It was a nice treat to be able to sleep with the window open for a change, have a cool breeze blowing in & wake to the sound to rain falling outside. It cleared a little as we drove east again towards Hood River. Right off the side of I-84 twenty or so miles down the road are Multnomah Falls. We had to stop & check them out as the super-friendly Brandon at the Pheasant Café had raved about them a few days earlier. It drizzled a little as we checked them out, but it was hard to tell if that was precipitation or spray from the falls. A thin ribbon of a waterfall, the total height is almost seven hundred feet. Fed by a spring they’re some of the tallest year-round falls in the country – but lacked the impact of the snowmelt-swollen behemoths in Yosemite.

We met Miles again just out of Hood River & organized the afternoon’s ride. A fall in shallow water while kiting the day before had left Miles with a badly sprained ring finger & a extremely swollen hand – he wasn’t so keen on riding downhill, but still wanted to get out for a ride. We chose to go up the Dog River Trail (so looking forward to watching the final series of Corner Gas when I have time next month) & I would ride Surveyor’s Ridge while Miles rode the boring road back down. Dog River proved to be as much as we expected – really nice singletrack through beautiful forest that was one big climb. It was pretty tiring, but we kept a good pace & I think I only had to walk briefly twice; all up we climbed almost 700m in ten kilometres (about 2000 ft in six miles). Steady going & overcast conditions were in our favour, although the little drizzle was nice it did make things humid.

Miles left me at the top & I continued to complete the loop by riding Surveyor’s Ridge. As the name suggests, it was typical ridge riding – up & down & up & down, never really getting too far away from 1300m. This ride is reputed for giving occasional windows of views towards Mt Hood. But that cooling cloud was also covering the mountain, so I never really saw that much except a little of the lower snow. I turned off to ride down to the Oak Ridge trailhead. What fun it was – really fast & smooth. About halfway down I was starting to think that it was almost as good as Downieville & then it turned in to a lot of switchbacks. Out of the pine forest these got more severe & I was getting a bit sick of constantly braking & turning. I’ve since been told that it’s better not to turn down to Oak Ridge, but instead continue along the ridge trail to the big powerlines & come down from there. Never mind, it was a great 35 km ride & excellent to put a few hours together on the bike.

Along the ridge there would suddenly be random large piles of rocks amongst the trees

The many flowers (blue, pink & white as well) were prettier than the obscured Mt Hood

With as many as fourteen dams on the length of the Columbia, it is now a surprisingly wide river. Just how wide, we begun to comprehend as we drove downstream towards Hood River yesterday. I do wonder just what it was like untamed when Lewis & Clark went down it & then later in Oregon Trail times. We were aiming to meet Miles – who was out kite-surfing with his brother – after lunch to go for a ride. That the Columbia is a good place for kiting & windsurfing was obvious as we saw an extensive windfarm nearby.

Yes, another poor picture taken from the passenger seat.

We weren’t too long in getting to Hood River & we ended up finding a lot of kites. As I’ve said time & time again on this trip – the river is very high this year. Consequently, the usual staging area & beach is well under water so everything was much closer to the parking lot. We happened upon the last of three days’ worth of kiting for cancer-research fundraising – so there was a good atmosphere around & over sixty kites out on the water. It was neat to watch a sport that I know little about & looks like great fun – the air that some of the boarders were getting was incredible. I’m not sure I’d ever be able to overcome the fear of a big gust of wind pulling my shoulder to pieces again.

While we waited, we sifted around town a bit looking in bookshops & eating pie (still not too sure what a marionberry is – but it tasted good). Eventually, we met up with Miles, crossed the river to Washington & went & met his brother Alan & Alan’s family. As time was limited for Alan, we went out on a short ride from their lot up in the hills. Starting with a little road-riding, it wasn’t long before we were in the forest. We basically climbed 350m on fireroads to get to the start of the singletrack down. The first section was absolutely sweet. Super dark in the dense forest (therefore, no dust this time) & a nice twisty, but flowy, trail that was super smooth to ride. Unfortunately, the middle section had been logged since the last time Alan & Miles had ridden it – so that was more boring. With an even twistier bit of singletrack to finish off, we were soon back at the trailer. Nice to get out & stretch the legs on a ride that wasn’t super long.

Mt Hood, the tallest mountain in Oregon, had been popping in & out of view all day – usually with an annoying cap of cloud sitting around. It’s really nice to see the mountain rising out of the lowlands – so here’s a snapshot.

From Boise it was a two and a half hour drive out west to Ketchum & Sun Valley to meet Miles & a few others for a ride.  We left in plenty of time & after leaving the freeway early on, Highway 20 west curved back & forth & up for a while before levelling out & going through yet more cropping land. With lots of what I would deem classic American rural buildings it was a most interesting drive – & being overcast a lot more pleasant than the previous day’s.

Turning north we went through a couple more rural towns before getting to Ketchum. We were really surprised to see dozens of Lear jets sitting off the runway at the local airstrip. On the way back we counted over sixty-five – it was quite the juxtaposition with all the rest of what we’d seen of Idaho. Apparently Sun Valley (pretty much adjacent to Ketchum) is quite the ski-resort (first chairlift in the world we are told) & the playground of the rich or famous (Zuckerburg, amongst others, has a place here). With some event on this weekend, the literal jet-set were kicking around – but I didn’t see any that I recognised. Making do with the aging Subaru we arrived in town to have a pleasant look around – I managed to regrease my bottom bracket while waiting for the others to arrive.

With the help of Karl (our local friend-of-a-friend-squared) we decided on a loop to ride from town. It was a bit of a road ride out of town & we were all honking along gradually climbing; I couldn’t make out why I was slow. Eventually I stopped & readjusted my rear wheel (2.2″ tires don’t fit so well in my bike’s rear triangle) – but I was still feeling a bit slow. We turned off the road onto doubletrack & I was rapidly losing ground – I couldn’t work it out. Was it the 2.5 hours’ sleep the night before, tired from too much riding, being back at mountain altitude? Whatever it was, I was exhausted, slow & ashamed to be holding everyone up. Finally, my tired little brain realised that my new brake pads had taken it upon themselves to start rubbing on the disc a lot. Eventually I caught up to the waiting group, fixed my brakes & got the wheel spinning freely & we continued up the hill.

As the climb continued to get steeper, I didn’t feel so bad as the surface was loose & soon everyone was walking for quite some time (even Don, who I think showed us all how to climb).

But I was still totalled from all the extra resistance early on & it was as humid as I’ve felt it in months. We completed the climb (about 600m in 6km) & got in amongst some shadier trees on the saddle to start riding the Eve’s Gulch trail down.

Tired as I, the downhill was fantastic. Pretty twisty, but not all that technical, you could get some speed up between the corners. There was a bit of dust around, which made me a little tentative pushing the front wheel out around corners – but mostly it was a good fun run down. It was great riding with others & being able to chase a back wheel down the trail for a change. Tim, in particular, rode a good pace just back from where I’d be putting myself on the edge of control. We went through an old burn zone, but even that looked nice – just a beautiful day to be out on the trail. Here’s Miles disappearing into the trees.

We had a good plunge down before the trail levelled out & we traversed along Shady Side – another enjoyable piece of singletrack.

With one last bomb down a single/doubletrack mix we were back on the road heading into town. After cleaning up there were some well deserved pizzas & beers before Valerie & I made the trek back to Boise with a really nice sunset to watch over the foothills.