Bike Crash!!!!!

Ouch! What a crappy Monday I had this week. I've been bike racing lately, in a weekly series here in Portland, and doing pretty good. That is ofcourse until this past week, when I was leading the race and enroute to a strong finish. About 150 meters from the finish a couple of folks passed me and one veered right into as we were pedaling full bore. I had no time to react as the idiot completely took out my front wheel and I hit the pavement hard at over 25 mph. The damage: a seperated shoulder, road rash across my back, shoulder elbow and knee, and a really banged up bike. The guy didn't stop to help me and never apologized after the race. It happened so fast, I'm not even sure what he looked like. Well, I'm off the bike for awhile...

Oregon Country Fair

Well, the Oregon Country Fair has come and gone once again, and like every year, it was a lot of fun. I spent some quality time with good friends, made some new ones, and enjoyed the diversity of my fellow groovy Oregonians. The music was suprisingly good this year, with the hit being a flamenco band from Cali that rocked the house. Bryan, Socko, Kate and I had a great camp set up, complete with three kids running around! My good friend Matt came and camped with us one night and my buddy Sarah joined me inside the fair on Sunday. The highlight though was spending time with my dear old friend Ann and her sweetie Jim. That's Bryan, Ann and I in the photo below.

South Sister Climb

What a great weekend! My friend Sarah and I celebrated the fourth of July by climbing a mountain and skiing/snowboarding down it! We drove out to central Oregon to climb a peak called South Sister, which is over 10,000 ft. tall. There is still lots of snow up there despite being the height of summer in Portland. The climb was fun, mostly a hike really, with a few sections of moderately steep terrain. We got some great views going up but were clouded out of a view from the summit. On the descent we strapped on our snow gear (Sarah on her tele skiis and I on my trusty split snowboard) and rallied some turns. It has been 8 years since I've gotten snowboard turns in July. Killer! Check out this video of Sarah linking perfect turns...