Mountain Bike Oregon 2007

This past week/weekend, eight friends and I attended Mountain Bike Oregon. ��There were some rough edges for the event, but we wound up having a pretty great time, and some superb riding. ��Matt took his new Sportsmobile on pretty much its maiden voyage here, and I slept in the top bunk during the trip - very cush, and certainly nicer than camping. ��Some of the others had an RV, and Rich and Barry each slept in a tent. ��On Thursday when some of us had arrived, we did a quick two hours on the south side of the Salmon Creek trail. ��This is a really cool trail. ��I'd expected something kinda lame, since we could just ride to this, and heard it was just a quicky loop from town, but it was very good! ��Very scenic bridge/river crossing bit at the end too. ��Friday was the big epic shuttle of the Middle Fork. ��33 miles I believe, about 5 hours +/- riding time. ��The chaos began in the morning with a bus ride gone wrong: driver got lost. ��What was supposed to be a 1.25 hour shuttle, became 3 hours! ��John, our Google Earth guy, used a GPS and the map and got us on the right track, and we all made the ride and loved it. ��Saturday we did the Tire Mountain/Alpine shuttle, which was just awesome. ��I was totally knackered on the climbs, but the descents were so sweet! ��Lots of long, flowy, fast, tight singletrack, some extreme switchbacks, and just great stuff! ��I ran out of water with about an hour to go, which sucked, but oh well. ��This was a really great trail.��Sunday it had rained all night the night before, and was still in the morning, and most of us had to get going, so we just packed it in and headed out after breakfast in the rain (the MBO folks had put up some tents/EZ-Ups, so it was fine). ��A few of us took pictures:

• My pictures
• Matt's pictures
• Jay's pictures

I rode my Reign for the duration. ��It was great on the Middle Fork, but I think I'd actually rather of had my Niner on Tire. ��There were some rough spots, but I just love my Niner, and the lower center of gravity.The Specialized folks were at MBO, and I got to take a quick spin on their new 5" travel 29er. ��No doubt about it, that's my next bike - will be getting rid of the Reign for that.