Bike Bash 08

Last evening the road racers and mountain bike racers got together for their annual banquet. Bike Bash 08 was held in the Mallet Lodge at Platte River State Park.
The turn-out was lower than last year. The kitchen crew did an outstanding job with Spaghetti, sauce, garlic rolls, salad, cookies, & brownies.
After dinner, awards were presented to "roadies" for the Rider of the Year. Next came the mountain bike racers. Awards were presented to State Championship winners. Then came the Pyscowpath Series winners (places 3,2,1). Doug Larson is the recipient of the Psycowpath Spirit Award.
The awards were followed by a photo montage created by Tim Weiland (featuring photos by John Peterson and yours truly). Capping the evening were comments by THOR Co-Chair Kent McNeill.
If you missed it, it was a great time - good weather, good food, good program, great friends.
Update-20th. Here's the photo montage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7BBhqeNR_Y

Why Solo?

A recent discussion at bikeforums.net poses the question of what touring is really like. When replying to the thread, one of the things that really dawned on me was the fact that all of my tours to date have been solo and self-supported. I've always had a preference for the freedom of self-supported touring.
For me, touring is quite simply the best way to see and experience a place that you might otherwise never visit. It lets me travel at a pace that allows me to see just about everything, it lets me experience the weather, the people and all the other things that make a place what it is. However, there's more to it than that. It's also an escape from the rat race, a chance to be alone with my thoughts, a chance to make my own decisions, and a chance to really listen to myself. It's freedom, the freedom to think for myself, and to act upon it, knowing that I live with the consequences of my own actions and nobody else's. That's not to say that every minute is wonderful, but at least I have control over my destiny, and can deal with the bad in whatever way I see fit.
Let's face it, most of us spend the majority of our lives doing what other people tell us to do. We have to follow instructions at work for 8-9 hours a day (sometimes more). We come home and slip into the same rhythm, doing largely the same chores, hearing the same messages in Internet/TV/radio/newspaper advertising, telling us all how we "should" live our lives. They try to tell us what to buy, what to believe, and what to think of anyone who dares to be different. I see touring as a means of escaping all of this. It's a rare opportunity to listen to myself. Life changing? Perhaps not in a really obvious way, but it is an opportunity to think about things that we probably wouldn't find the time to think about otherwise.
For me, an organised tour pretty much eliminates the majority of what I said above. All of my tours have been solo and self-supported for this reason. Sure, it might be nice to have someone else to share the experience with, but on an organised tour there is a lot of baggage that goes with it. I've heard similar complaints about food, accommodation and queues for showers from people who have done organised rides with Bicycle Queensland and Bicycle Victoria in the past, so that doesn't surprise me. There might be other issues here, too.
Always in big groups there are people who don't really get along, there are people who overestimated their fitness before the tour and want to blame everyone else for the fact (or the fact that it rains or whatever). While it's easy to blame the organiser of a supported tour when things go wrong, there are a lot of issues that go with group touring that the organiser can't be held solely responsible for. When an organiser has to feed these people at the end of the day after dealing with these issues, I guess it's possible that the food will be a little unimaginative, and people might feel that they aren't getting the attention they deserve.
In fact, about the only real benefit I see in an organised tour is having a SAG wagon to pick you up at the end of the day if you don't make it. However, the person who has prepared properly for the tour, has a good understanding of their own capabilities and how to ride within them is unlikely to need this -- and even if the solo tourer did need to call out for assistance, the money they've saved on not paying thousands for an organised tour can be used to travel a long way in a taxi if necessary (it never has been for me).
I've always advised people considering touring to start with some short, self-supported tours in your own part of the world just to get a feel for it. A weekend is usually enough. Find a local pleasant campground and ride to it. Then ride back by a different route (if possible) the next day. Personally I think that gives a greater feel for what touring is all about than having it all planned beforehand and being guided along like cattle.

Spring on Hollow Rock Creek

I haven't been spending much time with the camera lately. I guess the main reason is because I spent so much time pursuing images during my month-long southwest trip that I sort of got tired of it for a little while. Plus, the weather lately has been kind of cold and wet, which is more conducive to sitting inside. Today I had to get out for a hike, so I decided to do some exploring on a section of Hollow Rock Creek that I had never been on before. I found some nice rapids and small waterfalls, and had fun creating exposures of the rushing water.

