from Ashland through the Redwoods

I spent the weekend with Peter Fuzzy Bunny in Ashland and had the best time ever! Pete and I went to college together and he is now the proud owner and operater of Momentum River Expeditions. I got to go on a trip down the Klamath River. The trip started outside of Ashland and ended in northern CA. It was a blast! I also got to meet a bunch of his new friends, which were a ton of fun. We went to the County Fair and rode the rides. Of course, the Zipper (my favorite) was one of them. We also rode this evil one called the Ring of Fire. It didn't look that bad from the ground. It was one of those that goes in a big circle and hold you upside down. It was a LOT scarier than I thought it would be. This thing had shoulder staps that were held down by a seat belt!!! and of course the whole thing was big enough for one and a half of me so I was holding on dear life and all I could think about was the stress on that seatbelt trap. I did some praying in that 3 minutes!

Here's a random - Pete's old roommate used to work with Jayson and had met me way back in '94. Small world. He is also a rider so he took me out and showed me some of the fun stuff around Ashland. It was beautiful riding. He suggested this 100 mi. loop out by Etna (middle of nowhere place sort of on the way). It was a great ride, but soooo hard! This is me at the top of the climb. I had the look of suffering! and for good reason. I think it was the longest, steepest sustained climb I have done. 25 miles that "rolls" up to the kicker at the top. 30 miles in the 26...

I headed to the Redwoods and hiked yesterday. It was a cool hike. I went to Fern Canyon because Star Wars was supposed to have been filmed there. I have been trying to find the stas on that, but w/o luck yet. Either way, it was fun to pretent to be one of those Jaberwocky dudes racing through on one of those air-mobile dealios. You can see it behind all my hair (the humidity is def. bringing on the fro). Then I headed down to Humboldt SP and it was really cool. I could spend the rest of the summer in this area and be perfectly content.