It wasn't my plan for the weekend. I started out yesterday to do a nice long road ride. I was going to do the Alsea Look clockwise and throw in Mary's Peak if I had enough left in me. But right away I had a new clickety noise I couldn't pin down. After several failed adjustments I turned around and headed home, hoping I'd have time to get to a mechanic and still get a ride in. Mechanic I talked to said it sounded like the bottom bracket and he'd be able to take a look at it next Friday. Ugh. Yesterday was also the hottest day of the year hear. My house was nice and cool so I took a nap.

Mary's Peak from Bald Hill

So today I decided to ride the mountain bike, for the second time this year and the first in Corvallis. So off I went to the McDonald Forest. It's 6 miles of pavement to get there but then you're behind a gate and can ride all day with no cars. There is a beginner's trail right at the start which was fine with me. It's only about .5 miles but it does climb a bit. Then it was another 3 miles of gravel road to get to the top of Dimple Hill. I was hoping for some good views but it was kind of smoggy in the valley. From here there is some great downhill on Dan's trail, but unfortunately that would leave me way on the north end of Corvallis and a 10 mile ride home on the roads. I opted to try out Extendo trail even though it meant another half mile climb after a couple of miles of downhill. The trail is billed as "steep downhill" and the name sounded a little to close to EndO trail so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. Turns out it was well within my skill level, if not my confidence level. Lots of roots but nothing you couldn't bounce right over and they were rough, not smooth and slippery like our Madrone roots. There was only one Catwalk style switchback but lots of quick curves between trees. The fun was over too soon as it was only 1.3 miles.

My route home took me through Bald Hill park so I decided to climb it as well and do some more single track. The climb, though much shorter, was brutal as the first half was in the full sun, and it was now getting pretty hot. The second half is on single track and although not terribly steep, was as much as I could take. At the top was a nice breeze coming out of the Coast Range and a great view of Mary's Peak. The single track down started out really narrow with some blackberry vines a bit too close, but soon opened up to a smooth mostly straight trail trough the Oak trees. Once again too short but lots of fun.