So I’ve been enjoying riding my mountain bike and cyclocross bike this summer, among other things. Although I haven’t been in any type of formal training routine, it seems like just about every ride I’ve been on has been epically long and memorable. Here is a summary:
MTBing the Walla Walla: I’ve ridden every trail on and around the North and South Fork of the Walla Walla River within the last month. The only section I haven’t ridden yet is the short section from Harris park up to the Cub Saddle Trail, which happens to be the most popular. What this means is that I’ve taken all of the trail heads from our side (the La Grande side), which are very physically demanding because they drop from high to low. Overall, the trails in there are absolutely awesome to ride thanks to the great trail crew (of which we met 2) and the motorbike guys who all keep the trails smooth and mostly debris free.
Double Endo: On my most recent ride on the Walla Walla, I suddenly found my self standing on the trail without my bike. After a momentary pause, I witnessed it hurtling off the edge and tumbling about 50 ft down the embankment. Somehow I managed to finish upright after dropping over a root onto a rock that stuck my front wheel. My bike ended up being fine, other than a bent brake lever.
I wasn’t quite as lucky on my next ride. Origin of Species took Pro Bono Ciclo and me up to Breashears Trail. On a steep downhill section I found myself launching over the handlebars yet again. What Pro describes as self-inflicted pile driver, I prefer to characterize as a well executed dive roll. I think he had a better viewing angle though. In any case, it did involved my head contacting trail and a memorable helmet crunching sound. Other than some minor scratches and a sore wrist, it didn’t end up being as bad as it looked. I bent up the other shifting lever this time.
Perhaps more life threatening was Pro’s experience with a real peloton. We came across some serious blowdown on the trail that required some thought to get around. I decided to watch and wait while sp. initiated a route straight over the giant trees and Pro investigated a promising route around. Suddenly, Pro transitioned from his bike to his run segment–Xterra style–but he was definitely setting a pace much too fast for a 10k. As he neared me, I noticed a swarm of hornets mercilessly attacking him. He incurred about a dozen stings that apparently had him swelled and muddled for a few days after the ride.
I’ll be featuring my new MTB (pictured pre-crashes) probably in my next blog entry. I really enjoyed riding the bike this summer. I may consider doing a few MTB races next year.
Climbing: Some rides were difficult enough that I was able to uncover my off-season breaking point. My first trip into the Walla Walla with Rad Doc included 6.5+ hours of consistent riding and some ungodly amount of climbing. The 3 mile climb out started well, but I was walking my bike by the time I got to the parking area. Recently, I spent about 7.5 hours on a cyclocross bike ride that had me ruined more than once. This ride included the complete climb up Mt Fanny (Elevation: 2,695 ft at Phys Rd. to the 7,130 ft summit). Mt. Fanny is a magnificently difficult climb that takes 2.5+ hours. I’m guessing a top climber couldn’t break 2 hours with an all out effort. The view from the top is great. Near the top I caught a glimpse of Mt. Harris, which we’d climbed a few weeks before, and it looked like a mole hill. The fire started up there the next day, probably from combustion started by me after I finished off my 2 liters of water well before reaching the summit. The next day, Rad and I went for what I thought was going to be a docile MTB ride. The next thing I knew we were at the top of Mt. Emily. This completed the trifecta: within a short time span we had knocked off all the 3 mountains that surround our valley. In fact, we had also been up Glass Hill recently too.
One of my recent projects is cataloguing the climbs of Northeast Oregon. I’ve begun compiling a book, which I anticipate being released in Spring 2009. So if you hear me talking about climbs quite a bit, that’s why. I’ve also got some other projects going too.