Some sections of the creek only had a few inches of water flowing over the rocks and some of those rocks had some interesting patterns and colored lines in them. Combined with a long exposure to smooth the water, the images that I ended up with were kind of interesting, too.

Spring is a great time to explore your local creeks and rivers. They possess a character in the spring that is unseen the rest of the year. Get out and explore while the water is high!

Beautiful Bandon

Bandon, Oregon is sort of one of those "storybook" coastal towns that you picture in your imagination when you daydream of the coast. It has a very quaint "old town" area with shops that are loaded with character and individuality. Its a great place to just go for a stroll and window shop.

For most people, though, the beaches are the main attraction. Bandon easily has some of the best beaches along the entire Oregon coast. Soaring sea stacks, swirling foam, soft sand and huge piles of driftwood all conspire to make a walk along the beach an unforgettable experience.

I shot two sunsets along the beaches at Bandon and on the first evening I got pretty wet. Right after the sun went down some rain squalls quickly moved in (see image above) and got me good and wet before I was able to make it back to the car. Even though I was wearing my rain jacket, I didn't have any rain pants so my pants got soaked.

The second evening was free from rain, and I was treated to some wonderful light as the sun retreated over the horizon.

Painted Turtle

A surprise yesterday while driving past a small pond, I happened to catch a glimpse of this small Painted Turtle in the corner of my eye. I backed up and watched him for a while, but when I opened the door of my truck he didn't like that and moved towards the water. I snapped this shot just before he slipped beneath the surface.

Chicken sign

Before we got the game camera, we had to rely on our own skills to determine what animals passed through our property. We bought a couple of tracking books, but found that animals rarely leave crisp, pristine tracks that resemble the drawings. (Unless it snows, which apparently is never, ever going happen here again.)
The animal sign that we encounter the most is actually scat. I should have been more careful, though. In-laws will think you even stranger than they already do, if you stop in mid-hike to carefully examine animal poop.
Other signs we see a lot are scrapes, or disturbed areas similar to this picture. What a huge scrape, I thought. I wonder how in the world that was made!
I hate to admit how long it took me to realize that this "wildlife sign" was actually made by... chickens.
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The best tracking web site is Beartracker's Animal Tracks Den.

Nothing Could Be Finer Than...

The out-of-state kids arrived safely from 3 states, but they didn’t fly to Texas. These seashells, farmstand tomatoes & Carolina peaches are souvenirs we brought back from a combined family reunion, vacation & anniversary celebration held on the Carolina Coast.
Philo & I drove east on Interstate 10 to meet with our four children and their families at a town where we’ve stayed 8 times over the past 30 years. We were last there in 1994 - it was always a magical place, and thank heavens, things have not changed much!
While our family jumped in the surf, made sandcastles, played beach volleyball, watched pelicans and dolphins, enjoyed seafood dinners and witnessed hatchling Loggerhead turtles make their way to the ocean, back in Austin our wonderful friends, neighbors and Divas watered our plants & kept our containers, young trees, shrubs and perennials alive.
Since we came home, instead of leaning over to pick up seashells on the beach, I’ve been picking up pecans by the bucketful from the ground under the pecan trees. Some nuts were undeveloped, shed by the trees in response to the drought, some were bitten, half-eaten and thrown around by the squirrels. I don’t think the trees themselves are in danger, since the leaves are green. These trees did the same thing last September - in the middle of the night we were wakened over and over by a hearing a thunk on the roof, followed by a rolling sound, then a thud as the nut hit the ground. It was unnerving at first, but it eventually became one of those comfortable, usual, recognizable sounds – your brain just says, ‘Pecan falling’ and lets you stay sleep.
One very nice and totally unexpected surprise was that this crinum-type lily put up a flower stalk which is just starting to show pink buds. It might be Amarcrinum 'Fred Howard' bought in March .. from Plant Delights Nursery, or it might be an unnamed crinum bought at an Austin Men's Garden Club sale in Spring ... Both lilies grew for years in large deck pots, where they developed into multiple bulbs. Once we moved here, the bulbs were planted in the ground, but the tags were lost and the individual bulbs were mixed up. Whatever the name, I'm thrilled to see it bloom!

Three things: Ozzie! Thanks! Tracking!

