Mud

You don't get these from me that often so listen up. I'm not going to make a big deal out of this cause you'd just end up being let down. IF you have a chance, check out Mud, with Matthew McConahay and Reese Whitherspoon.

I really enjoyed it. You might too.

Except for IFO.

Park Legs

Vacation time for me and Nic. Planning was quick. We have no money so its more like a staycation instead. We tossed around some ideas. 

Ted : Rossland?

Nic: No. 

Ted: Oregon?

Nic: Can I shop?

Ted: Of course!

Nic: OK

Ted: Camping?

Nic: fucker.....

So begins the tale of Nic's camping/biking/shopping trip to Oregon. Hood River was the destination with some trail suggestions passed on to us by Craig and Ina. We were up early on the last Sunday of July and headed for the border.  A few stops in Portland for the shopping part and then over to the Memaloose State campground.

This is me putting up the tent. Forgetting a hammer, I had to use a pot to hammer in the pegs. The pot, by the way,  is one I've had for 20 years. I borrowed it from my Mom when I moved out. She tried to get it back once but I wouldnt cough it up. Good call on my part. It hammers good.


No Ass crack for you!

The camps ground was noisy. Near the highway and train tracks, and windy as hell. But nice to look at. (Why is every campground in the world near train tracks?)

Anyways, ride 1 was surveyors ridge. Lots of ways to do this trail, however we did it as a loop. We missed the recommended trail entrance and found one that shaved about 3 miles off the total distance. Looking for trail heads in Oregon can be a bit of an Easter egg hunt. Once found tho, we could complete a 20 mile loop of the area.

The ridge is famous for its views of Mt. Hood.

The ride to the trail head was actually fairly light. The trail itself I found to be a bit more demanding.

Lunches were done mostly by the nice eateries in Hood River. Brian's Pourhouse was our first lunch in town after the Surveyors Ridge lap. Man we stunk. But after a ride like that the burger and beer was Epic.

Dinners were all done on the fire pit at our camp site. We were pretty proud to manage Spaghetti and Garlic bread on our second night.

Oregon has a boomer beer scene. You can only scratch the surface in a few days. I got bored of the Deschutes fairly quickly, but found the Double Mountain Brew pub at 4th and Cascade. Their Beer came in nice 500ml bottles . If you're out that way I recommend the IRA(India Red Ale) and the Vaporizer if you're feeling like something lighter. 

Ride 2 was on Whoop de Trail. Private land owners make this trail available. A shorter trail than Surveyors, the views are arguably nicer and the ride is wayyyyyy more fun. Lots of rolling trail followed by some awesome "turn the brain off and ride" descents. The only crapping thing is that after all that descending there is an unfortunate 2 mile climb out and back to the car. Not a big deal, but in the hot sun it can be daunting. Us Canadians like our North Shore shade.

Instead of riding on the 3rd day, we decided to leave it open for the journey home.  We Ate lunch at the Double Mountain brewery and then continued our afternoon riding the Historic Hwy 30. Not a real mountain bike ride. Actually its all on pavement and is intended more for families. There are a few view points along the way. We gave up short of our 4.5 mile goal and turned around. We were ready to wrap up.

We finished our night we some bevies and roasted dogs on the fire pit. Dennis (camping near us from Bend Oregon) came over to offer us some extra firewood. We took him up  on a few logs. Then I walked over an IRA in exchange for his kindness. Dennis, and everyone else we encountered on our trip, including the guys at Dirty Fingers bike shop, Brians Pourhouse and Double Mountain brew pub we all amazingly nice. I think Americans get a bad wrap sometimes, but with the exception of GWB and company, I have little bad to say.

Wednesday morning arrived and we packed up our tent and went home. VIA the peace arch border crossing, which was the worst part of the trip so far(2 hour wait?) but not bad enough to be worth writing about. 

Moving on to part 2 of our vacation so far, and probably the reason Nic had to camp in Hood River. I've done the extra shifts and saved up my allowances like a good boy. My overall plans for a "Financially Responsible" year have gone as planned and will continue again once September rolls around. However for now I get to show you an example of very very poor money management. 

Please let me introduce you to my new Cove Shocker. 

At the end of the day, its a very similar bike to the STD I recently sold. 1 inch more travel and an Eye Popping Antifreeze Green paint job were all it took for me to commit the money to a new bike.

Thanks Chaz, Jordan and Steve at Cove bikes.

Ride 1 on Neds wasn't quite what I was hoping for. But thats ok. It would get its park test soon enough.

Picked up the bike on Thursday. Friday we loaded up all our stuff and headed to Ashcroft to visit with Nic's Mom and Dad.

No pics from that part of the trip. But you know what Italians are like. The key to survival is just to leave room for air in the chest cavity.

Nic's Mom almost literally spends all day in the kitchen. We had fresh veggies from their garden, and meals of Chicken, BBQ steak, Spaghetti and Ribs with garlic mash potatoes. God I love Garlic Mash potatoes.

Amazing hospitality.  I slept 16 hours a day and spend the other 8 eating and drinking beer.

The only exercise we would have was a trip to the Sun Peaks bike park on the BC day long weekend. I was still learning the new bike and didn't open it up the way I was hoping to.

But this isn't my first rodeo.

We traveled home Thursday morning and beat the traffic. We did so well we managed to go straight into North Van. Jordan was good enough to tell me that the new spring for my Fox 40 fork might not get in in time and he told me to go see James and Drew at suspensionwerx. They had one in stock and installed it for me.

NICE!!!! because now we could go to the Whistler Bike Park. And go we did, Friday instead of Saturday as originally planned. Which is a good thing because Crankworks was in the mid stages of setting up, and I FUCKING HATE CRANKWORKS! Don't watch, just Ride...........

I digress.

Going up on Friday gave us the chance to hook up with Lee and Tracey. We were out of sync for the first 3 rides at the park, they were going up as we were on the way down it always seemed. But then I ninja'd us a lift on the Gondola which bypassed the chairlift line up. Nic and I were waiting at the entrance to Crank it up when Lee and Tracey found us. HAHA!. Can't hide from me!

AWESOME NEWS!!! I have hours of GO PRO footage from CRANK IT UP yesterday. EVEN BETTER, I'm not posting it up. You've all seen it before. Trust me.

I did stop to get some pics of the group on Karate Monkey.

And Nic, who always seems to have a rough time at some point in the bike park. But funny enough, if you just leave her alone, she manages to surprise you eventually.

Nice to start getting my park legs back. I'm really looking forward to a few more trips up next month.

Beers after and then home, with a stop in Squamish to visit the Howe Sound Brew Pub to do a little stocking up.

But by no stretch of the imagination is Laps in the WPB enough penance for Mama Lepri's Spaghetti therapy.

Saturday morning, with tired legs Nic and I decided to join out friends for a ride up Fromme to 7th Secret and a lap down Crinkum Crankum, one of my favorite laps on the shore.

Again, you probably already know the story. A few pics from the ride and then off to Seymours pub for lunch and pitchers with friends.

As my old core group of riding friends seems to have all hung up the ride shoes, its nice to have poached Nic's friends as temporary(or long term?) replacements. I still have hope that I won't have to do "No Variety" solo next month. But I'll count my blessings that Nic has hooked me up with Sue and Lubo and Lee and Tracey who all care about the same things I do.

Bikes and Beers.

EDIT:

Pics from Lubo from Today's ride

 Nice to me in my own Blog ....