Sunday, November 18, 2012

The DSR & BPE Rides 2012

This has been the year of the "epic" rides and events.  The latest was Dave's Stupid Ride (DSR) and the Best Plan Ever (BPE) ride.  Both of these are night rides.  One of the best things about mountain bike riding is riding with great friends and a second thing is riding with great friends at night.  We've talked about night riding before, but it doesn't hurt to talk about it again.

First, night riding doesn't have to be expensive.  I'm using lights that cost less that $100 each. For a successful night ride you'll want to use two lights.  One one the bar and one on your helmet.  The reason for this is that the bar light keeps the trail lit up, and the helmet light allows you to look into the corners and hairpins. 

The DSR came about from Dave, one of our "old men" who tried to come up with the craziest night ride he could come up with that hit all the hard trails and climbs.  It was approximately 20 miles and 4300 feet of climbing. It included the Face, Skillings Trail, Southside Slip, etc. Just a great ride.

Best Plan Ever (BPE) came about as a result of wanting to do something very memorable before the rains set it.  It turned out to be an all night bike ride adventure.  It started by picking up team members about 9 p.m. and driving to Sisters Oregon where we road the Peterson Ridge Trail, then we drove to the McKenzie Trail head and riding down about halfway and back.  Finished this ride about 5:00 a.m. and back to Corvallis for breakfast at 7:30!  Thus, the best idea ever.  Needless to say we also slept a lot of the next day.

These are the kind of rides that break up the regular weekly rides, build friendships and give you something to talk about for weeks!