Oakridge Bday Bash!

I'm slowly catching up on my blogging. I've been extremely busy since reentering the unemployment line.

Last weekend, Andrew and I, and eventually Adam, Kerrie and Maura, headed down to Oakridge, Oregon to celebrate my 25th birthday with some sweet singletrack and a little camping.

Andrew and I arrived in Oakridge late thursday night, picked up some last minute supplies at Rays, headed 20 miles in the wrong direction, realized we were heading the wrong direction, turned around, went back 18 miles and took a left, proceeded another 18 miles to a vacant Sacandaga campground. Perfect! Minus the detour, but I now know how to get to Waldo Lake, well almost to Waldo Lake. This will come in handy when I hopefully attempt to run the Waldo 100k next August, I think.


Anyway, we set up camp, cracked open the cooler of beer and got the Taco Bombs on the fire. We talked late into the night and stared at the fire a while and eventually fell asleep to the rhythm of the Middle Fork. We slept in that morning, had a delicious breakfast of eggs and sausages, packed up Clare, and headed to Oregon Adventures to meet our shuttle. Now, I am not normally a shuttle type of guy, but I have no experience with this area and had a huge weekend planned and didnt want to go into the red on the first day with a 20+ mile route with an 8 mile fireroad climb gaining over 2,500 ft to get to the top of the Alpine Trail (described as one of the granddaddy/big kahuna/grand poohbas of the Oakridge mountain biking trail.) No way I was going to miss out on that so we payed the $20 a pop and jumped in the shuttle to the top. This also allowed us to talk with some of the guides and get the scoop on the area's best trails. The shuttle dumped us off at Kate's Cut-in, and we left our fellow shuttlers behind during the climb up to Sourgrass Meadows.

Sourgrass Meadow

I'll spare you the ride details, but all in all, it was amazing. We screamed down the Alpine Trail, ripped through the Jedi Section and bombed down the lower half. The trail had a break mix of scenery, trail type, technical ability, and flow. I liked the lower half better because it had more of a XC feel as opposed to the upper half, which had more of a downhiller feel. But all in all, it was great. After the ride, we cooled off in the North Fork with some brews then headed back to camp to await the rest of the group's arrival. Once everyone was there, we had a wonderful spaghetti dinner followed by a multitude of beer and a few Moscow Mule's thrown in for a little Montana flavor.

The following morning, we had another wonderful breakfast of eggs, sausage and orange juice, prepared by yours truly. We debated on what trail to do. I originally wanted to ride the whole Middle Fork trail, but the guide from the shuttle recommended Moon Point + the lower half of the Middle Fork as a better alternative. In the end, we settled on the guide's choice. He knows the area better than anyone else so why not trust him.

The Boys

Andrew catching some air

We had the girls shuttle us up the fireroad climb half way this time. Andrew and I both felt a little guilty from the previous day's shuttle so a short 4 mile grunt would make us feel better. Earn your turns! Sort of. Adam, Andrew and I made the ascent successfully. We took a few cool photos at Moon Point then ripped down the singletrack, stutter stepped the tight, exposed switchbacks and vibrated our way to the bottom. I felt that this section was almost as good as Alpine. Very close. We then continued on along the rolling Middle Fork trail. I'd have to say that river trails are definitely my favorite. Rolling terrain, technical root sections, short grunts, flowy section and general river ambiance, be it the McKenzie River Trail, Wilson River Trail, Middle Fork of the Willamette Trail, North Umpqua River Trail or Deschutes River Trail. Oregon has some of the best river trail on the continent. Period.

Bryan catching some air

This section was one of the best of the whole weekend. The girls met us at the end at the Sand Prairie CG, but we stopped on the way back at Camper's Flat to take a shower camping style. Cannon Ball! That night we feasted on Tacos and even more beer and Mule's. It sprinkled on and off the rest of the tent and we were glad to have the canopy to protect us from Mother Nature.

Andrew and S'more

Kerrie and Maura

King's Cup

The following morning, Adam and girls got up early to head back to Portland for work, while Andrew and I broke camp and debated which ride to do on the way out. We were told by a few locals that the Waldo Lake trail was in perfect conditions and shockingly announced that they thought that it was easily the best trail in all of Oregon.... Hmmm that got our attention. Too bad Waldo Lake is in the opposite direction. Now the thing about Waldo Lake is that it is NOTORIOUS for its bird sized mosquitos. Like bring an extra IV of blood just in case kind of mosquitos. However, by early September, most of the mosquitos will have died off, the temps will be lower and the snow level will still be high, equalling the perfect conditions. Unfortunately, after much deliberation, we took a rain check on Waldo Lake because it was in the wrong direction and we didnt feel up to another 20+ miles of riding. We settled on the Goodman Creek trail instead, a 14 mile OAB (out and back) to the Eagle's Nest. The day quickly turned into a long work out as we battled and crawled our way up the slippery wet rocks and roots of the trail. 2.5 hours and 7 grueling miles later, we arrived at the Eagle's Nest. We took in the view, threw on our shells, and proceeded to tear the Goodman Creek Trail a new. 45 minutes later we were back at the car eating chips and salsa in the pouring rain. No pictures for the leg because my iPhone was dead. My bad.

In conclusion, I want to thank Adam, Andrew, Kerrie and Maura for celebrating my birthday with me. As always, it wouldn't be the same without you guys there. I look forward to our next adventure.

UNT

Bryan

Moscow Mules