Bend Area Recap - Saturday, McKenzie River Trail

In our mountain biking group, we took turns volunteering to cook certain meals.  I was lumped in with a rider who caught a ride with me to this event.  The deal - I paid for the gas, he brought all the food for the two meals for which we were assigned.  Though I was lumped in, I really didn't do much.  And, in reality, neither did my travel dude.  There was another person who very much enjoys cooking, who took the lead in this department.  I assisted a bit.  Anyway, what's turned into a paragraph, after community breakfast we hit the road for the upper trail head of the McKenzie River Trail.  Here's the YouTube thing:



The video is pretty much accurate.  We did have some newer riders in our group.  They were a bit frustrated with the day.  I found the trail to be wonderful.  It has the harder technical riding coupled with amazing scenery.  I had my crash of the trip on this trail.

All in all, not bad as far as carnage goes.  In this case, the very sharp and very abrasive lava rock could have made things much worse.

Though I was toting a camera along - with fresh, brand new battery, I did not take that may pictures.  I was too busy riding, it seems. Here are a few.  Click for bigger.

Per what most people do, we started at the upper trail head and worked our way to the lower.  Though there's a net loss of altitude, this was not a downhill coasting ride.  It was technical, extremely fun, and took all day.

A word to the wise, if you're not an experienced mountain biker, this is probably not going to be fun for you.  If you think, "Well, I'll just walk all the hard parts."  Well - you'll be walking most of the day.  If you're an intermediate to upper intermediate rider, this trail will push you.  If you're an advanced rider, you're going to love this one.  It really is fun.

Once done, we headed to a State Park for showers.  After showers we headed back to our rural Sisters campsite.  Joining us for the evening was Mrs. Washington (Mrs. Washington is a beauty contest similar to Miss Washington, or whatever State that goes on to Miss America, but is for married women).  I don't know how she because affiliated with our group, but she and a female friend showed up to camp the night with us.

Though everyone seemed dog tired from the McKenzie River Trail, a group second wind was attained.  We campfired and beer drank until 2 AM.  The mountain bikers who were not part of our group but were camping very near were not amused.  Evidently they had a race the next day and voiced their opposition to our late night activities around 1:15 AM or so.  Loud music at a campground with no campground Nazi - OK, guilty.

Here's a handful of the pictures I can show.

The next day, Sunday, we were heading for the town of Bend, OR and going to ride Phil's Trails.  An early start was not anticipated.