The American Northwest (as told by bicycle pictures)

During our 4.5 weeks in the Land of the Free, we did anything but stay put. The longest we were in one place was 5 days- once at the beginning of the trip with family, and again at the end. We spent the rest of the time traveling around Northern California and Southern Oregon, which in my opinion should succeed and become the 51st State of Awesome.

Here's our route. 

And for those of you who need perspective, the western half of the US:

There's a few destinations missing off the map since Google feels that no person should need to enter more than 10 destinations with directions at a time. Some road trip navigation system ya got there, Google. Anyways, the above still gives a general idea of how much time we spent in the car. 

Thankfully for us, there was a massive snafu with our car situation, and the economy price I paid for a Yaris or Similar Vehicle bought us 4.5 weeks of this bad boy:

Marry me, Chevy?

In retrospect, I have absolutely no idea how we were going to manage 2 bikes, 3 massive suit cases, and 4 carry-ons, and two humans in an economy car. Apparently the Universe also found my plan ludicrous, but took pity on me, or decided to reward us for being generally good people, because the Chevy was ah-mazing. With the exception of 7,000 miles and one inexplicable stain on the back seat, it was brand new. Welcome to America! Yeehaw!

As I mentioned, we spent 5 lovely days with our parents in the Bay Area. There was wine tasting and Mexican food and hugs galore. Pretty much everything I hoped it would be. My dad took the following photo up in Rockville (ok- Fairfield, CA). Scott and I brought bikes- to complicate what was otherwise a lovely day for a picnic. Lucky for us my parents are understanding.

Why is it so hot here?

Ok so we could both brush up on our photography skills.

One of the things I realized when we got home from our holiday is how shockingly bad I was at taking pictures. Basically all I have is bike pictures and scenery (i.e.: virtually none of friends and very few of family). Some blogger.

Anyways, our next destination was Chico. This is our old stomping grounds, the place where we left our house and our friends and our chickens. Going back was kind of a trip. It's all the same. But different. But familiar and fun, and almost routine. And regardless, hot as hell. But that's Chico. The following which is a swimming hole at the start/finish of one of my favorite bike tracks.

It's pretending not to be 105-ish degrees when I took this one. Sneaky creek. 

Navigating the lava rocks, clipped in (!)

Making it look so easy and so steezy, as always.

After 3 hot days in Chico (and many beers and lots of food, and little sleep) we headed north to the much anticipated Ashland, Oregon. Ashland is potentially my favorite place ever. It's nothing special to most people- it's not Hawaii or Bali or Paris or Rome. But it's special to us. We've been going there forever, I essentially fell in love with mountain biking because of this place. We have great friends there, and I only associate it with the best of times. To say I was looking forward to this part of the trip is probably the biggest understatement, ever.

Anyways, more bike pictures:

Me going down a steep, scary chute, which here looks relatively flat and soft. 

Cruising through the rock gardens on the appropriately named "Sketchy".

While we were in Ashland, we raced the Ashland Mountain Enduro. This race encompassed about 50% of the most awesome terrain in Ashland, while simultaneously beating the living crap out of every participant. It was a long, rough, hot, generally awesome day. 

And this happened: 

Third. Or what Ricky Bobby calls, the 2nd loser. Ha. 

We spent the rest of the weekend in Ashland, before driving north to Oakridge, OR. To anybody who doesn't ride mountain bikes and more specifically doesn't like riding them down hill, skip this place. For the non-biker, it's got beautiful lakes and hiking, one motel, one store, and possibly more trailers in town than teeth. 

But for the all mountain riders who want to drop 15,000 feet per day of Grade A shuttle-able trails, go. Go now. Bring full wallets, but do not miss Oakridge. 

We spent 2 days with our very appropriately named friend Wild Bill, who showed us all of his absolute favorite tracks. We were shuttled by Willy (who's name also really fit) into the deepest bits of backwoods Oregon, on roads that inexplicably went for miles and miles and then out of nowhere the start to the most epic trail would just pop out. Brilliant.

The only time we stood still in Oakridge.

Ok, the other time we stood still. This is while Scott was fixing his 2nd... or 3rd? flat tire.

After Oakridge I needed a break badly, but as I mentioned in the previous post, it was not in the cards. We rode the stunning McKenzie River Trail the next day, and in the afternoon lazily made our way to Bend.

En route to Bend we came upon these massive lava fields. We'd been up in the area before for bike races, but just never taken this one specific highway a few miles west- so we were pretty surprised to happen upon this sight.

It went on and on for miles. That was one serious volcano. The view from inside the truck:

Nearby mountains... just waiting for their turn to cause havoc.

 We spent 4 days in Bend, Oregon with friends (thank you Don & Marci!!!). My parents met us here, and we enjoyed time with family and family friends, riding bikes and celebrating the 4th of July. This whole part of the trip was a bit of a blur as I was suffering from all the riding and felt only semiconscious the whole time- and because it was full of good times and special moments. All so great and special that I couldn't remember the camera once.

I ended up pulling out of the Bend race because of the aforementioned exhaustion (in biking we call it "bonking". This usually happens the evening after a big ride, but for me it happened for about 72 hours after 10 big rides. The worst "bonk" ever.) I managed to get an average photo of Scott during his race run...

I know you want to hire me for your event photography.

We had a few days back in Chico (grand total of 0 pictures taken) and then we cruised up to Lake Tahoe with friends. 

