Beer, Bikes and Bend...

so although i am not too impressed with Bend anymore (ok, maybe you gotta like a place that puts metal sculptures of mountain bikers in the middle of the national forest), they still have the mountain biking going on!!! G dog and myself found Phil and Kent and Ben and...Garrett spent about 2 hours on the jump track with some new friends. I tooled around on the single track too chicken to do the jump track :) By the time he was done he was all banged up, had gotten about a foot and 1/2 of air on the table tops and was a very happy boy. We then took off to find the 'whoops' trail which several forest roads later we found and I did the 1.7 mile climb to the top to be rewarded with 2 miles of screamin' downhill feathered with berms, mini tabletops, jumps and other fun stuff. By the time it was done my quads were screaming and i had a big smile on my face!
I have been so jealous of this area because every outdoor rec opportunity is available right out your back door but i finally figured out that if I lived here? I would do nothing but bike all day and drink beer all night! Mountain bike trails and micro brews are the name of the game here. Perhaps i am supposed to live in Austin?
Anyway, we plowed on to Ashland via the Umpqua Rogue Scenic Oregon Byway (unbelieveable views), but the 2 campgrounds that were in town were icky so we plowed on further. I finally had a breakdown in Yreka, CA and garrett suggested we get a motel. Since we have only had 1 night in a motel this trip i agreed and we pulled into a Rodeway inn and showered, ordered a pizza and turned on Food Network, a real treat!! I finished off the Squatters full suspension brew from Salt Lake City and am ready for bed. We are going to try to get to Dani tomorrow who is hangin' with her cousin in Berkely...we miss her and I think there is a small possibilty she misses us?
later gater, rob

In pursuit of good food, good drink and good times!

We left McMenamins yesterday after 1 last round of disc golf and headed to Portland. We searched and found the Waffle Window whereby G-man had the local berry favorite with blue, raspebbies and marionberries and I had the farm favorite with spinach, mushrooms, basil and goat cheese. Possibly the best waffles we have ever had!! We wandered around Hawthorne Ave for awhile and scored some Peets coffee and some fresh sourdough. Then we headed to Bend.
I remember Bend being a sleepy little mountain town...no more. Tons of big box stores and strip centers. We got some tips for cool riding from REI and then jumped on our bikes and peddaled the trail which goes around the Deschutes.
We hit a campgound near Redmond last night and had sandwiches and local brew and went to bed.
Today...Phil's Trail and more adventures!
later, rob

around the world in 80 days...or something like that!

We are out of the mountains and I'm going to try and be brief (good luck, eh?) as I recap!

Day 1
We took off July 11th about mid day. The morning was spent packing and repacking. I carried the group gear and let G-dog carry his personal stuff plus some food. We only hiked a couple of miles to get "into" the area. Oh, we were in the Wallowa range of eastern Oregon...Anyway, that day we found a pretty little meadow above little Minam river where Garrett exercised his G-man vs wild skills and did all sorts of cool things like find 'old man's beard' in the trees to start the fire and built a fish trap in the river ( guess trout aren't fond of chex mix!). Who says TV wastes minds??
Day 2
We had a big day planned with a 2600 foot elevation gain as we made our way up and over the ridge. Unbelieveable views, snow crossings, G-dog skiing, flowers, flowers, flowers, original campsite had no worthy water so we plowed on to to Lackeys lake, big ass storm!



Day 3
Slept in because it was raining, very cold day, downhill hike to the Minam river, campsite by the river, big campfire, marshmellows



Day 4
River hike, 1st Ford, yummy lunch of macs and tuna!, first people sighting (horsepackers), another river side campsite, slept in and dried everything out from the storm, elk in camp!


Day 5
river hike, hiked past our intended campsite (doh), garrett bathed (yay), slug snake (Oregon rubber snake we found out later).

