It’s more like summer than winter, so it’s down to the MTB life in the Cascade Mountains. There’s not many people here, a few mountain climbers taking advantage of the longest days of the year. Summer is beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest, but painfully short. You have to take advantage of every nice day.
Unfortunately, I had to spend two nice days repairing the trusty Giant Trance mountain bike. I ride a lot, not as much as I used to, but over the years, almost everything has been replaced as it wears out. The bike was creaking and cracking and making noise all the time. I knew the rear suspension bearings needed to be replaced and the shocks needed to be serviced. I try to service the Fox suspension forks and rear shock every season, but it’s starting to get hard to find rebuild kits. Along with some cable replacement and minor repair, it wound up being a two day job.
With the bike running like new after all the work, I’d forgotten how quietly a bicycle can move through the forest. This is as good as the trails will be, before it gets dry and dusty and horses chop them up.
Until the unofficial start of summer in a week or so, there’s not too many people here. The weather has been nice for the mountains so we’re getting a couple extra days of summer.
Even though I get noticably slower every year, I’m still able to make it to some the places I used to ride without major effort. Of course bike riding would be a heck of a lot easier somewhere not in the mountains, but it wouldn’t be the same.
After a couple long rides for the early bike riding season, today is a day off to prevent injury by resting, then back on the empty, weekday trails tomorrow.
Check back soon for more mountain biking from the Cascade Mountains.