The Oakridge Shred

Elements of Team Wreck and Team Cthulhu journeyed to Oakridge last weekend. We rode Alpine, the lower 18 miles of the Middle Fork of the Willamette trail and Larrisson Rock.

Great trails and great times. Big ups to Beefa for the White River Chile Stew, Boston for the storytelling, Brandon for the shuttling, Spencer for the youthful enthusiasm,JBone for his magical bin and Milkshake for pulling it all together.

We had to climb over a landslide to get to the top of the Alpine Trail. It was worth it.

Milkshake and Spencer may look disaffected here but actually we all got along quite well.

The view from the top of Larrison Rock.

Boston catching some air.

We took a wrong turn and ran into this weird shrine way up a fire road.

Survey marker at the top of Larrison Rock.

For more and better photos check Milkshake's blog, Velograph.net

where he asks the question "What do vodka and four loko taste like together?"

Oakridge Shred

Milkshake has announced an end of the summer trip to Oakridge. Good call.

More info on the facebooks.

North Umpua Deathmarch

The North Umpqua Trail has been near the top of my list for several years. 66 miles, lots of hot springs and waterfalls and it's all BLM land so you can camp anywhere for free.
I've noticed if I set a date and say it's happening it usually happens, so here it is : August 14-17, the North Umpqua Deathmarch.
We could camp in the middle and do out and backs in either direction or if we have the vehicles and drivers we could start from the top and ride the whole trail, camping at a different spot each night.

A missive from Doom

Original Team WRECK member Dr. Doom writes in with news from the Single Speed World Championships

Team Durango brought home the 2009 SSWC by utilizing Chad's skills at bowling and Ms. Pacman.

Deathmarch tomorrow!

OK, the big Mackenzie River trip is on for tomorrow. The meeting place has changed to the Mill House, still 9:30am.
It looks like 3 vehicles, 3 dogs, at least 12 bikes and verbal commitments from me, Dabby, Mason, Dylan from Seattle, J-Bone and GF, Mace, Jefe, Peaches, Tiger Tom, Boston, Tiah, Cory the Kid and Tad the Champ. A solid krewe and it should be a lot of fun.

Update! Beefa is now on board so it's an official Deathmarch. That also puts us at (or over) capacity so if your name isn't on the list you better bring your own vehicle.

And please think a happy thought for team mate Drew aka Sweet T. He's flying the Team WRECK colors at NACCC Chicago this weekend.

Rickreall Open 5 pt. 2

Photos by Divebomb.

Death March?

Team WRECK is headed to the Mackenzie River on Labor Day weekend. Meet at the Polo Haus or the Mill House between 9:30 and 10am on Saturday, August 30th. It's about a 3 hour drive so we'll set up camp and do a short ride Saturday and then shuttle to the top and ride the 26.5 mile trail downhill on Sunday. Since it's a 3 day weekend we could stick around until Monday but we'll see how that goes. I've heard that J-Bone (aka Two Sevens) has more time off and will be leading a splinter faction into the desert afterwards, so this could turn into Death Drive 2.
If you want to go RSVP ASAP to me, Mason or J-Bone.
You'll need to bring lots of money for gas and food plus the usual sleeping bag, tent, warm clothes, headlamp etc. etc.

Dooooom

A founding member of Team WRECK gets some ink in the Durango Telegraph.

Trail Ride : 3 Corner Rock

Team Wreck voyaged to 3 Corner Rock for the first time this season, finding it steep, overgrown, rocky, painful at times but also super fun.

This little bridge is new. The first time I walked it. On the way back I tried it and did a slow motion endo into the mud. Then I tried again and made it.


Unfamiliar scat. Cougar or bear maybe?


Each climb seemed harder than the one before.

3 Corner Rock in the distance. We made it kind of close to the road, which is near the tree line but the number of downed trees up there turned us back. Plus we were tired.


Crossing Stebbins Creek.

Trail ride this Sunday

Polo Haus, 9:30 am. Last Sunday was super fun and we welcomed a few new members to Team Wreck : Peaches, Boston Jeff, Tiger Tom and the inimitable Dawn Riddle. This weekend we may move beyond Scappoose and head out to Hospital Hill or 3 Corner Rock. Bring at least $5 for gas, water, snacks and a towel.

