This weekend Emily and I travelled down to Corvallis to hang out with Chris whom we hadn't seen for a long time to do some biking and get some help rebuilding my Kona as my useable commuter bike. Click the title to read on....
We drove down on Friday night and didn't get to his place until about 10pm yet we immediately began to work on repairing the Kona and drinking some beers.
In the morning we met up with Anna, Jon, and Mark in town. After we stopped for some bike parts and breakfast at the Beanery across from WSI we took off for Oakridge for the afternoon. Our first trail was Moon Point and because we had two vehicles we shuttled it with our truck. It's always a beautiful thing to see 6 bikes lined up in the back of the Frontier :). When we got to the top of the descent we all regretted not bringing any bug spray as the mosquitos were instantly upon us. We got the bikes out and geared up EXTREMELY fast so we could hit the trail and lose them. So fast that I nearly lost the group at first! Right off the bat we lost our way on the trail taking a wrong turn which actually brought us to a very cool overlook towards Thielsen and Bailey. The descent was amazing with a few technical spots that needed walking. 
Mark and Jon took off ahead of us to grab the vehicles and shuttle them while we made our way down the trail. We didn't have to wait long at the road for them to show up, just long enough to let the blood on my leg dry from tanking a tree on the way down. Our next ride was a familiar one for Emily and I, Larrison Rock. It is one of our favorites as it is fast and the trail flows well despite being perched along the edge of a ridge the entire way down. At the bottom we again waited for the vehicles to be shuttled and there was discussion of hitting another trail but Holm had to get back to town to manage the sound at Open Mic Night at Fireworks. Instead, we shuttled Jon, Anna and Mark as far as we could up another road that had been wiped out by a landslide before heading back to Corvallis.
When we got back Chris had just enough time to take a quick shower and head over to Fireworks. We met up with Kevin and Alexa at Suds & Suds for some pizza and beer to catch up before heading over to Fireworks around 10pm to quickly say hi to Sarah and Adam who were also there watching their friends play.
On Sunday we awoke to very dark skies and drizzle. The forecast called for rain yet we still met up with Paris and Holm's friend Natalie from Hood River for a ride on the North Ridge of Mary's Peak. We hadn't really hung out with Paris (his new gf) yet so were excited to get to know her and his friend Natalie who showed up with a badass new Kona. Mary's peak, despite the deluge of rain that we rode up in, was a blast to ride. We brought Leo along for the ride to test out his bike-following skills. We put booties on his paws for the uphill over the rocky service road, much to the amusement of everyone, but took them off once we hit the single track. This was also the first real test of my new mountain bike on climbs and I was blown away at how easy it was to peddle uphill! 
After resting at the top for a little bit and deciding not to go up to the true summit, we hit the trail on the downhill, having adjusted my suspension to a softer setting then the day before in Oakridge. The bike handled amazingly, but even more impressive was Leo's speed keeping up with Holm in front of me on the trail. He stretched out his stride and was hauling ass down the trail right on Holm's tail the whole time. The trail was slick in places which made it a little more technical going over slippery roots and rocks but we didn't have any major crashes until I decided to play superman.
I had hopped a root and when I came down my front tire dug into a big rock at the same time I grabbed my breaks to slow down for a 180 degree switchback. Bad move. I ended up flipping completely onto my back with one foot still clipped into the peddle and bike on top of me. Amazingly, I popped right up without even bruise. It was nuts. Chris said it was one of the gnarliest crashes he'd seen in a while yet I was completely uninjured. This was good news as any injury would have killed my biking opportunity in Whistler less than a week away... Sheer luck.
The best part of the crash though was when I got back on my bike after fixing my bent handlebars and began to peddle. The bike rolled about a foot before the tube in my front tire exploded out and started to balloon in size! My front tread must have slipped the rim a little allowing the tube to blow out... it grew really fast for a second before leveling out in pressure. Chris sprung to action to let the air out and tuck it back in properly... he'd never seen that happen before! We also noticed my back tire was pretty torqued out, to which Holm simply banged it on the ground to make it straight enough for me to ride down the trail. Thankfully I had a free tune up coming up where they could fix all the damage I just put to my new bike! Leo was probably grateful for the break in riding as he was truly exhausted when we got to the bottom.
When we got back to Holm's place we grabbed some showers and headed back to Washington with a totally rebuilt Kona commuter, a torqued out new Mountain bike and a very exhausted Mr. Leo after a great weekend of mountain biking with friends. Oh, and we totally approve of Paris and though Natalie was awesome as well.
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