Cove Palisades

This past weekend, my dad and I, along with some of this friends and their sons headed down to a cabin on Lake Billy Chinook outside Cove Palisades State Park. We left Portland early on Saturday morning and arrive at the cabin at 10am to a sunny sky, but chilly conditions. We quickly got to work sweeping, racking, and burning a winter’s accumulation of pine needles other debris. We had three burn barrels going in order to clear the area of the highly flammable pine needles. The area had a huge forest fire a few years back and thanks to some heroic work by firefighters and stoic homeowners they were able to protect all of the cabins along the river. Since then lots of fire prevention tactics are regularly performed in order to prevent future fires. Hence the burning of all excess flammable debris.

After most of the work was done, while the rest of the crew cracked beers and ate lunch, I geared up and headed out for an 8 mile run along the Metolius River. I wasn’t exactly sure if I would find singletrack, but I was guided by some friends to head down past Motley Campground and look for singletrack off the dirt road off the back of the campground. After getting up early and working all morning, I was pretty tired by the time that I headed out. But the weather was perfect with clear sunny skies and warmish conditions. I would have been happy with any dry conditions. Oregon had just experienced its wettest and coldest March in all its recorded history! So I was desperately in need of dry, warm conditions. I was also trying out a new pair of shoes, Montrail Rogue Racers. I had just given back another pair of Montrails that I had been wear testing, with which I was very pleased so I wanted to get another pair of lightweight shoes to test out this summer.

The singletrack trail turned out to be more of a fishermen/game trail so I stayed on the old fire road for the whole trip. It was nice to get out and see some different scenery, but I quickly got bored as the road was mainly flat and straight. After the run, we headed out to chop down/scavenge some firewood and fired off some rounds with some of my dad’s guns. Typical redneck behavior, but it was fun. That night we made a huge fire, drank beers and ate like kings.

In the morning, we closed down shop quickly and headed back to Portland. I look forward to returning to Central Oregon on Saturday to run the Peterson Ridge Rumble 40M this Sunday. We will be staying at our friends house in Black Butte just outside Sisters, OR. Looking forward to the whole weekend, just wish the race was on Saturday so I could spend Sunday in and around the Sisters area. Look for the race report coming out late next week.

UNT

Bryan