Trail Ride This Sunday

Meet at the Polo Haus (NE 14th and Killingworth) at 9:00 for a 9:30 departure. We'll vote with our gas money but I'm in favor of somewhere we haven't been in awhile, maybe 3 Corner Rock or Surveyor's Ridge.

Team WRECK trail ride - summer edition

Meet at the polo haus (NE 14th and Killingsworth) Saturday at 9am for a 9:30 departure. I'm tired of Scapoose, let's go to Bingen or 3 corner rock.

Trail Ride Update

Team Wreck got in a ride this Sunday thanks to the efforts of Tad the Champ.
I had given up my krewe as worthless slackers when he called. He had a couple of recruits from the NAHBS in tow, Jim from LA and Robbie from Maryland (I think). We also met some guy from Reno on the trail and rode with him for a while. He had heard of Scalleycat and described it as a "24 hour drinking event", which seems right up our alley. But I digress, back to calling out the krewe...
What the fuck? It was neither cold nor raining. You had plenty of advance notice, you seemed interested, inquiring as to the time and destination and yet when I called the night before there was no response, nothing. I did get two calls in the morning, from Sweet T (sick) and Cowboy (no excuse) and that's really all it takes..."beep, beep, I can't make it" how hard is that? Show a little respect....I'm halfway tempted to institute a system of points and demerits to determine who gets the next round of t-shirts and who doesn't.

Ok, rant mode off. Despite the lack of turnout we had an awesome ride. Some of the trails were a little damp but most were ridable. We ran into some talkative locals who gave us some helpful route suggestions which led to a few fun trips down Kamikaze and Widow Maker.

Robbie was crushing it with those big wheels.

Jim caught some big air on Tad's loaner bike. This is before he examined the front end and found it was held together with shims made from a seatpost and some Tecate cans.

I still can't get my helmet cam set up right...there's always so much vibration that it's unwatchable. I might need to get some help from the jerks at ProPhoto.

Natty checks out some pictures.

NAHBS

The 4th Annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show is at the convention center February 8-10. Though not an official team activity I've heard several alumni might be in town, including some aspects of the Republic of Doom and possibly our long lost brother Brue. So I'm hereby announcing the unofficial Team WRECK trail ride of the NAHBS. Unless it's raining cats and dogs we'll meet at the Polo Haus Sunday, Feb. 10th at 9am and head to Scappoose or Brown's Camp for some mud bogging fun. Leave a comment if you want to reserve a spot. I've got several loaner bikes for this season, including a 15 inch Klein and a 17.5 inch DBR titanium.

Also, how the hell did we miss out on this?

Viva Durango pt. 7

Viva Durango pt. 6

These photos are all from Monday. Doom invited us to visit him at the site of the mansion he is building. We brought him some coffee and cookies from ABC. Doom commanded us "Every day you wake up in Mancos you have to go to ABC", and we did. By far the best (and possibly the only) cafe in Mancos, it offered me several superb breakfasts including delicious bacon, many cheap day old pastries and decent to fair coffee, though I may be spoiled living in Portland.
Most of these photos are by Phil, the rest are by Dabby...except the ones Phil and Dabby are both in, those are by me.
I'd love to put in an outdoor kitchen like this, only not so large.


Doom explaining how he spent forever installing all the custom glass pieces and the difficulties of getting everything to fit just right.

These panels that are going inside have to match those that are going outside, rusty. So when it doesn't rain Doom and his crew urinate on them.




Mesa Verde, our next destination.
This was a pretty sketchy moment, he was going fast and taking up both lanes.

Doom's worksite is somewhere in the middle distance. I could pick out the dark green grass of the airstrip with the naked eye but not in this photo.

Possible glamour shot.

Dabby almost flushed these deer into the path of an oncoming truck.

We didn't have time to take the tour of these cliff dwellings but we got some good views as we rode around a loop and checked out various pit dwellings. Some of them were pretty sweet, I'm considering adding a kiva down at the farm.

My team mates soaking up some knowledge.

The Chimney House.
We didn't spend nearly enough time at Mesa Verde but I'll be back to check it out later.
We made it back to Mancos in time to meet Doom for a trip to the Phil's World trails outside Cortez.

I got pulled over for 62 in a 55 even though the 65 sign was in view. My papers were in order and he let me go with a warning.

At Phil's World, the Ribcage at sunset was epic.


The Sleeping Ute from Phil's World.