When Scott and I moved here two and a half years ago, Dave and Nicola gave us an apple tree as a housewarming. It was a small apple tree as it was meant to stay compact enough to live on our patio, but even so it looked little more than a stick with a few leaves stuck to it:


Fast forward two years and the tree has tripled in size ...

But most importantly, for the first time it grew two apple this summer! (Only two, but it's a start.) Here's Scott showing off the first apple before we ate it:

It was sweet, crunchy and delicious.

Last stop: Portland

On our way towards Portland, Scott and I found the access point to the Pacific Crest Trail by the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, and briefly thought about walking the rest of the way home.


Then we remembered walking 500km across Spain.

And we promptly got back in the car and kept driving.

Meanwhile, after a many days in whistle-stop towns and on wilderness singletrack trails, it was a bit of a shock to return to big-city life when we rolled into Portland, Oregon. Luckily we had a guide for our stay in town: Michael, a ski buddy who has joined us on some of our backcountry skiing adventures, lives in Portland with his wife Diane, and they invited us to stay with them. And so our tour of Portland was personalized to include a stop at REI followed by beers at Kennedy School, a fantastic old elementary school converted to a brewery and restaurant among other things.


This morning we pointed the car towards home and wrapped up our Oregon adventure. Scott thinks Oregon's pretty awesome, and so do I - it's a lot like home but different. We met a lot of great people along the way: Randy, June and Phil in Oakridge, Jackson, Cliff and Dr. Ponte in Bend, Michael and Diane in Portland and many other fun people and funny characters. And that's what travel is all about, isn't it: making connections between people and places.

And now it's time to jump back on that hamster wheel: Scott's back at the office this week and I'll be working in Whistler. It seems unlikely I'll need my bike at the conference I'm attending so I'll leave it at home for this trip, but I will bring my bike helmet. Just in case.

Now everything hurts. (in a good way)

It's 8:30 at night and we're collapsed on the couch from exhaustion. Today was the McKenzie River trail, the day we’ve been building to over the last week. One of Bike Magazine’s top rides coming in at over 25 miles of variable terrain, it has a bit of an epic feel. Here’s Scott’s take on the day:

WHILE THERE WERE NO ADDITIONAL INJURIES TODAY, IT WAS A LOT OF RIDING. SO ALL OF THE PAIN IS LACTIC ACID-BASED RATHER THAN TRAUMA-BASED.

MOST OF THE TRAIL WAS SURPRISINGLY VERY WET COAST IN NATURE, WITH ALL KINDS OF BIG TREES, FERNS, RIVERS, ETC. THERE WERE 2 MAJOR DIFFERENCES. THE FIRST WAS THE LENGTH. THE SECOND WAS THE FIRST 4 MILES OF SQUIRREL-Y, SHARP, FREAKY LAVA FLOWS THE TRAIL MEANDERED THROUGH.

JANICE WAS PLAYING IT A BIT SAFER TODAY, AS SHE WAS NOT INTERESTED IN ANY MORE VISITS TO BEND URGENT CARE. TO BE HONEST, IT WASN’T A BAD PLACE TO PLAY SAFE. SOME GUY FROM CALGARY DID AN ENDO AND LOOKED KINDA OUT OF IT FOR THE REST OF THE DAY (DESPITE THAT HIS GIRLFRIEND/WIFE KEPT SAYING “HE’S FINE”).

EVEN THOUGH BUDDY RANG HIS BELL, HE STILL BEAT US TO THE END. IN FACT EVERYONE IN OUR SHUTTLE BEAT US TO THE END. HOWEVER, I WILL BET WE GOT BETTER PICS.

The high highs, the low lows...

Well, getting two stitches at the Bend Medical Centre wasn't part of the vacation plans, but that's where you could find me this afternoon.

This morning we headed out riding again with our guide, Jackson, and another addition to our team, Cliff from Portland, a middle-aged portly chatty guy. Cliff has little to no mountainbiking experience, so he happily rode along slowly behind us, whistling away.

