The early spring wind is howling here in the Columbia River Gorge so kayak fishing has been put on hold for a few more days. Time to get on the bike and head for the hills for a little mountain bike riding. This is a nice time of year in the PacNW, everything is turning green at an amazing rate. Since we had a wetter than average winter we are having an exceptional plant growth explosion. There are plenty of spring flowers along the remote trails of the Cascade Mountain foothills.
The spring flowers aren’t the only plants that are growing full blast, there is also an abundance of the dreaded poison oak. The wet winter has made for a bumper crop of this toxic trailside plant. You want to avoid this stuff at all costs.
There are a lot of designated mountain bike trails in Oregon and Washington, you can check any of the many mountain bike websites. These trails get more and more crowded every year; some of them are more like urban bicycle paths than trails in the woods. We ride mountain bikes to get away from the crowd, not follow it around in a mountain bike conga line, so we tend to head for the more remote trails that do not show up on the internet. We post photos to inspire people to go riding, but do not reveal the exact locations of these places. We found them, so can you, it’s part of the experience.
There are literally thousands of miles of trails and old roads in the Pacific Northwest to discover. Instead of following the herd, learn how to read a map and find a trail or two for yourself.
We are using another windy day to do some bike maintenance, worn out brakes when you ride in the mountains is not a good thing. We’ve also received the replacement camera for our dead GoPro so we will be having a look at it and post a review and information about it in the near future.