Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Author: MTBBill

Website/Blog Recovery in Progress

I am in the middle of recovering from a webhosting transfer, backup/restore failure.   While the static webpages are back online (with the exception of interactive maps), the blog has issues.     The appearance has to be rewickered and entries from 2013 up to the middle of 2017 have to basically be rebuilt.

UPDATE – 11SEP18:   All of my data and photos have been recovered!!   Some of the external links are not going to work due to database index changes but the content is all there.   I still need to redo the appearance theme of the blog.

UPDATE – 18SEP18:   I now have a new blog theme, tweaked to mesh up with my regular site better.   You will find that it works much better with mobile devices than my previous setup.

McKenzie River Trail

Another trail from “The List” checked off today. The Mckenzie River Trail was simply amazing with pretty much everything I think a singletrack connoisseur would want in a trail. This excursion is in the discussion of the best 25 miles of trail I have ever been on. Props to Nichol for shuttling me to the trail and showing up at end with beer!

The north end of Clear Lake
The south end of Clear Lake
Superb lake-side section of trail
Sahalie Falls is just….WOW!
Koosah Falls is also amazing!
So much of this killer forest stuff!
You get plent of this cool log crossing stuff along the way.

Tomorrow it time to head home but we are most definitely going to be back to Bend!

More Bend Oregon

We were digging the scene in Bend so much that we extended our stay in Bend for a few more days.

We are vacation so no need to rush out too early.
Tumalo Falls
Tumalo creek
Happy bikes waiting for a shuttle up to the base of Mt Bachelor.

We did another super fun ride that included Dutchmans Flat, Flagline, Swampy Lake, Swede Ridge, Area 16, Upper and Lower Whoops, Phils Marvin Gardens and COD. It was a 35 mile day on tasty singletrack. A great day to be on a bike.

I think I can I think I can! Starting up the Flagline trail
Nearing the top of Flagline
Nice spot for snack break
Cool trail art!

Bend Oregon Opener

My work project completed on schedule and Nichol flew up with her bike to start our play project. Saturday we bolted from Washington to Bend Oregon for some MTB fun for a few days before heading to parts further south.

Nichol setup us up with a nice pad for the stay.

Wasting no time hitting the Bend Ale Trail

The opening day ride was a shuttle up to Swampys where we did the Swampy Lake loop to Swede Ridge, Area 16, Upper and Lower Whoops followed by some Phil’s and Bens.

On Swede Ridge
Hmmm I wonder where Nichol came up with the idea to put a beer in her ice filles camelbak bladder?

So I had told Nichol that route was 25 miles long. This was indeed true. At the Phil’s trailhead it was 25 miles. I neglected to mention the ride from the trailhead back to town. So for the last five or six miles Nichol accused me of trying to kill her.

Artwork along the Marvin Gardens trail
Killer trail sign
The girl knows her limits!

I think she did pretty darn well today and I did not hear to much protesting on the last few miles. (I did however ride a little further ahead which maaaay just have been slightly outside of earshot!

Once back in town all was better as we recounted the days awesomeness over tasty beers.

Ape Canyon – Mount Saint Helens

I got up at O-damm early this morning to knock off a long time on “The List” trails. The Mt Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument’s Ape Canyon and Plains of Abraham trails did not disappoint. Mother Nature only allowed partial views of the mountain today which clearly means she wants me to come back. The climb up through the old growth forest spared by the eruption was sublime. Climbing up onto the plains was a WOW moment. It was amazing to see what the mountain did when it decided to give its etch-a-sketch a little shake in 1980. It’s going to take me a few days to process all of the life enrichment I took in today.

Lahar next the trail
Climbing up through old growth spared from the eruption.
Pacfic Northwest trail awesomeness!
Such an aburpt transition from the forest onto the prior devastation
Like an lunar landscape on the Plains of Abraham.
So pretty!
A snapped of tree from the eruption
Nearing Windy Gap

Banner Forest

Over the last few days the smoke has been pretty thick considering how far away the Canadian and Eastern Washington wild fires were. The day after my last ride I was pretty congested and “hackie” so I decided to forego fun on the trails for a few days.

The smoke was pretty thick.

A little bit of rain and favorable winds cleared out the smoke enough to get a ride this afternoon. I made a return to Banner Forest for some twisty fast singletrack fun.

More Green Mountain

A had another good week of getting in some good afterwork rides in out at Green Mountain State Park. Most of the week I focused on zipped over the west side of the west side of the park to get to know that side better. Plenty of trail on that side as well.

Got Beaver?

On the Tin Mine Trail.

Tin Mine shaft.
Baby waterfall

Green Mountain SP

I have been getting in some good after work rides out at Green Mountain State Park. This place is my current “local” trail with the trailhead just 10 minutes away. For my first ride back out here I kept it simple doing and out and back on the Wildcat trail to the Green Mountain peak. Round trip was 8.4 miles with 1,740 feet of climbing. The views included the Olypmics Mountains, Mt Rainer and downtown Seattle. Later in the week I was reminded that trails can come and go on timber land and following one of the trails I remembered from eight years ago netted me a solid 10 minutes of bramble bushwacking at the bottom of the far side of the mountain from where I started. I was not exactly chasing daylight at that point but once you get under the trees it seems much later in the evening. I found myself putting a bit more gitty up on the pedals to get back to the trailhead just to realize I had more daylight left than I expected. Good times!

Lower Dungeness- Gold Creek

Had a great day out on the Olympic Pennisula. I revisited the Lower Dungeness and Gold Creek loop I had done some number of years ago. The last time I was socked in with clouds but today was clear skies and sunshine. Such good singletrack. I do have some tweaks to make to my review of this trail. Look for those at some point.