Category Archives: USA

bikes, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Out of Bend & Gunsight Trail

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We got the call just before ten o’clock that Subaru Guru in Bend had finished the head gasket replacement. Excited by the prospect of getting back on the road again, we made the big trek to the south of town & back, packed up & were pulling out of the driveway by eleven o’clock. We had ended up staying a week in Bend – not the ideal circumstances, but a great place to be stuck (even if the weather was a little unseasonal) & we were so fortunate to have Allen & Lisa’s kind hospitality.  I was toying with the idea of a big drive & then the classic Lewis River ride near Mt St Helens, but in the end decided that was too optimistic.

But I had a back up plan – the Gunsight Trail near Government Camp that I had intended to ride the day the car problems started. Mt Hood was once again shrouded in cloud, but it was a lot warmer than last time we drove through the area. The GPS trail I had showed riding from the highway, but as I had Valerie to shuttle me I managed to skip a few kilometres of paved road in the forest. When it turned to gravel I got on the bike, but the doubletrack is so good I would have been confident taking the Outback up there quite a way. I could see the ridge that I had to get up to & it was a long way up. Mostly the doubletrack was steady climbing, but it got pretty steep at one stage – climbing 150m in 1km. I was sick of pushing that middle ring around halfway through that section.

Diving off through the trees to the left, I soon popped out on an old dirt road that went up more gradually to the start of the singletrack. As this road met another, the trail dived off into the trees. I was immediately concerned by the amount of blowdown that I had to climb over – it was going to be a long ride if there were many trees down. But trees weren’t much of a problem after a few hundred metres as I continued climbing on the singletrack. I quickly became reacquainted with my old friend Mr Snow at about 1700m. So for most of the ridge I pushed over quite a bit of snow, rode on a little of it & climbed over the odd tree (breaking a spoke in the process). Pleasantly the cloud was retreating from Mt Hood & by the time I was on the top of the ridge at a burn-site I could get a decent view. There were also good views out to the east of the High Desert.

After slowly making my way along that ridge between 1700 & 1800m for quite some time the trail finally turned down & the snow became scarcer & scarcer. Unfortunately, the screaming good downhill was often interrupted by fallen trees. Nonetheless, it was a great run down – a nice wide trail with just enough rocks to keep one from getting too complacent. Unlike the descent from Surveyor’s Ridge last week, the switchbacks were so far apart I wasn’t annoyed by them. It ended up a pretty short ride at about 17km/10 miles, but after all that climbing, snow & trees I didn’t really mind as I dozed on the drive into Portland.

bikes, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

McKenzie River Trail & the Xen crew

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On my fourth attempt to ride the McKenzie River trail, I was finally successful. With the car in the shop having its engine pulled out & apart, we had a loaner that actually got us more than eight miles out of Bend on Highway 20 north. For most of the hour drive to the trailhead I wasn’t overly keen on all the rain that was falling, but as we started to go down the other side of the range it eased off a bit.

Starting at a recently sealed parking lot, the new trail signs aren’t quite up yet, immediately I was over the first of many log bridges crossing various streams & the river on the ride. There was a mile or so of nice wide packed dirt singletrack under big trees before I crossed another bridge at the head of Clear Lake. The east side of the lake has a lot of lava flow to ride over & it’s easily the most technical & tricky part of the ride – quite slow as well. The sun wasn’t out, so the lake wasn’t as clear as it may usually be but beautiful all the same.

The tricky rock continued for a while & I passed many hikers before the trail suddenly became sealed in the middle of a big lava flow – some quite tight corners here. After the lake the trail alternated quickly between smooth trail & rocks. After crossing a forestry road & then the highway in quick succession it wasn’t long before I happened across the river plunging over Sahalie Falls. There were a few vantage points to get a look (& feel – a little spray, but nothing like Yosemite) at the water thundering over.

The river disappeared for a while underground & while I was cruising down through the damp, mossy trees I caught up to a group – actually a pair from Salt Lake & another from Portland. After a bit of chatting (it turns out we all had Giro Xen helmets of different colours) we were riding up to Blue Pool where the river comes back out of the ground. Strangely still, it was even clearer than Clear Lake. Looking down from above it was very difficult to gauge its depth, but it was plenty stunning. We all traded cameras a little, so I ended up with a few photos of myself for a change.

