No riding today, decided to take a rest day. We have to get back to Colorado by the end of the week, so it’s going to be several days of hard driving. Next two days 6-8 hours each, then I think we stay for a day to get a little riding in, then continue. Whew!

Went back in to town to go by REI, picked up a lens protector for my Virb camera, then we hit Parrilla Grill again, for another Fish Burrito. Mmmmm!

After that, back home for some Scottish ale in a growler, and start packing for tomorrow.

Ride day! A bit different today – we’re going to do a shuttle. But first, breakfast! While talking about our trip on Facebook, a gal named Cate chimed in and said “You’re in Bend? I live in Bend! Let’s get together!”, or something like that, so today we’re going to do it! She suggested Palmer’s Cafe for breakfast, so off we went. I had – what else? – Corned Beef Hash & Eggs, but was wary, because it was a bit pricey, especially for such a hole in the wall place. However, when the food showed up, the portions were HUGE, so not pricey after all! Here it is after I’ve eaten half of it:

Met up with our new friend Cate, and she took us on a little tour. We dropped her car off at the bottom trailhead, then took off for Dutchman Sno-Park Trailhead with her and her bike aboard. At the top, unloaded, and headed out the Flagline Trail. Close to the start, I looked back and was rewarded with this:

Wow! Some guys passed us while we were admiring the view, and here they are going up the trail:

Kicking up quite a bit of dust. This trail is actually kind of cool, it starts off going slightly downhill for the first mile and a bit (maybe 1.1 or so), so you can kind of warm up, then it climbs for about three miles, some of it kind of steep, but never very steep for very long, and then eleven miles of almost complete downhilling bliss. WOW! Very nice!

At the top, at the four mile mark, we saw this:

We stayed on that until it got to Swampy Lakes, where we went down South Fork Trail. About three miles down, we took a left to go see Tumalo Falls:

Went back to South Fork Trail where we had left off, and continued along Tumalo Creek, until we met up with the West Trail, which we took to the Skyliner Sno-Park Trailhead, where Cate was parked. Wow. I say that a lot, but the photos really do NOT do it justice. You have to be here.

Overall, 15 miles, and we were quite toasted. Off for lunch at Parrilla Grill, where I had a most awesome Fish Burrito, and drank lots of water and lemonade. Beer will come later, on the way home. Awesome ride, thank you Cate! Oh, also got to meet her husband Donovan and their daughter Emily – Hi guys! Thanks for letting us borrow Cate for a few hours!

Tired? Oh, yes! But we still stopped by 7th Street Brewery in Redmond for a brewski, this time the Scottish Ale, some sort of McDugal something – waitress took the menu before I could read it – Quite tasty! So much so, we got a growler-full for later!

Tomorrow? Probably ride again, we’re suckers of punishment, but it will be a very flat ride – our legs are toast!

Another ride day – Woohoo! Again, short easy ride … NOoooo! Wanted to go for 6, ended up getting in almost 11! AND over 1,000 feet of climbing! I hurt, but in a good way. Good part is, I feel myself getting stronger every day. Tomorrow is the BIG ride, so we’ll see how that goes. But that’s tomorrow, and it’s not here yet!

Got a late start and went to see some bridges over a gorge (I guess I could say I got gorged!), so we decided to head out for lunch, and we hit up the Silver Moon Brewery, where I tried (just a taste) their Dark Side Stout – very good, I might add – but I had their Snake Bite Porter and some pulled-pork nachos for lunch – pretty good stuff! This is their door from the alley:

For the ride, we went back to  Phil’s Trailhead, up Kent’s, a very nice, gradual uphill of about four and a bit miles, though it did have one steeper part, but it wasn’t THAT bad. Made it up fine, then came down Voodoo (for you, Richard White!):

which was kind of rocky, and the bike crashed once on it. I say the bike, because, while it DID draw a wee bit of blood, I never hit the ground, so life is good! Kept on riding and got to GrandStand, which was even MORE rocky, and my bike crashed AGAIN. Thankfully, once again I remained upright, though I did almost come out of my left shoe when my foot got caught between some rocks on the dismount. After that, I got a bit more careful – third one is the charm, and I’m not sure what that would have meant, so I avoided it. GS led to Expressway (only for about a tenth of a mile, if that) and then the downhill on Phil’s to the trailhead.

FUN RIDE. I do think that this is the best mountain biking we’ve done anywhere, because the trails are plentiful, interesting, and very doable. There are some very hard trails here, we hear, but we’ll leave those for the more adventurous folks out there.