Mom here: first our apologies for not visiting - again - it's been silly bizzy around here, although today (yay!) it's pretty mellow! Second, we wanted to show you a couple of photos of the super-rapidly-getting-better-OZZIE!!! She's playing and dancing energetically once more and will get her outer stitches removed at the beginning of next week. We are stunned by her amazing recovery and thank all of you so much for sending such powerfully wonderful well wishes - they helped hugely! Thirdly, this post is also about something I tried with Sam a couple of years ago - tracking. We just introduced Avalon (and Sierra Rose) to it yesterday and all doggies loved it! We actually traveled with Sierra Rose and her mom, meeting our good friend and experienced tracking person, Elizabeth Waldspurter, who set the courses for the dogs and instructed us. I want to thank her immensely for helping us get such a great start! I also want to thank Sierra's mom for taking the pictures of Sammie and Avalon trying out this super canine/human "sport"! (There are photos of Sierra as well, but we'll let Sierra post her version!) Okay... our turn!

Isn't she lookin' great???

You look like a zillion "treats" Oz! That's our Sis!!!*** So... tracking! To make a long story short, we dogs (as we surely know well) have better scentacles (our word) than hoomans have. In fact, the area of our doggie brains devoted to analyzing the things we smell is 40 times bigger than what a person has - how about that? We know a completely different world than humans, and for this reason, it is furry cool to do tracking. Yesterday, Mom set us loose to do something she had little control over! In our friend, Elizabeth's words, "You can't really correct for tracking. They know what they are doing." Love it! So the object of the game is to sniff our way down the course that Elizabeth makes and get the glove... or... foodables on the glove!
We were urged to watch our teacher as she "set" the course for us. We started small - on a plot of grass in front of a house. Some wind came up and the grass was damp. It's supposedly good to set up a track somewhere that is fresh - as in no humans or animals crossed it to mess up our snooters. Sometimes it will look like we're not following the path correctly, but wind can make us veer up to 3 or even 6 feet off supposedly. (Anyone out there who might be able to correct us on any of this info, let us know...)
In Avalon's words: Finally Mom said, "Avalon, Track!"
And off I went. I sniffed here...
I sniffed there...
And I backtracked and sniffed thereabouts!
Until I saw the prize, but still kept my sniffer to the ground...
And oooooooh... what sweetness to reach the prize! What fun that was!!! I hoped I could do it again and again! Back to you, Sammie.
Okay... so it was my turn. I wasn't spose to look at the camera, but I'm a flashy beast hound. Okay... I'll get serious!
Here I am in earnest... watching Elizabeth set my course. We are now in a less "contaminated" meadow!
Elizabeth returns from dropping the "dime" hot dog foodables along the track. She has stomped on the grass, while dropping a hot dog every few feet, and has placed the glove at the end of the trail. I'm supposed to follow HER scent along the course, leading to her glove, see? (the hot dogs help...). She indicated to Mom that I can go!
And we're off! How I love this activity! And there really is no correcting. Mom's read that she could "help" me a bit more - you can read here - or here for further info, but basically, she has to trust my snooter - hah! Isn't that pawesome?
Meanwhile, Avalon really, really, really wanted to do it again and again without a break and made her wishes loudly known throughout the neighborhood. We will be doing this again soon and we are definitely excited! Huge woofs to Elizabeth - thank you so much! Here are a couple of movies of us tracking!

Copper Fall State Park

Packed up the room yesterday morning. Took my time (still a bit sore). The first stop was Copper Falls State Park.
Spent about 2 hours at the park. Walked/hiked the Doughboys' Nature Trail. The trail makes a 1.7 mile loop in the park. The trail started off easy enough. A little over half way, there's a long stairway down to the river. Over course, on over the river, had to climb back up the stairs. That was the roughest part of the hike.
The scenery was great. Brownstone Falls (today's photo) is actually more impressive that Copper Falls. More photos will be posted on my web site (when I get into updating the site). I think I was at this park many years ago during a family vacation. Just the falls seem to be smaller that I remember (of course, I was much smaller then, too!)
the nature trail brings you to views of Copper Falls, Brownstone Falls, the Cascades, and Devil Gates. Copper Falls in on the main branch of Bad River. Brownstone Falls in on Tyler Forks Branch of the Bar River.
Copper Falls State Park was an effort by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). The park is located near the town of Mellen, WI and a 23 mile drive from Ashland.
Today's plans include a ride along the lakefront on the bike path and playing tourist here in Ashland.