With Chris and Paris getting engaged over the summer and their wedding on January 7th we weren’t left with an ideal time of year for a bachelor party. It was the shoulder season when there might not be enough snow for skiing and possibly just too much for mountain biking. Many national parks and attractions we may have gone to were also beginning to close in early November and his brother didn’t have a passport to get into Canada. This left very few options for us. We were stuck between heading out to Anthony Lakes to ski in December or mountain bike in Bend in November. Upon getting hold of all his friends and brother the consensus looked like November was the best time for everyone so Bend was the best option. Read on…
I was able to locate a pretty sweet rental house in Sunriver and his brother Eric, Stevenson, Hartz, and I all committed to going. Everyone else who said they could go bailed unfortunately for one reason or another. This was ok though as the five of us all knew each other really well and new we’d have a good time. After stopping to pick up some Lawnmower Ale for Chris and a bit of searching for the house I was able to locate the driveway around 5pm with Eric showing up minutes after. We had just finished putting all the beer and food away when Paris showed up to drop Holm off and tell us all to be safe. She was off to Mountain bike with Anna in Bend that weekend as well. 
That first night we drank hard… really hard. I honestly don’t know if I can remember drinking that much at any point in my life before. I had been making mixed drinks with bourbon and ginger before Hartz and John arrived later in the evening with cheap racks of beer and snacks. I had made my mom’s spaghetti for dinner for us all the first night so perhaps all the pasta in my gut was absorbing the booze.. no idea. Holm and I were partners for beer pong and our ability to sink em’ got worse with every game we lost. The next day Chris told me that I had taken it upon myself to drink his beers for him as well… how chivalrous of me! 
The worst was when the guys convinced me to fly the Mavic indoors. This went poorly and for some reason it started to drift inside giving me just enough time to reach out and hand catch it before it slammed into a window. Lesson learned… will not be doing that again. Hartz had gotten a fire going for us inside but I feel like we stayed in the garage for most of the night playing beer pong! I don’t remember going to bed but was told it was well after 3am when we did.
Saturday morning was rough for me… I mean… really rough. Holm looked a little off as well but that might have been due to the fact that he was covering up being sick from us to make it to the weekend! I learned that later. Stevenson and Hartz seemed to be pretty ok as well. Then I looked at the large bottle of Sky vodka I had bought.. half gone. And I had been the only one drinking it.. combine that with the 8+ beers I must have drank (we finished the two racks) and I couldn’t believe I woke up from the night! Eric made us an egg scramble/hash for breakfast and we enjoyed sitting in the hot tub with drinks and coffee in the morning. I found the best cure for a horrible hangover was actually the Cock N Bull Ginger sodas I was using in my drinks the night before. They really tamed my stomach.
That afternoon we picked up a rental bike for Hartz in Sunriver and headed out to the COD trails below Bachelor for some riding. Eric had wrecked his shoulder mountain biking a few months before and still wasn’t ready to ride so he took his van into town for the day and offered to pick us all up at the bottom of Phils Trail. This allowed the four of us to pile into the truck and head out to the Wanoga Snow Park trailhead to start the ride. We drove through snow on the way there and were a little surprised to see a couple inches on the ground at the snow park but after a quick discussion we decided to give snowy trails a chance regardless of the conditions.
Before we headed off down the trail I wanted to fly the Mavic again and have it track them going through some whoops at the trailhead parking lot. This worked fabulously and the drone was able to track them and circle them as they biked getting some great shots. Unfortunately, when I brought it back for landing I didn’t want to land the camera in the snow so I instead tried to hand catch it again… bad idea. I caught it but one of the back props clipped the end of my finger slicing it open and spraying blood on one of the arms of the drone. Next time I’ll wear gloves. The legs of the thing are so short that you can’t feasibly land it on anything other than a completely flat surface. I’m not sure why someone hasn’t invented a pop-up landing pad similar to the very light pop-up camping chairs found at REI? 
I’m not exactly sure what trails we ended up taking but it took us just under 3 hours and was about 17 miles of riding. I honestly can’t believe I pulled myself together to ride it and the others were surprised as well. Chris also seemed to be taking it easy on the trails which again was because he wasn’t feeling 100% yet. Stevenson was of course crushing it and was having fun launching off various drops throughout the day. Hartz was enjoying his nice rental and happy to be mountain biking again as he had sold his a while back. About halfway through the ride the snow disappeared and the trail became super fast and tacky. I absolutely love those trails and have so much fun riding them. It felt great to be back on my mountain bike which didn’t see much use this past summer unfortunately.
Eric picked us up with the van and we headed into town to Immersion Brewing for some great burgers and beers for dinner. Thankfully, at this bachelor party nobody came away injured from mountain biking! From there we trekked it back up towards Bachelor in the van to pick up my truck. I couldn’t believe Eric’s van fit all of our bikes in it. I asked him with his outdoorsy personality if it was tough owning a family van instead of a Subaru or truck and I think he took it the wrong way as if I was making fun of it, which I wasn’t. I only say that because he oddly kept bringing it up throughout the following day. Unfortunately, for Holm half his bike didn’t make it back to the house. Somewhere between the brewery and Sunriver one of his tires had gone flying off the roof! Uh oh!
Saturday night was pretty laid back at the house. We all made ourselves drinks but the debauchery of the previous night was not repeated. Perhaps we are just all getting old! I put on the movie Sausage Party and by the time it was halfway through everyone around me except Eric was passed out snoring, some loudly ;). It was a funny adult cartoon movie that Eric got a kick out of as well but would never be able to share with his kids! When it was over we all retreated to our rooms. I had my own upstair while Hartz and Stevenson shared a room that was uber ‘Merica” themed with flags and eagles all over it! Chris had his own room with bathroom downstairs. 
On Sunday we woke up late and again took our time eating breakfast and cleaning up before leaving around 11am to drop off the rental bike and then head into town to make a decision on what to do for the day. Further biking was out of the question as Hartz no longer had a bike and Holm was missing a wheel. So, we did the next best thing and just went straight to Crux brewing for beers and food. Chris and Eric had left a little earlier to look for his wheel but had no luck. It must have taken a big bounce straight into the woods somewhere! We had a good time at Crux playing rounds of corn hole and hanging out by the big outside fires when bursts of rain would roll through. There was a Hawaiian food cart there as well which I helped myself too! Paris and Anna showed up in the afternoon after biking and it was great to catch up with them too before I headed home around 4pm. It was a fun weekend with friends I don’t get to see very often and I think despite being a little sick Chris had a good time as well!
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