After nearly two weeks of wind and rain, the rain finally stopped but not the wind, so back to the mountains for more mountain bike riding. Things are really tense in the cities and towns around here, so it’s nice to have the mountains to escape to.
Anxious to go riding after two weeks of sitting around watching it rain, we were up early and ready to ride. Cool nights and mornings after the passing storm fronts. Once you got on the bike and riding, it was fine.
We try to do the bulk of the climbing in the morning when it’s cool. The wildlife is active in the morning so you have a better show as you grind your way up the mountain.
Due to the past couple weeks of non-stop rain, the trails were in perfect condition. The soil is sandy and after a couple of warm summer days, it will be loose and dusty.
We rode up to some of our favorite singletrack trails only to find the trail completely blocked by numerous large blown down trees and the trail head markers destroyed.
Everything was clean and green from all the rain, maybe even a light dusting of snow on the top of Mt Adams.
We rode up old logging roads made of black and red lava rock. On the sides of the roads there were these durable flowers growing out of lava rock.
We rode through ancient lava flows and lava domes like this one.
We rode higher and higher towards Mt Adams and the roads got steeper and steeper. Not in very good shape from not riding, there came the time I could go no further. To be in good bike riding shape means you can ride more so it’s always a solid goal to stay in shape.
Before we turned around for the downhill run back to camp, we took a final look at Mt Hood on the other side of the Columbia River Gorge.
The next day, Mt Adams was covered with clouds as another storm moved in.
We decided to spend the rainy days taking care of business, so we closed up yet another great stretch of mountain bike riding.