actions were affecting others. We also concluded that saying anything to them would be useless, as the type of person who would commit such unneighbourly transgressions would be incapable or unwilling to admit it or ammend their actions.



But hey 1 night of no sleep is never a problem, and off we went at 9am on the day's adventure. We found the trailhead across the bridge at one end of the campsite, and in no time were swooping up and down a buff trail along the river, with massive old growth. It was a non-stop rollercoaster, with short steep climbs, and awesome high-speed descents. Many pictures were taken of giant trees, until I guess we finally got used to them. However one 7-foot diameter specimen stopped us in our tracks for more tree-hugging pix. We were on the Hot Springs segment of the trail, which ended at a campsite with another trail that I guess led to some hot springs - go figure. And then we commenced the Dread And Terror section, so named by early explorers who found the river and its steep thickly forested banks so impenetrable, they were like terrified and dreaded it. This was a long 13-mile section, that traversed high up the bank of the river, and passed through many different vegetation zones. There were also a bunch of wet sections here, due to streams emptying down the slope to the river. Some of the climbs were long and steep, but with rewarding downhills.




Finally arrived at Lemolo Lake, which was a good turning around point. We circumnavigated the lake, and had lunch at a camping area which bordered a foul algae-infused section of the lake, with signs proclaiming the water as 'unsafe'. Hmm, not what you'd expect at a high-altitude lake in the middle of nowhere. But these algae blooms are not uncommon in some of the shallower lakes, and appear to be naturally caused. We had almost run out of water at this point, but waited until we saw a clean stream emptying into the lake before we refilled.





At this point, we could have returned the way we came, but the map showed what looked like a cool trail that followed the ridge way above the Southern edge of the river, so we opted for that. Found the faint trailhead out of the corner of my eye after several wrong turns, and it looked like it hadn't seen any use for years. Followed it for a bit, with the aid of some pink ribbons, but eventually it became even fainter, and we abandoned. Now it appeared too long to go back the way we had come via the lake, so we flew down a gravel road for 5 miles or so. Then we checked out the opposite end starting point for the trail we had abandoned, and it was in much better condition on that side, but left it to explore some other day. Dropped back into the Hot Springs section back to the campsite, and finished the day with another great rollercoaster ride.



Day 1 total : 8.25 hours, 4380 vert ft, 41.8 miles. What a blast ! Now for some beer and grub, but first...



Well we had decided before we got back to the campsite, that rather than risk another sleepless night, we would change sites, or maybe even abandon the campground, and find some other place to camp away from the ignorant obnoxious masses. And as if to affirm our decision, our arrival back at the campground was punctuated with the sound of loud music and screams, emanating from several different locations. Trucks full of rednecks drinking beer patrolled the campground, many of them already shitfaced at this point - it seemed like it would be a freaking warzone here tonight, and we immediately decided plan B - get the hell out of Dodge - was the only option. We'd passed one area on our ride back - Thorn Prairie - which while sounding uncomfortable, had seemed like a great out of the way place to camp. Looking around at the numerous vacant sites, it appeared many others had come to a similar conclusion. Did I mention there was also a faint electronic hum that pervaded the entire camping area ? Emanating from some nearby power station no doubt. On out trek up the riverbank we had heard it at an amplified level in some spots.



Within an hour we had packed up and made our exit, and drove up FS 3401. I noticed a sign to Oakridge along the way - possible shortcut ? And then we passed the source of the electronic hum, coming from some maintenance building - and right beside it, several houses - hmm I wouldn't want to see what mutated specimens lived there :) Just a few miles into our escape journey, we crossed a bridge, and I observed what seemed to be like a perfect campsite along the river. We checked it out, and it seemed like Nirvana : nice rushing river sound, huge open space to pitch tents, and firepit with grill. The only drawback was it was a bit close to the road, but not exactly a high traffic area I would think, so we parked it and setup. Finally got to the beer and chow, and it went down very nicely in the new surroundings. There was a bit more traffic than expected on the road, and one redneck-mobile with screaming yahoos, but other than that quiet after 10 pm, and we all had a good night's sleep.