Ride day! Woohoo! Really looking forward to it! Not an early start, because it’s COLD out there! Got to the trailhead around 10:15, and got on the trail around 10:40. We’re at Phil’s Trailhead, and are going to go up Ben’s Trail, then take the double-track parallel to Lower Whoops, so we can come down Lower Whoops, then meet up with Phil’s Trail, which will take us to Kent’s, then to KGB, and finally Marvin’s Garden back to the trailhead. Phew! Yeah, I’m looking for about a dozen miles.

The ride started out pretty glad, but weaving back and forth (as all good trails do, it’s part of the fun of mountain biking!), so Ben’s had some nice climbs, but nothing too terrible. I had thought that this was where we were going to head back, but NOoooo … it’s the route I outlined above. Oh, well. The next almost two miles were ALL uphill, but gradual, so not too bad, and we got to the top of Lower Whoops, where there was a bench of sorts, so we took some time out and sat for a bit, to eat an energy bar and have some goo. A couple came up a few minutes later, so we chatted with them for a bit … for a bit over an hour! Really nice couple, but sadly I neglected to get their names. Bummer. But they did tell us of a WONDERFUL place to mountain bike, about two hours North … hmmmm … we’ll have to investigate!

The day was quite cool, finally hitting about 71 or 72, so shade was almost nippy. Then, time to start the descent – almost all downhill to the trailhead, though there were a couple of … good sized … ok, one of them monster-size for the area, and I had to stop at it twice to catch my breath. Here’s a shot of The Bear climbing it:

At some point in there, we got to see The Chicken:

Back at the truck by almost five o’clock, so five hours on the trail! Ok, one and a half was a stop, but we were still out there! Total tally? Nineteen (!) miles! And 2,000 feet of climbing! Pretty good for an “easy” trail! But we felt good about it!

Afterwards … BEER! Went to Redmond, OR, to the Seventh Street Brew House, and got some dinner. I had Doug’s Ultimate burger, patty, bacon, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, pickle, peperoncini, and an EGG! Mmmm – Good! That and a Monkey Face Porter, and I was set! The Bear had the Chicken pot pie, which I ALMOST had, and the same to drink. Yummy! Only bad part was a group with some kids, and the little boy (maybe 4 years old) would fairly regularly let out a blood-curdling scream, for no apparent reason other than wanting attention. Not a peep from mom or dad. GREAT parenting there! And kept ignoring the kid. Thanks.

We checked out the place the couple mentioned, and it looks pretty good, bu tit only has about 15 miles of trails, so we don’t feel it warrants a four-hour drive (2 out, 2 back) for such a little bit of trail. When we return next year, we can hit it, now that we know about it.

Tomorrow? Easy ride somewhere, because Saturday we have a tour guide who is going to shuttle us (or we’ll pay Cog Heaven, whichever) and guide us down from Dutchman Trailhead – should be about a 25-mile ride – woohoo!

Ah, a very cool morning to wake up to today! Nippy last night. No riding today, it’s GSD day.

Quick breakfast, and off to the Forest Service to get maps. And boy, do they have maps! We bought one and a book, but then she gave us probably a half-dozen ORV maps – these are cool, for one, because they’re free, but also because those are the ones that tell you where the dispersed camping is. And they’re HUGE. Maybe four to five FEET on a side! I’ll have to get a photo.

After that, a bike shop – we went to Pine Mtn Sports. No, really, that’s what’s on the sign outside! I’ll get a photo when I go back. AND, upstairs is Cog Heaven, a place that does shuttles for REASONABLE prices – by that I mean $15 per person! A lot of the others we’ve seen want as much as $30 or $35 per person. Too much! And bike rentals here are reasonable as well, full suspension bikes for $50, where most other places have been $100 or more. I’m starting to REALLY like Bend!

Ok, next was beer! And lunch, of course. So, we headed for the Deschutes Brewery & Public House. I had the Reuben:

And to go with it, a Black Butte Porter:

And the baby glass? Well, they want folks to try their BB Porter, so every beer came with a taste of it, even if what you ordered was the BB Porter! Cool! FREE BEER! Huge lunch, and pretty good.

After lunch, go look for trailheads! Since we’re definitely riding tomorrow, we need to know where we’re going, and don’t need the frustration of looking for it on that day, if it’s avoidable. Found several, all look good, and are easy to get to. This is going to be so cool!

After trailheads, we were thirsty again, so off to a new brewery – there are 19 in town, so we have to hurry! Brew Werks was next, as they have a “Schizophrenic Stout” that we want to try – we had that, and a plate of stuffed jalapeños. The maps were hot, and the beer was bitter, so I doubt we come back. Not because of the jalapeños, mind you. The beer HAS to be good to warrant a return trip.

That’s it for today!