So here we are turning the page of the calendar for another month. August ended with rain and hail and it continued on into September. I was on a bike ride at Brown Mountain and had just finished 40 miles of a planned 50 mile ride when the skies opened up with heavy rain and hail. Brown Mountain is part of a volcano that had spewed lava down the sides of the mountain creating a river of sharp, black lava rock. The Forest Service has done a great job of creating a trail over and through the lava fields to provide a beautiful path that is usable for hikers and bikers. Fortunately the tree canopy afforded me some cover from the rain and hail but I was still soaked and cold when I had finished the last 2 miles to the jeep. I wrote off completing the last 10 miles of the planned ride for the day. Why 50 miles? My upcoming race was going to be 50 miles and this was a training ride.

A highlight of the month was when Teri’s daughter Jessica came to visit for several days. We had planned to take her on a jet boat cruise on the Rogue River here in town, but unfortunately they closed for the season the day before Jessica arrived. It just provides her a reason to come visit next season. Instead the girls had a great time visiting and catching up. Jessica had just spent 2 months on a fishing boat in Alaska as the cook. She and the crew had the responsibility of meeting up with the fishing boats which off-loaded their catch onto her boat. When the boat’s hold was full, they sailed to the cannery to off-load and then headed back out for the next fill. The fishing boats could arrive at any time so the crew had to catch what little sleep they could when they could. It was quite an experience but one she says she won’t do again.

One weekend I drove up to Bend to pre ride the upcoming race course. The course would be 50 miles with over 5,000 ft of climbing. The pre ride took me 6 1/2 hours to complete. No crashes! I knew race day was going to be an epic one. Some truisms of riding/racing in Oregon. The trails go up, the trails go down. If it feels like it’s flat, it’s your imagination. There are trees and not all are standing. Some have fallen across the trail and have not been cleaned up yet. Others are so close together it can be difficult to get the handlebars between them cleanly. There will be roots, rocks, jumps and drops. Did I mention the climbing?

Meanwhile back at home Sarge is busy chasing snakes and hanging out. We had purchased come security cameras and while they were on the counter getting charged, Sarge activated one while peering down at it. We continue to have wildlife on the property with the deer being daily visitors. One night we captured a small group of raccoons walking through the pasture and a possum. During the day we listen to the birds chirping and the breeze blowing through the tree leaves. On another day we had to wait for the flock of turkeys to cross the road.

The Ring of Fire MTB race was held in Bend OR. This race is named for the circle of volcanoes that make up the Cascade Mountains. The course is a 50 miler with 5,000 ft of elevation gain. There were about 300 racers with 14 of us over 60. The race was a combination of service road and singletrack. My goal was to be under 6 hours moving time and under 6.30 elapsed time to account for a few stops at the refueling stations. Remember the truisms? Well this race had them all. The rocky sections were technical and could ruin your day if you weren’t on your game. In the end, I met my goals with a 5:58 moving time and a 6:17 elapsed time. I also finished 7th of the 14 old guys.

Back at home we continued to work on the garden. The garden is an area about 30 ft by 30 ft, fenced to keep the deer out which had been overtaken by blackberry bushes. If you’re not familiar with blackberry bushes, they are highly invasive . Our goal was to clear them from the garden so that Teri could start planting vegetables at the appropriate time. So we cut the bushes and hauled them to our burn pile. We also discovered that these bushes send out runner roots (volunteers) that invade the area. Teri spent a lot of time with a pick and shovel pulling these roots. Her goal was to have the garden clear of the roots, as much as possible, lay down a layer of cardboard as a weed block and cover that with either dirt or bark chips. We had been buying bark at the store, but it is expensive. So we started making our own bark. We bought a chipper and started chipping the yard debris that we collected. Not the blackberry! We put any invasive plant matter in the burn pile. We don’t want those sprouting in our bark!

Tree branches that had fallen from the trees and other bushes were fed into the chipper to provide chips and mulch for the garden. We also get a lot of use out of the ground cultivator. A tool similar to a roto-tiller but a bit smaller so that Teri could handle it. This allowed us to churn up the ground, dig roots and prepare the beds for planting. I mentioned the burn pile. There are 3 ways to dispose of vegetation, tree limbs, etc in our area. Haul it to the transfer station (dump), hire someone to haul it away or burn it. We don’t have the means to haul it ourselves as we don’t have a trailer. We have hired Brian to do 2 trips for us, but that gets expensive in spite of his low rate. So the 3rd option is to burn. We can only burn during the official burn time which in our case is established by the county as we live outside the city limits. Obviously fires are a serious threat so the thought of burning “trash” is a difficult concept for us. However, we have built a pile just like our neighbors and when it is appropriate we will burn. Teri gets up early each morning and heads out to work the garden for about 3-4 hours. This is her training time. We do get out for a hike now and then.

October 1 was our anniversary. We’ve been together for 12 years, married for 7 years and we survived 3-1/2 years living in a motorhome. I guess we’ll last a bit longer. We went out for a nice Italian dinner to celebrate.

I have met a group of folks I have dubbed the Rogue River Riders. This is a group of about 6 people who bicycle ride 3 days a week. I try to join when my training schedule allows. Each ride is determined the morning of the ride. One of the rides took us to the Hellgate Canyon Overlook. The view from this overlook is amazing. As you look up river into the canyon you see steep rock walls that appear to be just 100ish feet wide in the narrow sections and the river is easily 100 feet below us. The Hellgate Canyon has been used in several movies to include The River Wild (Merryl Streep, Kevin Bacon) and some John Wayne movies. We learned of this on our jet boat cruise in August 2024 which we wrote about in that blog.

