We picked the default city for us to go (resolution has been to go somewhere any time there is a three or four day weekend..even if it's just a day trip or two).
The big thing this year for us..was we got notice that the McKenzie Pass was open to cyclists and hikers only until June 9th..we had known for a few months, but just had too many things scheduled to make a day trip out of it or anything. So this weekend was THE weekend to go. I was excited as a friend of our's (Brendan) had gone there back in JULY of 2011 and the snow was so high he got a great photo of his bike up against a snow wall that was over 10 feet high!! It's a great photo! I wanted similar.
So we started the climb. Honestly..I figured Dimitrios was going to leave me in the dust. But..he didn't. My bike rides up Rocky Butte at lunch every other day have paid off. We only had to stop once and that was for me to take off my long sleeves (it was actually pretty warm at the bottom) and take photos of us at a lookout point before the top. I still haven't learned how to do the 'Bike and remove' things well, especially on inclines. Maybe one day.
As we got closer to the top, the snow started to appear!!
Then we got to the wall, the snow WALL!!
It wasn't as HIGH as we were hoping (there wasn't a lot of snow this year and it's a little late as has mostly melted off) but man oh man! Does it make me want to go back next year on the first weekend to experience all the snow craziness.
We loved being up there! You'll see in one of those photos Dimitrios is holding a snowball and tossing it :) He threw it at me after the photo, which led to a snowball fight, which then made us realize that SNOW IS MADE OF WATER AND IT'S COLD ;)
We kept heading to the top! And then..we were there! We didn't take any photos as we were taking a break (ok I took a few on my phone, but I don't have them where i can access them right now) and then bundled up to head back down.
And man, am I glad I brought the right stuff to bundle up. Windbreaker, jersey with sleeves (that can be removed, they were snapped back on), wool socks, knickers that are fleece lined, ear warmer, and full fingered gloves. Oh yea...GLAD I brought those.
The descent was COLD...I got up to speeds of 35mph ..Dimitrios went faster (he has less fear than I do) and video'd it with his helmet cam :) It was FUN AS HELL TO GO DOWN..then we had all this energy..our commute speed back to the car was like 23mph!!! It was great! The wind was at our backs..I felt GOOD!
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