Winoga Sno Park ride

All the people I asked yesterday to suggest a ride for today recommended Winoga Sno Park & the Funner Trail. OK - that was only two people, but one of them did happen to own Cog Wild (the premier MTB guiding outfit in town). Trail maps & gpx files proved difficult to find online, but the a trip to the information center showed that once you found the trailhead it would be very hard to get lost.

I started riding a little earlier than I had intended, as Valerie had to drop me & then get back near town to go horseback riding. Funner started out rather flat & not all that interesting. It was nice & dusty up this way too. As the trail continued it did start to drop off nicely & there were a lot of trail features to play with. One particular log ride was pretty neat. In amongst all the dust, groups of big volcanic rocks would appear all of a sudden. Riding by myself I quickly became annoyed that I wasn't quite confident enough to ride all that I should & could have - that potential freak accident in the back of my mind. Still, it was a fun little downhill.

I had a good yarn to a couple on really old rigids - they'd been in Bend three years, only been skiing once & this was their first time out riding. Crazy. Shortly after Funner ended & I started riding up Tiddlywinks to the parking lot. This trail is much longer than Funner, so I expected the gradient to pretty easy - but most of the altitude was gained quicker than I thought! On a little rest break a local rider, Chris, caught up & we took it in turns leading up & up. We didn't make it to the trailhead as Chris knew a side trail to Kiwa Butte & then further on. Following someone became a bit of a problem as one couldn't see through all the dust. Mostly we climbed to 1700m & could finally see something other than trees - Mt Bachelor. The ski hill on the north (right in the picture) slope was open this past long weekend - I should have carried my skis around for 16000 km (unlikely).

Turning around, I was rather weary & led for a little but then let the local go ahead & literally leave me in his dust. It was little wonder that I had an instant tan at the bottom. Going down Tiddlywinks was actually funner than Funner - for me anyway. There was a neat section with big bermed corners & lots of jumps & doubles - not that I could clear any of the doubles. A good outing all up, I just need to make sure I have some new brake pads & regrease my bottom bracket before I head out next. We're off to Idaho tomorrow - unplanned - to go riding with Miles (from Fruita & Moab rides) before we come back to Oregon (which I'm still loving).