To be honest, that weekend is a hazy memory of sun and Lagunitas and good friends and amazing BBQ'd oysters. No photos of us and friends, or the lake, or anything particularly scenic. But there is this one pretty sweet video of Scott on a jump, aptly named the Aircraft Carrier. 

Our last week was full of family and relaxation (including a night in wine country- thanks mom!) and reflection. It was a challenge to bring 32 days to a close when it felt like they passed in an instant. Leaving for the second time was one of the hardest things I've had to do, but I have so much gratitude to our families and friends for understanding that our journey in New Zealand just hasn't come to a finish yet.

Last day in California, Santa Cruz

We are two very, very lucky people.

The McKenzie River Trail

Hey guys, sorry for the slowness. I have all the excuses in the world, but no one really wants to hear them, right??

So for a post on happenings in America. I feel like writing about what a beautiful place the McKenzie River is. We put off/didn't have time to do the McKenzie River Trail (MRT) in past trips to Oregon. It's just a bit out of the way if staying in Bend, and being advertised as a 25 mile cross country ride- we were always kind of skeptical. In the scheme of Oregon, it's here:

We stayed at the McKenzie River Mountain Resort (a "resort" it is not)... and I'm on the fence about whether I can recommend it to you or not... 

We had a real stoney kid check us in. He neither told us where our room actually was, nor where to meet the shuttle in the morning. ("Oh, you want a shuttle? -pause- Ok. -pause-.... You're on it.") One would assume said shuttle left from the lodge since McStoney didn't offer any other advice on locations. Once we found our room ("the one in the corner". It was not in a corner.) we settled in and looked for somewhere to eat. 

We assumed Stoney Steve would at least have an idea of where to eat (obviously) but no. He basically told us that he thought the townships in these parts were small, we would be unlikely to find anything to eat at this hour (7:30pm). We went back to our room a bit discouraged, but mostly confused, and flipped through the check-in book on the table. Whaddya know?! There's restaurant recommendations in the book in his hotel. 

So in the morning we were ready and waiting for the bike shuttle at 9:30am as "arranged" with the Stone Man. No shuttle. Still no shuttle. We rang and knocked at reception and woke him up, much to his surprise- because why weren't we at the shuttle pick up?!?! 15 minutes up the road, past the rangers station?!

Seriously?

Anyways, we got there (it was not past the ranger's station) and the other chap involved in the service didn't seem that shocked about the mix up. Stoney Steve strikes again.

I'd like to note that the room was clean, quiet and comfortable, and sort of a bargain at $90. I was happy with it until I found out there was a nice little family owned hotel right near the shuttle pick up for $70. 

So we saddled up and got on the trail.

The first hour was full of flat, flow-y pedaling and views like these. It wasn't the least bit technical, so I think we were a bit skeptical about the difficulty rating of the trail. But it was stunning, and frankly I needed a rest day.

We had ridden 9 days straight up to this point. And not just little meandering bike rides. We had just done 25,000 feet of descending in Oakridge over the last 2 days, and the 4 days before that we rode non-stop in Ashland, including a race. I was happy to be going into a somewhat restful ride.

Scenic too.

Not long before this first waterfall (above) the terrain starting turning rocky. Like, lava rocky. And then it was all lava rock with no dirt at all!

For those of you who haven't hiked/biked on lava rock, it's like gently lurching over hurdles, each of which is an individual cheese grater just waiting for unsuspecting skin to touch it. Like riding over a pit of alligators, with razor teeth.

Ok, no pictures are going to do this lava any justice.

The lava must be like a obstacle (think Indiana Jones) guarding the majestic Blue Pool... and if you are daring or stupid enough to make it through, you are rewarded with this amazing view:

Absolutely no photoshop/enhancing, etc. here. 

For perspective, in the top/middle of the picture are 3 people standing on the edge of the pool. It's not tiny- we're just very high above it and it is that crystal clear. Pretty amazing, eh?

By this point we were about 1/3 of the way through the ride but I had used up 98% of the combinations of all swear words I have stored in my head (the lava was getting to me). We sort of pushed through without many photo ops for another couple of hours, until reaching the more Oregon-esque portion of the trail:

I should sell this as a post card.

My mood lifted a bit when we reached this loamy, beautiful forested track- which carried on another 10 miles or so. In the end, my legs were numb, my butt number, and I was the hungriest I've ever been, ever. It took us just under 5 hours to do 25 miles, which I thought was slow but turns out we were the first of the group back to the parking lot. It was at this point in the trip that I realized how much tougher I had become as a cyclist.

And it was a mere 24 hours later that I did my 10th daily ride and I cracked.

This photo from before I knew I'd have to get back on the bike again tomorrow.

More on all that later, maybe. I highly recommend the McKenzie River Trail to all you bike folk out there!

We're baaaack!

Ok so we've been back for a week. But I've worked most of those days, the new house still isn't even unpacked completely, and it's been so cold that the laundry I did last Friday just dried today. 

Welcome to New Zealand! It's still winter.

Anyways, we had an amazing holiday full of family and friends and wine and bikes. I have much to ponder and write about over the coming weeks, so for now I'll leave you with a few photos as I've got to go get ready for the annual work trivia bee. 

Alexander Valley Vineyards, cheese and wine pairing, Healdsburg CA

McKenzie River Trail. 25 miles of stunning single track in central Oregon

Oakridge, Oregon. 25,000 feet vertical descent without a chairlift!

U.S.A.

We are enjoying our "back home holiday". There's a little reverse culture shock, which I expected, but a lot of it just feels familiar and wonderful. No real update for now, but here's a photo from my bike ride this morning back on the home trails.