liv2day
Platinum Level Site Supporter
Now that was a fun day out in the woods, even with the liquid sunshine, crazy winds, and minor snafus along the ride 
The plan was to meet my buddy at Binns Hill staging with only a couple of the usual suspects - guess all the rest of 'em were doing their hair or otherwise occupied...lol. Left the house at oh-dark-thirty and drove over to pick up my buddy Dru and we were supposed to meet another buddy at the Troutdale exit and caravan out together. That sort of worked, but at least we heading east shortly after 7:00. There were a bunch of bikes in trailers both going east and stopped at various places along the Troutdale exit - looked like it was going to be lots of peeps out riding.
No issues getting to the staging area and the silly weather made it appear as if we'd get some sun to join us for the ride. Unloaded everything and wandered down to the check-in area...at which time the sprinkles were falling.
Came back to get geared up and the rain decided to fall a little harder and brought the wind with it. Holy carp can the wind blow up there - nothing like getting geared up in my bucket with rain falling and the wind blowing...lol. Should have jumped into someone's enclosed trailer and just might do that next time.
We all found the first check point and started out on the long course, the rain wasn't too bad and it felt great to be back on the bike after a month or so hiatus.
About .4 mile (yes - that's 4-tenths...lol), I wedged myself between a couple of rocks and suddenly lost drive. Hmmm - that's no good. Took a quick look down to see what the heck was going on and wanted to smack myself in the forehead.
Not exactly sure how it popped off, but I am sure that I should have checked my chain before the ride
. Fortunately, Dru was right behind me and it was an easy job getting it back on the sprocket. Thought about taking the time to tighten it in the rain, but figured we'd do that if it popped off again.
With that minor setback out of the way, the ride kept going and we hooked back up with trask-rider and Pod. This was only my 2nd ride in Hood River and I had no clue where we were going, so it's a good thing the Lobos folks did a good job marking the trails. The only exception to that was what someone called the cloverleaf...lol. We came out from one trail, crossed the road to hit the joining trail and had a couple bikes coming the other direction. Hmmm - that didn't seem right. So, we back-tracked and ended up doing another 4-5 mile loop that we'd already done...and ended up back in the same spot.
After bombing up and down a logging road, we decided to follow a group of riders heading one way and that was a good decision...lol.
The plan was to meet my buddy at Binns Hill staging with only a couple of the usual suspects - guess all the rest of 'em were doing their hair or otherwise occupied...lol. Left the house at oh-dark-thirty and drove over to pick up my buddy Dru and we were supposed to meet another buddy at the Troutdale exit and caravan out together. That sort of worked, but at least we heading east shortly after 7:00. There were a bunch of bikes in trailers both going east and stopped at various places along the Troutdale exit - looked like it was going to be lots of peeps out riding.
No issues getting to the staging area and the silly weather made it appear as if we'd get some sun to join us for the ride. Unloaded everything and wandered down to the check-in area...at which time the sprinkles were falling.
Came back to get geared up and the rain decided to fall a little harder and brought the wind with it. Holy carp can the wind blow up there - nothing like getting geared up in my bucket with rain falling and the wind blowing...lol. Should have jumped into someone's enclosed trailer and just might do that next time.
We all found the first check point and started out on the long course, the rain wasn't too bad and it felt great to be back on the bike after a month or so hiatus.
About .4 mile (yes - that's 4-tenths...lol), I wedged myself between a couple of rocks and suddenly lost drive. Hmmm - that's no good. Took a quick look down to see what the heck was going on and wanted to smack myself in the forehead.
Not exactly sure how it popped off, but I am sure that I should have checked my chain before the ride
. Fortunately, Dru was right behind me and it was an easy job getting it back on the sprocket. Thought about taking the time to tighten it in the rain, but figured we'd do that if it popped off again.With that minor setback out of the way, the ride kept going and we hooked back up with trask-rider and Pod. This was only my 2nd ride in Hood River and I had no clue where we were going, so it's a good thing the Lobos folks did a good job marking the trails. The only exception to that was what someone called the cloverleaf...lol. We came out from one trail, crossed the road to hit the joining trail and had a couple bikes coming the other direction. Hmmm - that didn't seem right. So, we back-tracked and ended up doing another 4-5 mile loop that we'd already done...and ended up back in the same spot.
After bombing up and down a logging road, we decided to follow a group of riders heading one way and that was a good decision...lol.
