Oakridge, Oregon

Jimerica! is freaking exhausted. I just finished my longest ever day on a mountain bike. I was so tired when I finished, I considered skipping the beer and burger and going right to bed. But I persevered and now I have a second wind and will try to write a blog post about Oakridge, Oregon. 

There are really only two places you absolutely have to know about in Oakridge. Once you do, everything else will take care of itself.

First, the bike shop:

It was pouring rain when I pulled into Oakridge for the first time. I then executed my well-honed routine of finding a bike shop and then the local pub. So, my first stop was The Willamette Mountain Mercantile where I reserved a spot on a shuttle to Alpine Trail for the next morning. I was worried we'd get rained out, but they informed me that it pretty much rains every morning and evening here and that the trails were fine to ride. My bike had been out in the elements quite a bit lately, so I brought it in with me and asked the service guy to give it a little attention. He lubed up the chain, got the shocks to the right pressure, and then refused to accept money for the service. Given they are the only shop in town, they don’t have to be this cool. But, they are. They also had a couple suggestions on where to stay. It was pouring out and Jimerica! isn’t a fan of setting up camp in the rain. Anyhow, I’d been camping for most of the last 6 weeks, so a real roof sounded excellent.

The second place is the bar:

I then hit the local pub which, Jimerica! was happy to discover, is also a small brewery. The Brewers Union Local 180 is very much the social hub of Oakridge as well as a place all the tired riders gathered at night. More about the Brewers Union later.

So, my next day was set, and it went something like this:

At 9:30AM I was at the bike shop to grab the shuttle to the Alpine Trail.  Alpine Trail is the most popular trail in Oakridge and is considered one of the best mountain bike trails in the United States. Here's an exciting photo of what one of these shuttles look like:

Alpine is about 15 miles of single track, starting above 4000 feet and ending at around 1000 feet. You start with a pretty steady climb from the drop off point. They had some snow here a few days ago and a little of it remained:

It was pretty cool encountering snow on a ride in mid June.

After about of mile this, I came to "the meadow". The shuttle driver really talked this place up, and for good reason. I should have taken a few more shots here, but I was fixated on the cool trail. I always notice when I'm riding something that is very different to any other trail I've ever been on, and this short section was definitely that. This grass will be over 3' tall in August:

 You then drop back into the trees and soon encounter trails like this:

And then you get to spots like this, where it seems like the trail is beginning to change, and you have no idea what you're going to encounter:

And then you ride along a tunnel-like trail through heavy woods until you see a light up ahead and then find yourself here:

You then ride a step hillside trail with beautiful views for a bit:

And then back into the trees on a part of the trail the locals refer to as "jedi" because you feel like you're flying through the ewok forest in Star Wars:

Jimerica! is good at getting the pretty pictures. However, there are plenty of challenging parts on the alpine trail as well. Usually, when I run into a nasty section, I'm not thinking about the blog, but rather my face and bones. I did get this shot, which doesn't look like much, but is, in fact, a switchback turn with a 4' drop on a steep slope. So, if you screw the turn up and fall, you won't stop falling for a very long time. Jimerica! valiantly inched down this turn on his butt: 

It's worse than it looks.

OK, so enough about mountain biking. Let's talk about the Brewers Union Local 180, shall we? We shall, declareth Jimerica! So, quickly, about Brewers Local, half the beer they offer is made by them and offered only on cask pull. They have 6 cask pull selections (that's 5 more than any other bar I've ever visited). I am not normally a fan of the cellar temp cask pull type beers, but I liked theirs. They also offer 6 selections from other local breweries in the normal cold draft style. Want to see a lot of cask pumps? Yes? OK:

Cask Pumps at The Brewers Union Local 180

After Myers Flat, I was ready to put my phone down for a while. Taking pictures and notes and chatting with a person while sort-of interviewing them is something Jimerica! needed a break from. So, you'll get the stories without the names or the pictures. I'll give you a quick glimpse of the night after my Alpine ride. Prepared for the glimps, Jimericanos? Ready or not..

It was early evening after my Alpine ride when I entered Brewers Local. It had started to rain again. I sat near the end of the bar to the left of a man and woman I'd met the previous day. I don't remember the woman's name, but she was very nice. The man's name was Jim, and he was the town's mayor. Together, we worked on a crossword puzzle for about an hour. This sort of mindful mindlessness is oddly comforting after a long day riding. 

After we finished the crossword, I ordered some food and struck up a conversation with two gentleman siting to my left. It was an older gentleman and his son. They were on a week long fishing trip together. They were traveling in a big RV. They lived in the bay area, but the older gentleman also spent time at another home he had in Key West. We talked about the fishing in Oakridge and the people we've met. About 20 minutes later, we had gotten onto the subject of the older man's upbringing and the long process he went through that ended in him leaving the Mormon faith in his 50s. He owned a successful management consulting company and was now semi-retired. I'd put him in his later 60s. He has 7 kids, all successful. He said that the hardest part of leaving the faith was how hurt many of his friends and family were by the news. But, he said he'd been living a lie for as long as he could remember and just couldn't do it any longer. Now, I don't want you to think this man was in any way somber. He wasn't at all. You could tell he loved spending time with his son, and in Key West, and pretty much every day that came along. You meet some really good people on the road. People that you feel fortunate to have had a conversation with. This guy was one of them.

AND, there would be another on this very night. I was thinking about going back to my hotel when the father and son hit the road, but then a man that looked and sounded like John Goodman walked in. He was a defense lawyer that had done his undergrad in English Literature and Poetry studies. I'd put him in his early 50s. He was on his way to a conference and stopped at Oakridge for the evening. He kept his glasses at the tip of his large nose on his large face on his big head and they did not move. He asked me about my trip, and then why I wanted to do such a trip, and then laughed and recited a few lines of a poem, and then laughed some more. He said he loved Yeats and said my story reminded him of the Poem "The Song of Wandering Aengus". He said somebody had made a song out of the poem, and then, leaning against the bar, began singing the song loudly. This man was blogging GOLD.  Later, we got onto the subject of Cormac McCarthy, which was enough to keep us occupied until the bar closed (which here is the late late hour of 11PM). 

It's the people you meet out here that makes the trip. The riding helps, the parks like Yosemite help, the brew pubs help, the ocean side wineries help, but it's the people that make the trip. 

As I finish this post, I am now sitting in Eugene, Oregon looking forward to seeing my old friend, Anji Marth. But that will be a future post. I hope you are all doing super great. Thank you for reading!