Hiking and biking

I'll have pictures to go with this...as soon as I figure out how to download from this camera! Busy weekend. Saturday morning I was up and on the road by 6:45 a.m.. I went out to pre-ride a trail that I was possibly going to lead a Bend Bella Cyclist ride on next weekend. My friend Heidi is leading the "spirited" ride (intermediate/advanced) and wanted to do the Lookout Mountain trail out past Prineville about 25 miles. I'm leading the "conversational" ride (beginner/intermediate) and I thought that if there was an easier loop out there it'd be fun to go to the same place. So I went out to try the independent Mine trail.

It was a beautiful drive. Just beautiful. The trail is about a 12 mile drive up into the Ochoco National Forest. Beautiful scenery, fun trail. But yea....not a conversational ride! :) :) It was a great ride and I definitely recommend it...but I don't our beginners would be really happy with me. It's a truly beautiful area though and I highly recommend it. I was by myself, but met a couple bikers up there which was nice. The other big problem with that trail night now is all the blowdown (hmm, is that supposed to be one word?). These weren't ride-able logs! These ones were two feet off the ground and four feet thick. On a couple I really struggled to get my bike over and then scramble over myself! There was another one around every corner. So on the ascent I was constantly stopping and getting over the logs. On the descent I couldn't comfortably get any speed for fear of what was around the next corner. It was still tons of fun though! :)

Got home around noon, showered and went down to Bend Pride with a couple friends. Much better than last year! Except maybe for the bellydancer guy. I guess he was great...but sorry, I just couldn't get into it! We went out for dinner and then went to the Grove for the "after party" but had to leave early since I'd been up early, I was tired and I had to get up early Sunday to go hiking. Saw some friends that I hadn't seen in months. So all in all, a great day.

Sunday I went with about 6 others to hike Cone and Iron Mountain. If you haven't hiked it, you should! It's on the other side of Santiam on the way to Sweet Home. It was so beautiful. Just incredible. Wildflowers and butterflies everywhere. I tested out my new daypack for Peru, trekking poles and my new hiking boots. Everything seems to be working and fitting well so far... We had lunch up on top of Iron Mountain at the forestry lookout building. Have I said that it was amazing?

On our way back at about 3:00 we stopped in Sisters for some ice cream...well, the others had ice cream; I had sherbert. I don't really like ice cream. I know, I'm odd. I don't particularly like chocolate either, so there! It was HOT out, so the ice cream/sherbert hit the spot. Evidently I need to be doing a LOT more hiking! Biking and swimming are great... but they're not really getting me in shape for hiking. I think I'm going to have to be out there hiking every weekend between now and September!

I was supposed to go to Ultimate Frisbee tonight...but after today my knees and surprisingly, hips, need a few hours rest! :)