Day 6
Day 6 was special for so many reasons...G-dog turned 13 !!! Then we surprised him with the Minam lodge! I had down played what the place was and had simply told him we were resupplying there...we arrived in the morning both so excited about his birthday and the resupply box!! His face went from happy to ecstatic as he realized he was getting lunch, then a shower, then dinner then...we ate, we tubed on the river, we played all day, we had an amazing dutch oven dinner, birthday cake, presents, farkel, Mike and his Jesse stories! Beth was the woman who was taking care of the place and she was incredible! She made Garrett's 13th really special...thenks Beth and the Minam Lodge!


Day 7
Beth made us a big breakfast of pancakes (Garrett's special request), eggs and sausage. We took off after breakfast because we knew we had a 700 foot climb right off the bat. Slack packed the Jim White ridge which was a big disappointment! Camped on Whiskey Flats, thumb wars, last nite...

Day 8
We treated ourselves to an entire dunkin stick with breakfast and 2 cups of coffee-wahoo! Big climb (1500 feet) out, went back to the really nice RV park, showered and went to town. Ate an entire loaf of challah, saw Harry Potter, grilled steaks and corn and had an amazing heirloom tomato washed down with a Portland, Oregon IPA!



We took off yesterday for McMenamins Grand Lodge and got side tracked in Hood River, he he. In our pursuit of ice cream we stopped in Hood River a really cool old town in the Colombia Gorge area. We found ice cream, a slalom skate boarding competition and of course the local bike shop which guided us to the local freeride trails about 4 miles away in the national forest. So off we went up the mountain with awesome views of the impressive Mt Hood, cherry trees and lots of little birds! We rode all over the freeride park and G-man perfected his bunny hop on my 29'er, learned how to ride those crazy wooden bridges you see in the movies (well, just a liitle), and had a blast on the middle school trail! What impresses me so much about this area is all the public land with so much cool stuff on it. Texas is so different...everyting is private.
Anyway, we drove thru Portland and got to our destination about 5:45 just in time to make the 6 o'clock show of Land of the Lost...the lodge has a way cool old theatre that they show movies in...kinda' like the alamo draft house in Austin except much smaller. G-man had a burger, I had some sweet potato fries with chipolte ketchup washed down with McMenamins own home brew...Hammerhead! We played some disc golf and had a merry old time! It was our first bed in weeks and it felt gooooood!


We are off today somewhere...not sure yet. we are on the hunt for the Mckenzie River trail...
later, rob

Today the G man and myself pushed into Oregon and got ourselves as close to the mountains as we could and still be able to have a few amenities. We found a lovely campground nearby and did laundry, finished the rest of our food shopping and took a refreshing swim. I have the grill going right now and we are gonna' cook some 'big fat as yer head burgers' tonight to hold us for 9 days. I picked up some micro brew in Salt lake and have a few more left that sound good with that burger :)
We are both excited and scared.
Until the 19th...Mom and the G-Man!

a good day today...we left the campground this morn and headed to American Fork where the nice dudes at the Bike Peddler gave us directions to the local bike area. You can't imagine how all these towns have the sweetest biking right in their backyards. The G man felt much better today so we biked the river trail although it alluded me for quite some time why it was called a river trail! We finally came upon the water and it was beautiful! We then found the local BMX area and Garrett perfected jumping on my 29'er. A yummy lunch of cheese and homemade garlic bread that i bought at a local farmers market topped off the biking.
We then muscled thru the rest of Utah with cool views of the great salt lake and into idaho which was pretty much farmland for most of todays drive...i guess all those potatoes need some space. Tent is pitched in the campground and we are off for showers...
happy birthday Loo Poo!

w

a few misc pics of stuff...

well we decided to blow past Moab after biking in Durango yesterday. The G man sucked air in the altitude but it was really beautiful non the less. Went thru Moab and my car temp registered 100... camped outside Provo instead and woke up to a chilly 60 degree's...yummy! Utah is gorgeous and it was way cool to see some of the stuff we raced in several years ago.
We are headed towards Boise today and anything fun along the way.