Day 2 was to be the easier day : a predominately downhill 45 mile ride along the river westward. We dumped a car down at the bottom at Swiftwater Park. The 1-way drive time was 45 minutes, and as we drove back to the start point, the enormity of the journey we were soon to embark on hit us with full force. The river was in an immense canyon most of the way, and often you could see the trail undulating along the edge of the steep bank - sometimes down by the water level, other times hundreds of feet up the wall. Then it would disappear as the wall became too sheer, taking some other route through the surrounding mountains before reappearing again. When I first pictured the Umpqua Trail, I had imagined a meandering little river with a trail running alongside it - sure it would go up and down a bit, but never more than 50-100 feet from the river. But the reality is that this trail is Seriously Big. It's like seeing the Rockies for the first time, when all you've previously known are low rolling hills.

With all the shuttling, and packing up camp, we only get started shortly after 11 am. We are figuring on an 8-hour ride, which should leave us about an hour of daylight. I pack a headlamp just in case.

The first section we tackle right out of the campground is Deer Leap, which starts with a long steep climb, just the thing to wake you up and realize that there might actually be some work involved in this 'downhill' ride. After much grunting up and down, high above the river and around deep ravine stream crossings, we arrive at what appears to be the top of the climb for now, and are greeted with an amazing view of the river canyon and surrounding mountains. The terrain here is very dry and desert-like with the Southern exposure. We start the descent, and soon encounter a common denizen of hot dryish climes : a rattlesnake ! I must have disturbed it as I went by, and hear a commotion behind, with the words "Snake!" being clearly discernable. Supposedly the rattler took a strike at Walt as he went by, and Chris, following close behind, ran over the snake. We get off our bikes and head back up the trail to find the reptile - not hard to do, since the rattle could be heard for quite a distance. He was coiled up a few feet off the trail, ready to strike again. He seemed OK, and we took a few pix and were off.

What followed was probably one of my top 5 downhills of all time - as someone else put it "zippy, woo-hoo kind of stuff". I could add a bunch of adjectives, but you probably get the point. After a while, hit a road, and a closed sign on the continuation of the trail on the other side. I'd heard about this closure, some kind of dam work, so down to the highway for 5 miles of blacktop - at least it was mostly downhill.


Then over a bridge to the South side of the river. At this point we still had 5 sections and 34 miles to go. The next few segments sported a variety of terrain and scenery. Flat smooth rollercoaster sections, technical rock gardens, steep exposed areas, lush green stuff, and everywhere Big Trees. I've never seen so much old growth on a trail in my life. Oh, and also I should mention - no people ! If you crave solitude, this is your place. And if you're hoping to bum a tube off another biker - forget it - we saw 3 other bikers in 2 days, and one of them wasn't even on the trail.


We got to enjoy the Calf Segment, reopened this year after 3 years off the map due to fire damage - lots of brand new bridges, and great charred landscape vistas.


The afternoon wore on, and still we were far from our destination. The endless climbs of small and large proportions were starting to take their toll, and I admitted to being a bit tired. Still enjoying the awesome trail, but eager to be done as well. With 20 miles to go, we had our first 'mechanical', with Spence flatting out - he was running Stans tubeless, with a flyweight tire that was barely able to plug up after a protracted period of Stans'ing (rotating the tire around so the goop plugs the hole, pumping up again, etc.). Finally got going again, and made it through the second to last section, a fairly flat one that skirted the river edge. One especially notable bit was a hand-built rock crib section that flared the trail out over the river.


And now we arrived at the start of the Tioga section, the final link in the chain, but described as the most physically demanding section : 16 miles long, with 2 major climbs. We got freaked out looking at the numbers on the trail map : supposedly 3500 vf of climbing in this section. Had to be a misprint, right ? But looking at what we'd already been through, it seemed possible. I made a note of our elevation gain so far - 2940 vf - to see if this crazy number was right. Right at the start, Spence flatted again, and after farting around for 15 minutes trying to plug it without success, we decided to slap a tube in there. Guess what, 4 bikers, 8 tires, and only 1 spare tube ! I handed over my tube, with the caveat that I wanted it back if I needed it. But as soon as I saw it get all slimed with Stans, I knew if we punctured that baby, none of my quick patches would ever stay on.