Meanwhile, the trail today was a bit tougher than yesterday: more rocks and stuff. I went over and down some really tough bits, and was feeling pretty proud of myself. But towards the end of the trail I got caught up by a goofy little rock and went down: my helmet doing it's job but not preventing a little gash near my eyebrow, and got a bit shaken up in the process.

But in a few moments, along came Cliff, a self-identified Eagle Scout and father of two grown girls, who whipped out his first-aid pack and in no time had me patched up. But he still looked a bit dubious about the little bandaid's ability to do the job, as did the others. So, at the end of the ride Scott and I headed over to the medical clinic for a dose of the US medical system.

And our clinic visit felt a bit more of a social call at times, as we met a nice pharmacutical rep in the check-in line who was an avid rider, Scott had a good long chat with him about nearby trails... it turned out Cliff's wife overheard the conversation and introduced herself, she was also in the waiting room for a followup appointment on an earlier foot surgery, and the friendly doctor who stitched me up was also an keen mountainbiker and was happy to hear we were going to do the McKenzie River Trail tomorrow, so I'll guess that one's still an approved activity.

By the way, I'm feeling fine now and all systems go for the rest of our plans - after tomorrow, we'll head to Portland to visit friends before returning home this weekend.

Scott was going to take a picture of my stitches and post them here but I thought that might scare my mom a bit so here's a picture of our post-operative drink instead. Cheers!

First we go up. Then we come down.

Well, not much has changed since we checked in last, except the location. Scott and I are now in Bend Oregon, mountain biking our little hearts out. We hooked up with a local guide, Jackson, who showed us some of the trails in the area. Today was a smooth 25 mile descent from Bachelor Mountain back into town. Soft swoopy trails through ponderosa pine: beautiful.

Mountainbiking at home is fun but hard, and does nothing for one's self-confidence: I've been known to take my bike for a good two-hour walk. Here, the singletrack is technical enough to be interesting but not hard enough to be frustrating: it's just hours and hours of fun.

The town of Bend is nice, if a little prone to suburban sprawl. It's definitely an outdoor-rec kind of town, which means it's our kind of town. Scott thinks the whole town smells funny, and not in a good way, but he seems willing to overlook that flaw especially because there's cheap Moet at the local grocery store. Nothing like finishing a day of riding with a bottle of fine French champagne.

We have another day of riding near Bend and then we're due to tackle the McKenzie River Trail, a legendary 26 mile route along the river, which will cap off our week of riding like icing on the cake.

Secrets of Oregon

So this afternoon, there I was: standing in an RV park with a margarita in one hand, spraying Windex on my legs with the other. Another day on the road...

Scott and I, as planned, headed out mountainbiking today from the small town of Oakridge, Oregon. We had vague plans with a guided service, which turned out to be just as vague to the guide. So he called a buddy. A couple buddies, in fact: June and Phil. “June’s in her sixties but can do 100 miles on a single speed,” said Randy as he dialed the phone. The couple summers in Oakridge and winters in California. Or Arizona. Or Mexico. Or New Zealand. Or wherever there’s good biking trails.

Suitably intimidated, Scott and I climbed in the shuttle van to the trailhead and soon met up with June and Phil enroute to our 16 mile descent of the Alpine Trail. With more time in the saddle than Scott and I combined, they knew their way around the trails of Oregon... plus most of the western United States.

We started out on the trail, a beautiful singletrack through the trees. Somewhere in the first mile, still getting my bike legs, I hit a heavy branch on my front wheel and went lightly over the handlebars into what Phil mused was likely a patch of poison oak. A great start. Poison oak doesn’t kick in for a few days, apparently, but when it does, it can do so with a vengeance. Windex is a likely deterrent (the ammonia doing a fine job on the oak’s oils) – and June and Phil set us up with a spray bottle of the stuff (and a stiff drink) after our ride, back at their very comfortable RV by the river. I’ll check back in a couple of days and let you know if I’m itchy and scratchy or not.

