Snow Bike

We didn't make it mountain biking yesterday, we woke-up a bit late allow for us to go and still get to our friends on time.  So, today we loaded up our bikes (the Epic arrived Wednesday) and headed to Capitol Forest.  We were not quite sure what we were going to find when we got there.  Well, it was a pretty sweet mix of snow/slush/ice/mud that made for some interesting riding. 

I thought that I had planned my biking apparel to deal with the weather (cold, rain/snow mix), as it turns out I didn't.  My fingers froze and my feet were sopping wet. By the time we were done with the ride I was nauseous from my tender digits freezing.  There are a lot of things that I can deal with, cold fingers are not one of them.  It is a deal breaker for me... I have a new and improved plan for next time.  A plan that if all things go correctly will leave me warm and happy from start to finish.  

Freezing fingers aside we had a great time.  Matt is satisfied with his new bike and I still love mine. 

Oh baby!  I love me some sweet chest hair.

Matt

Oompa loompa

Mel

Weeeee!!!

Welcome Home Juliana

It is official, I am back in mountain biking business!!  While in Bend 2 weekends ago Matt and I stopped at a local bike shop to see if they carried a bike I was interested in so we could determine what size I needed.  To our surprise not only did they have the bike, but it was a demo version that they were selling at a pretty good discount.  Needless to say, it came home with us.  Without further ado I present you with Juliana:

Isn't she beautiful?!?  I got her out on the trails on Sunday.  As you can see, they were a bit muddy..

I am looking forward to a fun winter of riding!

Halloween Tricks

Halloween is my (Mels) favorite holiday.  Costumes, candy and scary movies - what more could a person ask for!?!  However, this year the Klungle household did not experience any treats for Halloween.  Instead we got a rather unpleasant trick - our mountain bikes were stolen.   We had gone for a ride, it is currently pretty muddy out so they were locked up in the back of our truck waiting to be washed before being put back into our apartment. 

Someone decided that they are a worthless enough person to break the locks and steal our bikes.  I really hope we find out who did it, the joke would be on them.  I would be willing to bet they are totally unaware that they stole goods exceeding the $2,000 limit to be charged for a felony.  Nothing would make me happier than seeing the look on their face when they find that out!  Unfortunately, I doubt that will ever happen.  The chances of ever seeing our bikes again is slim to nil. Ugh...

On a more positive note below are some pictures I took with my camera during my Halloween trail run.  I suppose a better description would be a trail picture safari.

Even the trail was festive!

Water over the trail

Capitol Forest

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we have a fantastic trail system very close to home.  This was further determined a few weekends ago when Matt was talking with 2 pro riders down from Seattle.  They informed him that this is the best riding in the area. 

 

This past weekend while out for a run I took a few pictures (with a very old camera).

It doesn't look like much, but this is the start of a pretty steep climb.

Some areas are nice and tree covered

Others are clearcut and HOT

I almost always see snakes

Ode to Mud and Horse Poo

First I need to say that I love the idea of multi-use trails.  I think it is great that we have trail systems that hikers/bikers/horses/ORVs can use, but I have to admit - I am not particularly fond of sharing the trail with horses.  It isn't the people or the animals, rather it is the condition they leave the trail in and the large quantities of poop that are left behind.


Let me share... this past Saturday the sun appeared for the first time in 2 weeks,  it was glorious.  Given the lovely weather Matt and I loaded our bikes and headed to our local trail system (Capital Forest).  We departed in the same direction, me on foot and Matt on bike to complete 80 minutes of our respective activity.  Upon completion of that we meet at the car and I acquired my bike to join in the fun.  Not so fun... After 80 minuets of running hilly, muddy, poop encrusted trails my legs had a HARD time making the transition to biking.  None the less I didn't want to be a weenie and give up, so after a couple of miles when Matt asked what I wanted to do I quickly said "lets keep going".  About a mile later I ate my words.  The trails were in AWFUL shape.  I wasn't having fun.  Why do I want to spend my Saturday afternoon peddling through mud that is so deep your foot gets swallowed on the down stroke?  No thank you, not me!  Back to the car we went.  All in all it was a good day, I had a great run and the mud and poop factor wasn't too awful.  The other trail we took for the later bike ride, well, it was bad...


Onto Sunday.  Given my new training schedule I am supposed to do back to back long runs over the weekend.  Sunday also happens to be a running day for Matt, so we head back to the trails.  The difference was that sun wasn't out, not even close.  It has been dumping rain since early Sunday morning.   Driving to the trail head we noticed signs for a "Spring Ride", uh oh, this might be bad.  Drive a bit further and we start to see a lot of large trucks and horse trailers drive by us.  "Well at least the ride appears to be done".  We get to the trail head, lace up the shoes and head out. 


Within 10m we are greeted by giant steaming piles of poo.  This in and of itself isn't so bad, however, when you mix it with the terrible, awful rutting of the trails, well, it makes passage a bit more tricky.  I ran for 25 minuets before I gave up and headed back to the car.  The trail was in such horrible condition that it made it difficult to run for more that 10m at at time.  The horses do a number on the trail, words cannot even begin to paint a picture of what the conditions were, but I will try. 


Picture running in a lovely, hilly area where you are pretty sure you shoe is going to get sucked off and lost forever is giant holes of a watery mud/poo mix.  If you accidental miscalculate your step and land in the aforementioned mix it comes up past your ankle and leaves you struggling to continue your forward movement.  To add insult to injury not only are you aiming to avoid the mud pits, you have to dance around the poo as well.  Sometimes this leave you with the decision on which you would rather go though, poo or mud.  Really it doesn't matter, you know the mud mix has some poo waiting for you in it...


There you have it, the reason for my current horse frustration.  All the people I have come across that have been on horses are very nice and I have no ill will towards them.  I just wonder if they realize how much damage their pastime is causing?  Maybe waiting until the trails are a bit drier would allow all users to enjoy the area more?  That being said, I realize that each user group is going to have a different set of complaints.  I suppose I should just suck it up and be happy that I have such a great resource so close to home!