On the road again, and it was starting to get a bit dark in the deeply forested parts. Finally after 8 miles in, we hit the famous Bob's switchbacks - our last big climb, and then downhill after that to the end. If we were going to get some vert, it would be here. I started first up the winding trail. The switchbacks were well engineered and I was cleaning them. Some of the bits in between were ridiculously steep, but I was determined not to get off the bike. It was amazing, that after 2 long days on the bike, I still felt incredible power, and was making it up stuff that would have given me a hard time after a few days rest. Got to a steepish rocky traverse, and lost it when a boulder appeared in the middle of the trail. Walked for a bit, then back on, and made it up the last few switchies to the top. Behind me I heard a shout from Spence, but didn't want to disturb my rythm and look back. Well, I think I blew my wad on that last climb, and was starting to feel woozy. So chow down on yet more sticky power blocks and gels, and guzzle more stream water that hopefully wouldn't leave me sick in bed for a week. Spence shows up and I see that the sole of his shoe is clipped into his pedal, but the rest of it is no longer attached - complete separation - not a bad time for this to happen I guess, with 5 miles to go and mostly downhill.




The rest of the crew arrives at the top, and it's clear sailing through the rest of the trail. It gets wider and wider as we get closer to the end, finally it's gravelled, then paved, and we're done. Cross the bridge and back to the car, where near-beers are guzzled and 'we did it' pix are taken.


The totals for day #2 : 8.5 hours, 43.5 miles, 4839 vf.

Is that enough riding for a while ? Well, the conensus was that now we should try to do the whole trail in 1 day : 80 miles, ~9000 vf, probably 14 hours of riding... yeah that's doable.

Mosquito Power at Waldo Lake

The day started with no power, as my car refused to start - the battery decided to die that day it would seem. At 7:30 a.m on a Saturday it was hard to find anybody around in the neighborhood to give me a jump start. So I pushed the car over to the corner intersection, hoping to do one of them starts where you coast down a hill and then jam it into gear and kick the engine to life, but that utterly failed. However this landed me directly in front of my neighbour Pat, who had his garage door open and was puttering around inside. He came over with a remote battery starter and got me going. Then drove way faster than usual, hoping to still make the 9 a.m. meeting time at Willamette Pass with the Sorenson clan. And I actually got there with 5 min to spare. There was some downhill race going on the next day, and a few racers of that ilk were messing around with their massive heavy bikes, clad in heavy armor, ready to do some practice runs. In the mean time, I pulled on my bright yellow team spandex attire, and tried to look tough.



The Sorenson's showed up, and presently we set forth on our expedition - a long ride that Walt had devised, which had us climbing up to the back of the ski mountain, descending via Maiden Peak, then climbing up the Gold Bridge trail to Waldo Lake. Then circumnavigating the lake, whereupon we would climb up the Fuji Mountain Trail, and then enjoy an awesome mega-vert descent.



We had lunch at Waldo Lake, and the mosquitoes were relatively tame. There are many legends of brave souls driven from the Lake by hungry hordes of the bloodsuckers, but it appeared that time had passed for this year. We continued around the Lake and at the opposite end decided to try a shortcut that would shave an hour or so off our journey - this seemed prudent, seeing as how we were at the 5 hour point or so. The trail was 'No Bikes' (hiking only), so we 'carried' or 'walked' our bikes, ever watchful for concealed Park Rangers who might jump out from the trees and write us $200 tickets for violating the rules. The mosquitoe count multiplied rapidly the further we got from the lake, and much swearing and swatting ensued. Soon the steep terrain forced us to actually really walk our bikes, and we were descended on by more and more of the blood-sucking pests. Rational thinking was impossible, and angry swatting the order of the day. After much anguish we arrived at the intersection of the bike trail we were hoping to intercept, but it appeared that the map failed us, and we became hopelessly confused, especially after the next couple of intersections which did not appear as they were on the map. Of course it could be that the goddam bugs prevented our brains from accurately analyzing the data at hand.



At last we seemed to have found our way up to the Mt Fuji Trail, and thereafter were greeted with steep climbs of immense proportions. Finally at the top, we now concluded we had gone the wrong way, and had to backtrack down all that hard-fought but useless elevation. Got on a high speed fun descent that we were 90% sure was right, and finally made it back out to familiar territory. The mosquito bites were ubiquitous and itchy, and several close-up photos were taken.

So what is 'mosquito power' ? Well it's the discovery of untapped reserves of power, when you're grinding up a steep hill in your granny gear, and you're totally spent and want to get off and push, but the knowledge that once you're walking your speed will be decreased such that the hordes of mosquitoes will start devouring you carnivorously at a much higher rate than they already are, so somehow you just stay on the bike and make the climb.