Meanwhile, the rest of the ride was fantastic. Lots of down, some up: mostly smooth, some bumps, a few narrow traverses across steep slopes. All in beautiful forested terrain. Four-ish hours later, we had descended about 4000 ft or thereabouts, back to the base of the trail. What a fantastic, utterly fantastic, ride.

Later, Phil and June joined us for dinner at the local Chinese restaurant (Jeff and Grace from Taiwan by way of Park City run the place, by the way) and suggested a few more places around the west for us to add to our ‘must-bike’ list.

But before we work on that list, we’re doing another ride in Oakridge tomorrow. Can’t wait.

SF - OK, IT'S ME. ONCE AGAIN I WILL EXPLAIN. I AM NOT YELLING, THIS IS HOW I DIFFERENTIATE MY ENTERTAINING ENTRIES FROM JANICE'S MORE CONTROLLED MUSINGS. FOR ANYONE WHO STILL THINKS I AM YELLING, GO KICK AN I.T. NERD.

SO, NOW THAT I HAVE THAT CLEARED UP. OREGON COAST IS WHACK. IT IS SATURATED FAT GEOGRAPHIED. LAST NIGHT, ON OUR LAST NIGHT ON THE COAST, WE ORDERED CLAM CHOWDER. NOT SO STRANGE, IT WAS RATHER GOOD, NOT TOO THICK, PLENTY O' CLAMS, NOT BULKED UP WITH POTATOES. HOWEVER, WHEN IT ARRIVES WITH A PAT OF BUTTER ON TOP, THAT IS PRETTY EXCEPTIONAL. DESPITE THE SUPER-FATTINESS, IT WAS ALSO SUPER TASTY.

THE REST OF THE COAST IS AN EQUAL MIX OF SPECTACULAR BEACHES AND CHEESY SOUVENIR STANDS. IF I EVER WANT TO BUY BEADS, THE COAST IS THE PLACE TO DO IT.

TONIGHT WE ARE IN OAKRIDGE, WHICH IS IN THE MOUNTAINS. WHILE THE TOWN IS A BIT ECONOMICALLY DEPRESSED, THE MOUNTAIN BIKING IS SUPPOSED TO BE AMAZING. WE WILL FIND OUT TOMORROW. WHAT IS DEFINITELY AMAZING IS THE BEER. AND THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING, AS JUST ABOUT EVERYONE KNOWS, JANICE AND I ARE NOT BEER PEOPLE. A LITTLE TINY PUB CALLED THE BREWERS UNION LOCAL 180. WHO WOULD EXPECT PURE ENGLISH ALES (INCLUDING HAND-PUMP TAPS) IN THE MIDDLE OF A TINY OREGON LOGGING TOWN? THE GUY BREWS HIS OWN BEERS IN THE BACK AND MAKES THEM A KEG AT A TIME. I DID ASK IF HE BOTTLED ANYTHING, BUT AS HE SAID THEY DON'T TRAVEL...YOU GOTTA COME HERE TO EXPERIENCE THEM. JANICE EVEN HAD SECONDS ON THE BITTER.

MORE TOMORROW AFTER WE BIKE

sf

Sand in my pants

After a crazy drive yesterday through rainstorms and sunshine, Scott and I made it to the beautiful Oregon coast. Today was day one of our vacation which means we worked hard at having fun. It's 9pm and we're exhausted. Tomorrow we're going to try to take it a bit easier.

And... we're back.

Yes, that was another hiatus while I regained some inspiration and enjoyed the summer (that's me and my sister swimming in the deep blue waters of Georgia Strait last weekend). That doesn't mean to say I haven't been busy posting things here and there: you can find a bit more about what I've been up to this summer at HelloBC and on flickr. And occasionally I make a noise or two on twitter @janamel, although I've not been fully consistent with any of these endeavours, I admit.

Meanwhile, this fall is shaping up to be fairly exciting, with a few projects on the go: first, a vacation that starts momentarily, then a kitchen renovation which starts shortly thereafter, followed by a few other interesting surprises. So lots to talk about, and with a little luck I'll remember to write some of the more interesting moments down.

So stay tuned, there's more to come...