Mount Hood 08' #2

First lift ride up at 9:00 am, coming out of the clouds.
This was the view from the top, above the clouds.

Boardin into the clouds.

Looking over a rock field into the terrain park.

Mt. Hood goes huge with their summer snowboard terrain park.

After snowboarding all morning, a lunch and a little rest. Mountain biking in the evening.

We did a 22 mile round trip ride on a part of the original Oregon trail. It was through some great, old growth forest double track. Some awesome descending, and what goes down must climb back up.

It was a full day in the mountains. Got back to the truck at dusk.

Mount Hood 08'

Mount Hood Snowboard Limo.

Descending the mountain road down from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, 9 miles, down and back up. On Monday.

EPO dopers really SUCK!!

The second EPO doper was caught in the Tour de France.

Dopers go home and don't ever come back!! If you are a doper and you show up at a race, at the World Level or Local, think about how you are cheating everybody and just go home.

I have managed Jeff Hall for many years, he has played by the rules. He has been tested many times, always negative. He has raced against the top riders in the world since 1993, at World Cup, USA National Races and 2 World Championship Races. Some riders have been caught cheating.

A local rider in Minnesota was caught a few years ago, they take money and UCI points from honest riders. That rider whined about it, sent letters to the press looking for sympathy. That rider SCREWED everybody he came into contact. Both people that were on his road teams and racers like Jeff who raced against him fair and square. I can't believe the ignorant bike teams and the ignorant press that go running back to these dopers to feel good and get their name in the press.

This is my drug rant, like it or not.

On a positive note, GOOD LUCK to Jay and Jake Richards in Vermont at the USA National Championship Races and all the other Minnesota mountain bike racers. I know it will be a lifetime memory for you all. Keep Your Heads Up!! Ride hard. Good Times!!

Up North in Minnesota... eh

Out on the roads in the morning, the ride to the river. the water is clear and running fast through the woods. This is a nice 27 mile round trip ride, to the river and back. Sometimes we continue on around the lake, Whitefish Lake, for a good 37 mile ride.

This day, I was able to grab a lunch after the morning ride and get out on a true North Woods mountain bike ride in the afternoon. It is out to a remote lake, about 6 miles from the pavement, it is a rolling 4 mile pavement ride to the dirt. About 20 miles round trip. The challenge of this ride is not the distance, rather it is the swamps and mud. The beavers have dammed up the creeks that link the swamps together. It creates thigh deep, nearly waist deep, murky swamp water sometimes 30 yards long. I can ride most of the flooded trail, the unknown is the hidden rocks under the surface. The deep water over the ATV trail keeps this trail pretty much untraveled. Good Times!! Get back to the cabin and just jump in the lake.