Back at our starting point, a small city has erupted, as masses of downhill racers have accumulated in the parking lot, and pitched their tents in the adjoining wooded areas. Heavy metal music can be heard eminating from several sources, and alcoholic beverages are being hoisted with abandon. Wow what a different world.

What a day - 7.5 hours, 50 miles, 5600 vf of climbing, and 20000 bites.

King of the Mountain

My 9th race in 10 weeks, with this one (Return on the Jedi) being probably my favorite : point-to-point, tons of climbing (4600 vf last year), steep tricky technical descents, and plenty of smooth high-speed single-track railing downhill through old growth.

It's a 4-hour drive towards the coast, but with a great campsite at the race start area, 13 miles up a remote single-lane paved winding road, it's a good candidate for a weekend road trip. Convinced the family to come along, with my 6-year old daughter keen to enjoy her first 'kid's race' - usually a very easy 5 to 10 minute stroll around flat dirt roads, but being only a couple months out of training wheels, could be tough for her.

Arrived there early afternoon Saturday, with plenty of great campspots to choose from. And the camping is free this year - no campsite host, very few services - all part of the downsizing/decomissioning of Forest services all over Oregon (man, they need a new government soon...).

Preride the last section of the course with ChrisS and his sons - the final 1300 ft climb up from the lowest point, and then the high speed Jedi section - seems easy when you're fresh, but that climb pretty much finishes everybody off at the end of the race. I then went back to campsite fun with the family / beer-drinking, while Chris and a few other people rode the prologue loop. Heard some story about a 50-foot stream crossing through 1-2 feet of water - hmm probably an exaggeration. Seemed like they were planning on making the course easier this year anyways (which I wasn't too happy with), as the website said they took out the long hot climb in the sun and replaced it with a shorter one in the shade.

But at the start line at 9am the next day, we got the drill about several big stream crossings - all I got was "Stay to the left!", or else you might find yourself floundering in a few feet of water. Another disappointing turnout, with less than 20 pros and experts. Didn't see anybody from the 'Group of 6' from last week that finished in front of me. But within a few minutes after starting, about 10 of the group had opened a huge gap on me and were out of sight. Caught and passed 1 after 10 minutes or so, but then was alone in the initial loop, with no chasers. Came up on the first big stream crossing, and man they weren't kidding - 50 feet of fast moving water to cross, and it looked deep. Of course this was where the photographer was positioned, hoping for good aqua-carnage. I quickly decided ramming speed was the best option - as opposed to low-gear slow speed line picking - and jammed it right down the middle (staying left didn't look so good), and I made it across unscathed. A few more tamer crossings, and after half an hour was back at the start area, where the climbing fun would begin. Had caught up to SpencerS, and we took turns leading up the climb, which was along an old double-track with a great canopy above it. Excellent temps here in the shade - I noted 58F at one point, much better than the 105F climbing we had in the sun last year (though this year wasn't nearly as hot).

Finally at the top after 1.5 hours, and still no one in sight ahead. Found it hard to believe that the other experts were that much faster (found out later it was mostly Pros in that group). Down some dirt roads, and then the last loose single track climb to the real top of the mountain, whereupon the 2600 vf descent awaits. It starts off with steep rocky ledges, where your seat is rammed into your chest for a long while. Finally passed someone here who was walking his bike down (heard later he injured himself and DNF'd). Then more fun in the trees, out onto the hillside for more rocky switchbacks, then insanely fast single-tracking all the way down to the low-point. Hadn't seen SpencerS since the top, but he caught up to me at the bottom, and we again led up the climb together. Over 2 hours into the race, and now facing the last big daunting climb. Last year was pushing my bike on the steepest spots, walking through poison oak and not giving a shit, feeling like crap. But today feel good and clean the entire climb. Spence has disappeared from sight, and I push hard, knowing there's a good chance he'll catch up. But cross the finish line at 3:13, and no one else shows up for a while. I win my category for the 2nd year in a row - though only 3 were in it. Still, get 2nd Expert overall.

The overall conclusion among the racers is that this is a real mountain biking course - with the most technical terrain and the most climbing. With over 5200 vf and 30+ miles, yep it's probably the toughest. Hmm, I'll have to show them what it's like in B.C. :)