What to say about the High Cascade 100?  Not really sure.  Still cooked from walking an est. 22 miles.  It was too early to think straight and I left me "running" shoes on instead on putting on my hiking boots.  Now my feet are in revolt.  It wasn't enough to be eaten by the mosquito, attacked by some ants for standing in the wrong place but the a grouse decided it didn't like us too. 

"As a bird to be hunted and eaten, the blue grouse is very tasty, having a wild flavor and yet tender and dry, not greasy like ducks and other water fowl. Of course, before you will ever get the chance to find out just how good eating these birds are, you will have to find one or more and bag them and knowing just where to look is a good place to start." - John Traveler

Well the joke is on that grouse.  Sept. 1st is opening season on grouse and I know where to look for one. 

Oh, what?  This isn't a hiking blog or a hunting blog?  Sorry about that.  Still a bit delirious from the 25 work day on Saturday.

You couldn't tell that this was the second year of the the High Cascade 100.  Mudslinger Events puts on excellent events and this is no different.  We talked with lots of racers from all over this weekend and they were happy with the quality of the event and the caliber of racers. 

Now down to business. Here are:

All of our photos from the day

Gallery of Highlights

Another great season of Portland Racing's mountain bike short track series.  Thank you all who came out and chatted with us.  Our photos have been up for a week, but we were a little slow with the blog posting.

All of our Photos

Gallery of Highlights

All of our Photos

Gallery of Highlights

Somedays you just aren't meant to race.

 Another great day of short track racing.  I wsa a bit tired from shooting the Cream Puff the day before so the photos don't vary as much as they usually do.  I think you will be happy with the results though; some racing portraits.

All of our Photos

Gallery of Highlights

Are those tears of happiness or tears of pain? Oh wait, there are no excess fluids for tears.

This was our second year covering the Cascade Cream Puff and once again it was a very long day.  Up at 4 am and bed at 1 am.  Last year was wet and cold, this year was dry and hot.  This year records were broken for course time and the percentage of finishers. 

There were racers from all over North America and the world.  Rumor has it that one racer came from Australia.  There were teams that came from Jackson Hole, Vancouver B.C., Boise and many other locations.  We chatted with some of these teams and found out that they traveled around the Northwest to endurance events.  Many of them felt that the Cream Puff is the best there is.  They credited Scott and his team of volunteers for making such a great event.  We also chatted with many of Oregon's homegrown riders and they felt that Oakridge offers some of the best trails in the state. 

Thank you to everyone for the fun.  Also thank you to Scott for sponsoring us at the event.  Due to his sponsorship, our medium resolution digital images are free to use.  For those of you that are first time visitors, that means find your photos here and click on the 'download original' link at the bottom right hand corner of the photo.  You can use the photo for non-commercial use.  Use it on your blog, facebook, team webstie, etc...  If you are a regular here, you will notice that the digital image grew from 900 px on the long edge to 1080 px. 

Hopefully we will see you all next year, if not sooner.

All our photos

Galleray of highlights

Some photos from Todd Bosworth

What do you get when you have the first race of a mountain bike short track series, the longest day of the year, lots of enthused cyclist and a nice dry day in a wet year?  You get a lot of crazy faces.  Check it out for yourselves.

All Photos

Gallery of Highlights

The 2010 Test of Endurance was another classic race put on by Mudslinger Events.  Going into the morning of the race the course conditions were near perfect.  A half hour into the race, Mother Nature decided to water her yard and make the sweet single track slick as snot.  It didn't matter whether you were walking or riding, you were going to slip and fall.  Nonetheless, the weather wasn't going to hamper a great race or any of the fun. 

This year seemed to be a special year.  It wasn't one thing that made it special but many.  I believe this year had the largest turn out; also the best turn out of pro riders, both young and old; additionally there was a large amount of out-of-state riders.  The TOE was also part of the Kenda CUP.  Lastly, a person is alive today because of the race.  One of the locals had a fire and a heart attack and due to the quick thinking and observation skills of one of the people attending the race, aid was immediately brought to the scene to help.  As luck would have it, that person was also an EMT.  Our prayers go out to that resident for a full and speedy recovery.

That all being said our photos have been posted.  Thanks to Mudslinger Events and Instaprint for the sponsorship.  Their generosity means that you get the medium resolution images free to use.  Just click on the 'download original' link at the bottom right hand corner of each photo. 

Gallery of Highlights

All Photos from the race

I remember the time I raced Return of the Jedi.  It was the first mountain bike race I won in my category, beginners. I camped the night before, was sick as a dog and didn't each much in the morning.  I started out thinking that I was there and was just going to enjoy the ride.  I is a course with a lot of climbing and I was slow at climbing.  The race started and I realized I was feeling better.  I started passing people one by one until finally there was one person in front of me.  He did not have much experience riding mountains and  had not learned to rest on the bike yet.  He would ride hard and then stop and rest.  I slowly over took him and continued on.  I didn't see anyone until the finish.  I always wanted to go back and race. 

Thanks to Bike Kraft, I may not have gotten to race the Jedi again, but we got to photograph the race.  Mother Nature treated to rain down on us, but she was kind and kept the day a the perfect temperature. 

Like I alluded to, Bike Kraft sponsored us, therefore our medium resolution images are free for people to have and use how they like as long as it isn't not for commercial purposes. Just click on the 'Download Original' link at the bottom right of the photo you like.

All of our photos

Gallery of Highlights

Sisters Stampede inaugural race was what most races should strive to be.  First and foremost, a great course!  Add great course markings, volunteers and with a little help of Mother Nature, perfect weather, and you have the makings for a great race.  Then toss in a kiddie race, a band, excited locals, a commentator, awards, slide show of photos from that day, food, drink, a beautiful venue and you have the makings for a great event.   Joel, Winter and their crew put on an A class event that is sure to become a Classic.  With events like this from the current batch of new promoters and old promoters, with race attendance up, I would say mountain biking has a bright future here in Oregon.

We would like to thank InFocus Eye Care for sponsoring us at the race.  Because of their generosity all medium resolution images are free to have and use for non-commercial purposes.  Spread images of your good time with the world.

Gallery of Highlights

All of our Photos from the race

You never know what to expect at the Mudslinger, except for MUD.  It may snow, it may rain, it may even be hot, but there is always mud.  This year was no exception.  There was slick mud, there was muddy mud and there was plenty of mud that didn't want to let go.  There were even plenty of smiles at the end of the day.  Thanks to Mike Ripley and Mudslinger Events for sponsoring us.  All of our medium resolution images are free for you to download for personal use.  Enjoy.

All of our photos

Gallery of highlights