MTB Ride on Phils, etc. in Bend
I'm in Bend for the weekend, where it's actually far cooler (86) than Eugene (100!!), to do some riding. I woke up earlier this morning and got on the road at a good time, and was out riding the trails a little before 11am. This made the temps very tolerable. I had planned a general Phils, Storm King, COD, loop, thought it'd be about 20+ miles, and take about 2-ish hours of ride time. Well, I was a bit off, and I wound up not even doing one section (VooDoo) that I wanted to hit. But, 3 hours and 30 minutes, 2600' of climbing (pretty mild), and about 25 miles later, I was pretty cooked. This was supposed to be a pretty easy ride, as I have the Bachelor-to-Bend ride tomorrow.
It was quite a good ride though. Got to do some trails I hadn't been on before, including lower Whoops (thought I did it all, but realized I didn't get up to the upper section, so bit bummed about that), and Storm King. The rest I'd done before, and did manage to get to do Dirty Pirate again, which is good, and some more gnarly parallel chunk of COD (that I wound up doing both directions as I was thinking it was ELV). I rode my Reign, which is a bit of a tank for this kind of ride, but wanted to suss it out for tomorrow, as everyone has said to use it for that, and my last time riding around Bachelor I did in the end wish I'd had suspension. Still a toss up though, and I still really just need to sell the Reign and get a nice 3-4" travel 29er (think Tallboy or Jet9).
Nice to be on the bike, and on good trails too. Could have used even more rock, and a little less of the more sandy, buff stuff, but still good. I find I really like coming to Bend. Very vibrant town, lots of folks out and about, and there is just a vibe of energy. Eugene just doesn't feel that way to me at all. Sometimes it really makes me question our choice, and think we should have gone for Bend, but it's unclear. Family is all in Eugene, and that is really very nice. Also, I do not particularly like the desert aspect of Bend. For now, I will just be happy to get over to Bend a bit more, seems like a good destination for riding, running, and vacationing.
I then checked into my hotel, showered, did a half-ass ice-bath (just cold water, no ice), went into town for some new running shoes (another post on that later), and then back to chill. Made some coffee, had some chips and salsa, relaxed. Then it was dinner time...
The hotel I'e got has a kitchen (stove, microwave, 'fridge). I knew this, and had prepped some food, as we had just gotten our CSA box, had lots of food at home, and well eating out solo isn't much fun. Besides, I probably had a better dinner than I could have most places... I had artichokes, chicken and brown rice tacos (soft corn tortillas) with salsa, and a bit of cheese and crackers for appetizer :) Pretty sweet. I've got some salad and pre-cooked potatoes in the fridge for later if I want, but I'm pretty full right now.