Jessica stopped to visit again in October and this time brought her boyfried, Justin who she met on the Alaska boat. They stopped for a night on their way from Washington to California for a weekend trip and then stopped again on their way back north. Of course we had to take them out for burgers and shakes at Jimmy’s Drive In, a 50’s style drive-in.

On a previous ride at Brown Mtn I had met Kelly on the trail. Another mountain bike rider/racer. She raced Ring of Fire as well and finished 2nd in her age group and 3rd overall in the female category. She is one strong rider. She shared some of her favorite riding areas with me and we met up to ride Spence Mtn with some friends of hers. The trail meanders through the trees and drops to the shoreline of Klamath Lake. Don’t forget the truisms as this trail meets them all. We had a wonderful ride of a couple of hours.

On another ride Kelly took me to the town of Ashland and to the Lower Wonder Trailhead. These trails had it all, long hours (3+ hrs), climbing, technical rocks and roots and then a fast twisty downhill to cap it off. The gnomes along the trails were a nice touch.

The Harvest Moon was one to behold. I was able to get a photo of it as it topped the mountain to our east looking through the tree branches. Such a bright moon it didn’t require any light to walk around outside.

As the month of October was drawing to an end, we received word that Teri’s brother in law had passed away. So we took a drive to Washington to pay our respects and attend the memorial service. Bryan had been a Sergeant with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department as well as a husband and father. He was referred to as a teddy bear and a man with a great heart. It was obvious he was well thought of by all who knew him. He was a strong Seattle Seahawks supporter so the dress of the day was Seahawks shirts and jerseys. His wife was presented with a flag by the TCSO Color Guard. A very touching tribute. While in Washington we made most of the opportunity to visit with Teri’s family.

The last week of the month had us driving to AZ where we will spend the month of November catching up with friends and family. As we left home Teri was driving her jeep while I was driving the motorhome and towing my jeep. The skies were gray and it was raining. The rolling hills from Grants Pass through Ashland going south on the I-5 didn’t cause any issues. However when I started slogging up the long 3 mile grade to the top of Siskiyou Summit I was crawling along at 40-45 mph along with the 18 wheelers. I crested the Summit and started down the southern side entering California. As I approached the first left curve I felt uncomfortable with my speed and slowly pumped the brakes to slow down on the wet road. There is an immediate right curve after this and I slowly applied the brakes in a light pumping action and attempted to slow. To my horror it felt like I was speeding up. It was at that instant I felt the rear of the motorhome sliding to my left in a skid. I was looking directly at the guardrail in front of me instead of on my right. Remember, I’m also towing the jeep. As I steered into the skid I wondered if the guardrail was tall enough and strong enough to hold me on the road and upright and how much damage it would do to the motorhome. Then after several agonizing hours (it felt like that) everything aligned and I was able to gradually slow to about 35 mph. It was then that I realized my guts were tied up in major knots. I didn’t start to relax for about another 15-20 minutes. I didn’t tell Teri about this incident until about a week later.

Our first night stop was going to be in Fernley, NV which is about 20 minutes east of Reno. To get there I left the I-5 at Mt Shasta and continued on rolling along the CA-99. As I got down off the mountains the rain had stopped but it had become a bit windy. Teri was about 30 minutes ahead of me. As she drove south out of Susanville, CA on US-395 she called and said the cross winds were getting pretty bad and CA Highway Patrol (CHIPS) was out in force. I rolled through Susanville and approached a 4 way intersection. A CA DOT worker was at the intersection with his emergency lights flashing. The signboard across the road said “Wind Warning- High Profile Vehicles Are Prohibited”. At the intersection the polite DOT worker said the road was closed due to high winds. I asked how long it would be and he shrugged and said it could be 10 minutes or it could be all night. It was currently 2pm-ish. I asked if there was a way around it and he said I could backtrack about 2 hours or I could just pull over to the side of the road along with an 18 wheeler and wait it out. He said when he drove by honking his horn, it would be safe to continue. I pulled to the side of the road and hoped it wouldn’t be too long. For the next 4 hours, I dozed, snacked and listened to my audio book and talked to Teri on the phone. Finally at 6pm-ish the DOT truck went up and down the road 4 times honking his horn and flashing his lights. I pulled out on the dark highway with about 10 other trucks. During the stop Teri and I talked and we decided she should get a motel in Reno and not wait for me. I finally made it to Fernley about 9pm and promptly went to bed after setting up the motorhome.

The next morning was sunshine with a bit of wind but not like the night before. As I motored through Goldfield, NV DOT was still trying to put a semi-trailer back on it’s wheels from the night before. Today’s drive was uneventful and we stopped for the night in an Escapees Park in Pahrump, NV which is about 30 minutes northwest of Las Vegas. The next day we stopped off at Teri’s favorite stop, Luchia’s, in Wikieup, AZ for lunch and pie and to walk through the back yard where we could watch the peacocks and Koi. We arrived in Apache Junction on the 27th of October where we were met by many of our friends from the last year.

Arrival in AZ meant we would be playing pickleball almost every morning, donuts on Monday morning, bingo on Tuesday night and many other games on other nights. We had so many requests to see our new home that Teri set up an impromptu slide show night and invited everyone in the park to show photos of their trips and activities. It was a low attendance due to the last minute but we had a great time showing off our new home and many of our adventures over the years. At the same time we had the opportunity to see what others had been doing in their travels as well. We vowed to do another slide show night with more advanced notice.

For me it was time to ramp up my training as my last race was looming 1 week away so I spent much of my time at the gym with Kevin and riding my bike to prepare for the Cave Creek Cactus Classic (C4 race). That story is for next month.

We hope you enjoyed this story. See you next month. Stay Safe.

John & Teri