Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Category: General MTB

Cuyamaca Cruise

Today I went out for a quick spin in the Cuyamaca Mountains which rarely falls into the “This Sucks!” category.

An oak at the bottom of the Green Valley singletrack
An oak at the bottom of the Green Valley singletrack

I started from the East Mesa parking lot and took the East Mesa singletrack up to the visitor center where I connected to the Green Valley fire road.   I took this up to the Green Valley single track and work my way to the La Cima trail.

CRHT
I love this spot along the California Riding and Hiking Trail

The La Cima trail took me to the California Riding and Hiking trail, which I took south where I hooked up with the Stonewall fireroad and then over to the Cold Springs trail.

Great views in the Cuyamaca Mountains
Great views in the Cuyamaca Mountains

At the bottom of the Cold Springs trail I crossed HWY 79 and hooked up with the West Side singletrack and took it south back to the East Mesa staging area.    It was definitely a fun day on the bike!

An old friend gone

It is with a bit of sadness that I must pass on that this beautiful old oak tree has finally moved on from Daley Ranch.

From a year or so ago

On my Sunday morning ride, I found this tree toppled over completely blocking the eastern half of the Jack Meadow loop. Half of this oak had come down a year or so ago, but the other half finally we over as well. Considering that Daley Ranch has a staff to handle this kind of stuff I imagine the tree came down on Saturday. Good bye old friend you were a most welcome shade spot.

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