Switching the order around a bit as we continued down the fun trail through more trees, rocks & moss I somehow found myself at the front. I’m not sure that that is always a good idea as I kept stopping for pictures like the tourist I am.

Just before the halfway point Rob & Kevin had to leave & head back to Portland. Jeremy, Pam & I continued on our merry way. There were a few small climbs, but these weren’t much of a bother – helped to break up the monotony of sweet downhill riding. The descents weren’t particularly steep, just good fun weaving in & out of trees & dealing with the occasional rocky section.

At times the forest became quite enchanted as the moss was even more mossy, the light darkened & it all became a little etheral. I was wondering where the Faraway Tree was & Jeremy was concerned that some gnome was going to jump out from behind a rock, put a big stick through his wheels & steal all his stuff.

We continued our way down throughly enjoying the ride – Jeremy & I had a good pace going & I was happy with a few little rest stops. Especially as I’d hit climbs thinking they’d be short & they were always twice as long as I expected. For quite a bit of the ride beside the river we’d noticed a mist hanging around the yard or two above the river – it was a little spooky seeing it so much.

There was a bit of riding near the highway, but the traffic noise was generally blocked by all the trees. The trail-goodness just goes & on & on and after five hours we were within a mile of the cars when both Pam & I managed to stack it. I was having too much fun & rode around a corner to find a white-bearded, bare-footed hippy in the middle of the trail – he was surprised as I grabbed a handful of brake, washed out the front a bit & stopped & fell to the left very quickly. From all accounts, Pam did a commendable impression of someone wanting to introduce her helmet to a tree – not sure how that happened. A most excellent ride all up & great to have met good riding buddies along the way.

Valerie & I took the scenic route 242 back to Sisters. It climbed its tortuous path up to over 5000 feet through a lot more rain & big trees. Valerie was particularly pleased to see a black bear cub run across the road in front of us, I was pleased that this time I wasn’t on my bike a few metres down the trail. At the top of the pass it was all volcanic rock again & just dry enough to get out of the car. There is a cool old viewing platform at the top with small holes in walls to look out at the various peaks. Alas, it was too cloudy to see any.

GPS, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

“Oh my nerves! We are ruined.”

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Well, it’s not that bad – but those were pretty funny lines. Our third attempt to leave Bend yesterday morning just turned in to Groundhog Day. We got to pretty much the same place on the highway again before the car overheated. With an entire new cooling system I was starting to worry that something was horribly wrong with the engine. A stop at an autoparts store & then Midas bled a lot of air out of the cooling system, but even after a successful test run around town we got no further down the highway on the fourth attempt.

Completely fed up by now, it was quite difficult to find a proper garage open in town on a Saturday to diagnose the problem. Somehow we limped to the Subaru dealership on the eastern outskirts & waited quite a lot of the afternoon before they confirmed the head gasket is at fault (a breach in that allows exhaust to enter the cooling system & reduce the capacity for engine cooling – hence all our problems when up at 60 mph). That’s a rather costly repair, especially since we’ve already spent so much on the radiator & water pump which was just treating the symptoms. I’m still kicking myself for not going to a proper a garage first up, but hindsight is wonderful isn’t it?

So we have to decide whether to spend even more money on the car & hope that it makes it to Vancouver, BC, & then back to Canmore or wreck the car & rent one for the week to get to Vancouver & then I find another way to get me, my gear & bike to Canmore. Arggggggggggggggh. So it’s been a very quiet weekend lazing around the home (Allen & Lisa away for the weekend, still extending tremendous kindness) with no car to take us anywhere. Getting a little tired of reading & the internet Valerie persuaded me to watch Pride & Prejudice with her (the six episode, five hour BBC one from 1995). Somehow I’ve never seen this, but its acclaim is well deserved & I quite enjoyed it.

