October 1 to 11^th – Oregon and Tahoe baby!

Part of the Tahoe roadtrip for Sharon and I was the fun of getting down there from Vancouver, BC. We left on Saturday morning and after - drive, drive, drive – we went for a ride in Mt St Helens finally finding Ape Canyon after a bit of misdirection and off-roading in my family wagon Subaru Legacy.

St Helens has recovered well further down and we started at about 5,000 ft at the trail head. The trail was smooth and twisty and we saw quite a few hikers and fellow bikers.

Wow, what a desolate moonscape it is higher up. Looks even worse than New York - sorry Chef!! Had I known there was so much pumice I never would've bought a pumice stone for my calloused feet.

Even so, beautiful things can be found on St Helens.

Here is Sharon on the aspens at the mid-point of the trail. Wickedly fast downhill and we could rail around corners fast knowing that there were no hikers coming up because we had started riding so late. To my eternal pleasure, I showed Sharon the secret to cornering fast and she learned so quick - what a fast grrrl!!

On Sunday night we camped at the wickedest secret camping spot at Smith Creek down from St Helens. Woke up late – took scenic backcountry roads through the back side of St Helens through yellow aspens and fire-red birch and oak. Arbutus respledent in glory - all that fall colour blaze blah ... blah.

Meet with Barry/Vader and hook up for a ride in McMinnville. First though I had to check out prep central in Linfield College where I nearly went to school. Uggghh. Too much beer.

McMinnville trails are bomber fast and Vader is bomber psycho. I think the guy has no nuts or brains as soon as he goes into downhill mode! Hollllleee shhhhhh***TTTTT is all I could think following him down, over dip and dale as he jinks and janks and flaunts local knowledge, two-wheel drifting around corners, berming and then carving around splendidly frictioned Oregon dirt

Waaaahhh ... I haven't been so humiliated on a downhill since

K'endo took me on Dentist.

So we were done and packing up to go to McKenzie River - camping at Clear Lake overnight but first, off to the best darn pizza place one could ever imagine. What was the name again Barry?

Next Day - McKenzie~!!! It'll have to wait. Back to work now!