Up 10K

On a recent manic day at play I ventured out with no plan...just a bike, some hydration, a water filter, a bit of food (never enough it seems) and a smile. I ended up carelessly wandering around the Umatilla National Forest with no destination in mind. I found a new and very rewarding route around Cape Horn. Up on top ventured down to Charley Creek, Donaldson Creek, then onto the headwaters of the Tucannon River and beyond. The entire trip was full of scenic awe and questions of "Where to now?" at every junction. Only a few others (cough, cough...SeanMan) I know would ever appreciate a sub-epic mountain bike venture like this. Just a few pics of the trip...

The way down to meet Charley....Charley Creek that is...one of my watering holes along the way...

Every week it seems there are a different set of flowers to see...these pics are nothing compared to seeing them in person...


That's a super cool Trek Fuel EX-9 - my butt-lovin, super squish, endurance ride...

...more flowers ...

...a view towards Oregon of the canyons guarding the Grand Ronde River several thousand feet down from this view point at 6000 feet...

...the headwaters of Asotin Creek...

...behind NerdBoy here is the valley that holds the golden headwaters of the Tucannon River...

...Dang this is the good life!!!

Below is an elevation profile...all total it was good ride with 10,000+ feet of total climbing over 96.3 miles in 7-hrs 25-minutes.

Just for the locals...for your perspective the little bumps on either end of the profile above is the Critchfield grade.

Cape Horn Epic

Well it wasn't an epic by my "normal" standards (it was only 70 miles of riding), but it became one since I decided to explore a new route to the top (I usually take a rather steep gravel/dirt forest road up) and it only became epic because I had to friggin bush-whack through several areas of small trees growing in my trail (I guess I was in a forest). In the end, after bush-whacking my ass off, I think I found a potential second passage that will need exploring some more.

This trip was in real Cape Horn tradition - The real Cape Horn, at the tip of South America, was and still is an epic maritime adventure and the "original" passage of Cape Horn was part of an exploration for a new route to some highly sought after goods (at least that's what I recall). I wasn't after goods though - I actually don't know why I wanted to go there other than to find out why it was named Cape Horn.

After slogging through countless little pine groves and kicking out several elk and bears (really...I saw quite a few up there) I made it to an old burn that provided a huge open expanse...and a rather grassy old road (it was like an interstate highway to me). From there it was a rather easy ride to Cape Horn Ridge. The final climb up was very a steep rocky wall (rather fun to ride)...After I got there I still couldn't figure out why it was named Cape Horn...I was expecting some hellish ride to get there but it was stoopidly easy (if you took the forest road that is). There were some cool views and I lounged up there for a bit, enjoying the sun and snacking.

After that I was off to try and find and explore another trail I have outlined on an old map...after finding the trail and loosing it several times I decided I just did not have enough time to complete that task so I bailed off and raced down the mountain home.
Truly amazing what you see when you're looking. I see so many cool things out-and-about but I rarely take the time to dig out my camera...today I seemed to be in less of a hurry I guess...click in the image to see the real beauty...

Welcome to Cape Horn - Now go home!

Just over the immediate hill horizon it dropped off very steeply down to the ridge seen below...Fun!

Easterly view with Idaho (yawn) in the background...

Westerly view up Lick Creek (much more pleasing don't you think?)...

Can you see the trail? It runs straight through that fence...

Dang...2-blog postings in 2-days...what's wrong with me?

Trek Fuel 69er???

I made my newish Trek Fuel EX-9 into a Trek Fuel EX-69 with some "spare" parts I had laying around.

What is a 69er??? Well it's a sort of a Frankenstein bike that pieces together a 29er fork and front wheel (29" wheel) to a 26" wheeled frame and rear-end...69er! Trek has been developing just such a bike and I am anticipating that I could like it...so I made my own just to quell my own curiosity. My 69er version is missing a few of the Trek refinements such as a rear rocker arm that is tuned for a 69er, a lower front end (they used an integrated headset and a prototype Fox 29er fork with a different offset...blah, blah, blah), but I think I got some feel for the 69er idea with my setup.

There are many naysayers out there on the idea of a 69er (just like there was with the origin of 29ers)...I personally think these individuals are a bit narrow in the head.

The setup I did put the front of the bike equivalent to running the height adjustable 26" Fox fork (original equipment) at 130mm (it's tallest, longest travel setting). I have found that the 130mm setting is essentially only good for rapidly decending down bumpy hills...it is not very good for climbing or technical stuff on the flat or going up. The best all-around setting is at 110mm. That said, I was already anticipating that the 69er setup would not be my favorite since the front-end would be sketchy over technical stuff. I took it out for a test ride and put a couple of miles (...uhhmm 97-miles to be exact) on this setup before I put my original 26" Fox fork back on.

What I found was that this thing was an incredibly fast and stable downhill thrill ride. On the flats and non-technical climbs it was good too, but as I thought it really sucked on the technical, rock-infested, tight turns going up-hill...one of my more favorite "local" single track climbs (Foredyce Trail) proved to be way more difficult than usual...I struggled through sections of the trail that are typically fun.

Assuming that Trek brings the front-end into "compliance" on it's new 69er, this bike could be a seriously fun, fast enduro-machine...hmmm