For years I've had my Great Annual Gifford (GAG) Ride in Gifford-Pinchot National Forest, but two years ago we decided to change things up and went to Ukiah. It was a HUGE blast, so last year we went to a secret spot outside of LaPine - voila, another success. So this year we met at another secret location in Eastern Oregon that had plenty of single track for us to peruse.
Due to obligations by many, the turnout was different than in past years, however it was still a solid group consisting of: Scott Wilson, Dave Klug, Mike Smith, Ron Hughes, Stan Summers and Scott McNew.
Friday
I made my way there on Friday morning with Cali the wonder dog. It was a stunningly beautiful trip and the weather could not have been better!
When I arrived there, Mike Smith had arrived just before me, so we unloaded things, then after a bit, decided to go for a late-afternoon puttsy to get a recon of the area. As we were getting things set up, a couple riders went through the campground, so we knew there was at least one other group out there. We started up our bikes and headed out. Wow, this area looked like fun and Mike and I cruised through the trails at a fun pace:
<<--- Click the "Vimeo" logo to watch in larger-screen, HD mode if possible
After almost an hour, we had a close call with the other two riders coming the other direction, so we talked to them a bit and had fun acquainting ourselves with Doug and Dean.
We then made our way back to camp, where most everyone else had arrived. We loaded up the chainsaws in back of Scott's truck and made a firewood run and within an hour we had a respectable and warm campfire blazing! The food and beverages got us through the rest of the evening as the temps dropped.
11/7/15 Tom's Invitational GAG Ride
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11/7/15 Tom's Invitational GAG Ride
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.
- Tawmass
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Re: 11/7/15 Tom's Invitational GAG Ride
Saturday
We awoke to a very frosty morning!
At around 9am, Stan Summers and Scott McNew showed up to join in the fun. After much coffee and donning our cold gear, we headed out.
After a short amount of time, we'd crossed the railroad tracks and commenced to engulfing ourselves into some bonafide single-track trail!
And the trail got tighter and squeeky tighter! This was good stuff and it was so refreshing after not having ridden tight trails for awhile. We had one brief pause since Ron's headlight was trying to remove itself, but other than that (per video), it was a GREAT group of riders on great trails!
We came across one particularly tight trail section that had a stump as an obstacle, which added great personality and for me a photo opportunity.
I then found another spot between two trees for more photo opps. I set up with my camera, then Stan yelled, "Get out of the way, you're too close!" Really? Bring it on! He commenced to come to an abrupt stop between the two trees and almost went over the bars - good fun! Mike then rode up to the two trees, let go of the bars and hugged the trees, but his bike continued, almost too far - check out his half-dollar eyes!
We rode another 20 or so miles through various areas of high speed and low speed, sidehills and even a hillclimb, eventually settling upon a play area that the locals had engraved their use at.
We eventually made it back to our camp before dusk, made another firewood run and told big lies around the campfire into the evening. At around 3AM, the skies opened up and proceeded to rain rather hard and we all awoke to pounding rain. Since we had such an awesome ride the day prior, we all talked ourselves into loading up and heading to a local restaurant for breakfast, then call it a weekend. And we were good with that! On the way home, Cali and I got snowed on, so we had timed it perfect!
Another year, another GAG Ride, now where to next year???
-Tom
<<----Click on the "Vimeo" logo to watch in larger screen, HD mode if possible. Appears I didn't lower the volume when we were talking - oh well.
We awoke to a very frosty morning!
At around 9am, Stan Summers and Scott McNew showed up to join in the fun. After much coffee and donning our cold gear, we headed out.
After a short amount of time, we'd crossed the railroad tracks and commenced to engulfing ourselves into some bonafide single-track trail!
And the trail got tighter and squeeky tighter! This was good stuff and it was so refreshing after not having ridden tight trails for awhile. We had one brief pause since Ron's headlight was trying to remove itself, but other than that (per video), it was a GREAT group of riders on great trails!
We came across one particularly tight trail section that had a stump as an obstacle, which added great personality and for me a photo opportunity.
I then found another spot between two trees for more photo opps. I set up with my camera, then Stan yelled, "Get out of the way, you're too close!" Really? Bring it on! He commenced to come to an abrupt stop between the two trees and almost went over the bars - good fun! Mike then rode up to the two trees, let go of the bars and hugged the trees, but his bike continued, almost too far - check out his half-dollar eyes!
We rode another 20 or so miles through various areas of high speed and low speed, sidehills and even a hillclimb, eventually settling upon a play area that the locals had engraved their use at.
We eventually made it back to our camp before dusk, made another firewood run and told big lies around the campfire into the evening. At around 3AM, the skies opened up and proceeded to rain rather hard and we all awoke to pounding rain. Since we had such an awesome ride the day prior, we all talked ourselves into loading up and heading to a local restaurant for breakfast, then call it a weekend. And we were good with that! On the way home, Cali and I got snowed on, so we had timed it perfect!
Another year, another GAG Ride, now where to next year???
-Tom
<<----Click on the "Vimeo" logo to watch in larger screen, HD mode if possible. Appears I didn't lower the volume when we were talking - oh well.
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.
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