I did get out & ride Phil’s Trail finally this afternoon. Having to bike to the trailhead was a bit of a drag, but it did get my Sunday afternoon ride up to forty kilometres. Whoops was a lot of fun with many packed berms, plenty of rollers & some doubles – quite a fast trail & I enjoyed chasing Gabe (some random I met on the climb up) down. Phil’s Canyon was also very fast singletrack & most enjoyable. We stopped for a burrito on the way back home & I saw a pub bike past – a very creative idea is the Cycle Pub. The people on it were having a great time, although it was quite slow – when you have a drink in your hand I suppose you don’t really care.


family, GPS, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA, vehicles

Back to Bend

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Although it was early, I couldn’t resist a bit of wine-tasting at the well-named Pheasant Valley Winery just out of Hood River. There was even a (aptly) skinny little road named after me in the vicinity. Apparently eleven in the morning is too early for Valerie – wine-tasting by yourself just isn’t quite that interesting, but I had to do it. After looking around the Hood River valley, I’m beginning to see the merit in wine-tasting by bike (especially if you have a big trailer to stash the haul in).

Fifty miles up the road was another really good ride that I wanted to do (Gunsight – about a 25 km loop), but for some reason Valerie wanted to see if there was a laundromat in the small ski village of Government Camp. There wasn’t, but there were still people wandering with snowboards – I still can’t believe the ski season lives on in to July this year! There wasn’t a laundry & in going back up to the trailhead the temperature gauge shot up quickly. Oh no! Thankfully I caught it straight away & after letting it cool for quite a while (it was actually quite chilly up there) & then topping it up & idling for a while it was worth trying to drive to Bend. I had to cancel my ride, but we made it to Bend with the engine running at its normal temperature.

With Valerie driving I got in contact with Allen (Miles’ brother – I’d met him on Sunday finally) to see if he wanted to ride that afternoon. It turned out he did & in amongst all the texts we ended up with an offer of a room at their house. To all those who were so good to Allen when he bike-toured NZ twenty-odd years ago – thanks! It’s been so nice to have a home to stay in with home sort of things happening – Lisa is playing the piano downstairs as I type, that never happens in the motels we stay in, it’s lovely.

Allen & I headed out of town to the Swampy Lake ski area (I think) & put in a good two-hour loop (24 km, 500m of climbing). The climbing was mostly at the start & the singletrack was easy enough to climb on & we did a little on fireroad. Seeing Allen get over a log feature, I followed. I should have seen danger in the way his rear tire lifted as it apexed. But thinking it was fine I got over nicely until my front wheel hit a bit of the exit ramp that had dislodged – my wheel stopped & I didn’t. Straight over the bars & with my bike lying on top of me I was quite sore. I must have cracked my left knee on the top of the steerer tube on the way over, as it swelled up something brilliant & is still sore & stiff. The ride continued a little more slowly & we saw patches of snow at 1800m & some big puddles caused by all the snow melt higher. The downhill was exhilarating all the way down to the river we had parked by.

Yes, snow is still melting somewhere around this puddle that swallowed me up.

Lisa had cooked up a storm & I was pleased to have great food that I didn’t have to choose from a menu – off the grill too. As dinner progressed I turned greener & greener hearing of all the things to do around Bend – MTB all year round, XC skiing, back-country skiing, resort skiing, snow-kiting, kite-surfing, snowmobiling & motocross.  It’s fair to say Allen & Lisa are very active & the kids will be soon too once they can keep up.  Yesterday was very quiet as the car was in the shop all day – took it in to get the radiator checked out & it turned out the water pump needed replacing. Nice to have a day off just lying on the couch reading, dozing & a short walk in to town (really so that the whole day wasn’t spent lounging around).

We went to leave town today so I could ride McKenzie River Trail & then we would head north.  We only got eight miles out of town & the car overheated again.  Frustration only begins to describe that & having another day lost because Midas Bend didn’t check the radiator properly as I asked them the day before.  Allen very kindly came out & towed us back in to town (I’ve never been driving a towed vehicle before – it’s hard work on a short strop).  After getting the car back & it overheating again they finally decided that I needed a new radiator – really disappointing & annoying that that wasn’t diagnosed yesterday.  So I’m now broke as far as US dollars go, but the car is working & I sure hope it continues to for the rest of the trip.  Just to top things off, I went for a ride (on Mrazek, which I rode last week) to ease the temper a bit & the sunny afternoon suddenly turned in to two big thunderstorms – I got a little wet.  One of those days I suppose – probably the first of the trip (2.5 months in) that I wished I had have stayed in my nice comfortable job & rode local trails to my heart’s content.  But then what would I write about for pages & pages?