Hi Gang,


A big thanks to the 9 people who came out to do the Tarbell Trail Ride yesterday. We could not have asked for better weather or a better trail!

We headed out from REI at about 12 noon and by the time we got out there and got the bikes and gear set up, it was about 1:30 pm. We distributed maps to the 3 main groups, the "bombers" made up of folks who would be going all out the entire loop, the middle of the pack folks and the "sweepers" made up of Beate, who was doing her first technical ride, Julie, who is normally a bomber, but was coming out after a full day of paddling, running and riding on Saturday and myself who wanted to make sure everyone got through the course in one piece...

We hit the trail, which starts with a about 2.5 miles of climbing single track and then a two mile rolling section that is pure fun. After that we decended down some fairly technical switchbacks to "Hidden Falls" which is a spectacular waterfall of about 100'. We picked up a rider, Russ, from the middle group here. Quick photo opportunity and we were back on the bikes heading up and up and up, a series of switchbacks to the high elevation point of the ride. 1st time technical rider, Beate was doing an incredible job of riding some pretty challenging terrain, Julie didn't look tired at all, but everybody was happy to see the top. From there we were into what I always refer to as the "pay-off", this is the part of the ride that makes all the climbing worth it as you bomb along about 4-5 miles of rolling singltrack and assorted technical challenges. Everybody kept a good pace through here and we popped out onto the final fire road section in short order. Up ahead, the front runners were finishing about now, we were just shy of 3 hours into the ride.

The final fire road section consists of a long downhill bomb of about 5 miles, then about a 2-3 mile climb and a couple miles of up and downs back to the cars.

As often happens, when you ride a challenging trail and then you get near the end and back onto fire road you start to relax. This led to Beate, who had ridden some Black Diamond level terrain throughout the day, to take a face plant onto some really hard, rough fireroad. Once we figured out that, aside from a possibly broken nose and some nasty scrapes on her arm, she was going to make it, Russ and Julie rode ahead to the cars and I rode Beate out the bottom to Rock Creek Campground and up the road from there. It was the same amount of riding, just not so much uphill, since she was feeling dizzy.

Russ drove my car down and picked us up, and etched into the dust on the window was the "all finished safely" message from the front group, so we headed into town for some much deserved food!

All things considered, I believe a fun time was had by all. This ride will be done again in the not-to-distant future, so stay tuned for that!

See you out there,

Paul Field

Founder, PDX Adventure Racer