Lions, tigers, AND bears! Welcome to a Friday afternoon mountain bike adventure on the Brown Mt. trails near Ashland, Oregon. 80 degrees, sun, blue, sky, smiles, miles of singletrack for me and my friend John.
The path for bikes in on the left, the path for water is on the right. Beautiful is it, and I am here, feels good.
I'm smiling writing the caption because it was even better than it looks, and there was miles more to roll over. Winding with old growth pine and fir trees, the smell of the air was incredible, edible even.
And to think some people are riding the rutted out trails above Ashland right now... Oh, that's because you can't take a van ride to the top of this one, it's worth it when you earn it.
I know it's blurry, and not the best picture I have of John from the day. But just look at his smile, I think it is safe to say he was having FUN! Thanks to my friend Patrick who this summer taught me the "over the shoulder" camera trick.
I also did some reconnaissance work for an upcoming adventure on Mt. McLoughlin.
The combination of the amazing trail, tall trees, sun and Sweet Melissa, all made my jaw drop a few times on this ride.
The first bear sighting of the day! I brought Biff the Bear along in hopes he would attract some bigger beasts.
Green graces leaves trees sun on faces and the calendar of experience knows when the season will turn, not, quite, there, yet
John did a ride called the "Everest Challenge" last weekend. Which involved 30,000 feet of climbing in just two days of riding, despite all the riding his legs still weren't as big as a tree trunk.
If we keep the pace up I think there's enough daylight left to be drinking some tequila before nightfall...
Getting water the old fashioned way, cold, clean, pump it, pump it. John providing the elbow grease for hydration.
Sweet Melissa poses next to a fine little cabin, complete with woodstove, windows, the sleeping person inside is the only human we saw on out in the woods the whole day.
A non-descript section of an anonymous acronominous trail. Please Consider That.
This little grove of Aspen will be beautiful in the fall when the colors change, wait, it is October, it is fall, or is it?
There were fun sections of trail laid through the lava fields. It was kind of eerie hearing the hollow echo below when riding over the looser rocks.
These determined fungi erupted up through the cinder surface in the middle of our path. Waiting like little troll and fairy space shuttles to launch to the bold blue sky above.
White Ninja was in full effect at the small stream near the end of the ride. Washed off the dust but not the smile.
Today 40 miles of trail just wasn't enough, especially knowing this kind of weather won't be around in a month. Sweet Melissa and I had some good one-on-one time riding the road back from the trail head to town. John drove the car back to his own, and real human, Sweet Melissa, the wonderful Susan. Thank you to Susan, because sometimes I get lost in the world of being a single male and forget that I may be with someone who has a someone waiting for them to come home. I got some rad-i-cool pictures in golden light coming back, look for those in an upcoming post!
as always, great. makes me want/need a visit to see that place live.
[...] pictures come from the second half of an amazing day of riding, Sweet Melissa and I post single track bliss riding a beautiful stretch of one of my favorite paved [...]
Brown Mtn., Lake of the Woods to Fish Lake…the best! Thanks for the pix ‘n report. Hope to hit ‘em before the snow falls – in between a few early fall CX ‘mudders’. BTW, the same day was stellar for a mtb trip across the “rutted” watershed above Ashland…splendid riding!
[...] You might remember my foreshadowing to a Mt. McLoughlin mission in a picture caption from this post on one of this fall…. [...]
[...] As an early holiday celebration my Brother Adam and my Brother from another Mother, Matt, came down to Ashland for some add-venture. We made a ski trip into the South Brown Mountain Shelter, a spot I came upon earlier in the year on the mountain bike with my friend John. [...]