Riding All the Trails

Hello from Oakridge, Oregon! My new home for at least the next few months, and then… who knows. I fell in love with Oakridge when I visited here the summer of 2017 and then topped that summer off by riding the Oregon Timber Trail which also comes through Oakridge.  At that time I met a few people at the bike shop and kept Oakridge in mind as a place I would like to live. When I recently saw an advertisement for new bike shop employees, I jumped on it! During the pandemic I have been actively working to improve my bike mechanic skills and in my opinion the best way to get to know a community is to work in it. This is not your average bike shop and thus a better fit for me than many shops would be.  The incredibly kind and human centered owner takes a very egalitarian approach to the business and the employees all work together to make decisions and keep the place running. Prior to my arrival it was described to me a community centered learning laboratory, and that has been my experience so far – as someone with limited mechanic skills I feel supported in learning and trying new things.

Jesse and I rented a cargo van (it was unnecessarily huge!) and he helped me move up here.  In addition to my bikes I brought some tomato and lettuce starters from Santa Barbara since Oakridge can still experience frosts well into May.  We had great weather on the drive and visited dear friends in Los Osos and Arcata (Humboldt Co.) to break up the drive and not only got to catch up with friends, but we also went on beautiful  bike rides with them in each of those locations.

I’ve landed in the most beautiful home in Oakridge! Kai is a long-term friend of the bike shop and its owner and employees. She’s a talented musician with several albums and is a deeply kind and beautiful human being. She made Jesse and me feel immediately welcome and I love sharing this house with her (and her 2.5 dogs – a little chaos keeps the more controlling aspects of my personality honest!).  The place is cozy and has beautiful dirt in the garden!  Jesse was a trooper and helped turn over last year’s soil to get it ready for planting, but it was still a bit early to put things in the ground, even though we were having near 80 degree days shortly after my arrival.  There is also a neglected rhubarb bush and a small blueberry bush in the yard; I have cleared the weeds and have already enjoyed the fruits of the rhubarb. It waaaas 80 degrees, and now its 45 degrees and raining! Ha! Spring in the mountains. I really hope this is winter’s last hurrah and if the forecast is good ten days out after this cold spell I’ll get those tomatoes in the ground – they really don’t appreciate being in these tiny containers for about a month now! I’ve also started some cucumbers, zucchini, and more lettuce in the house and we bought a few corn starters and a habanero pepper. This will be my first garden primarily in the ground, as opposed to containers, and also some plants I haven’t grown before. I love learning new things!

One of our constant jobs in the shop is answering folks questions about the riding here. What should ride? Where is that trail? What’s a quick ride I can do this afternoon?  To answer these questions I needed to know the trails, so I made it my mission to quickly ride All The Trails.  While Jesse was still here we got in two rides and soon after his departure I made quick work of riding almost every single trail I can access from home without a car. It turns out that is quite a few trails! There are about five rides I can do from the house and still easily be at work at noon. Then there are another five or so that are a bigger commitment, but still reasonably accessible from home. After that I need to start bikepacking or catching the shuttle to more distant trailheads.  When I’ve exhausted myself, but still want to ride, I can also take the shuttle to the top of many of the closer trails, as well. In some ways the riding is a lot like Santa Barbara, where almost every ride starts with a 1-3 hour climb up a logging (fire) road and then you descend on single track, though the descents here tend to have a bit more climbing built into them than at home. That’s pretty much where the similarities end though – the riding here is on loamy soil with tree roots to contend with, whereas the riding at home is much rockier, drier, and on average more technical. They also have a couple flow trails here which are not my forte and a skill I will work on improving.

Not only are Kai and I both excited about this year’s garden. We both cook a lot — she especially has mastered making a lot more items from scratch that I would normally consider to be grocery store purchases. For example, she taught me how to make homemade tofu! It’s so much faster than you would think.

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Overall I’d say I’m getting settled in nicely and looking forward to continued explorations on the bike, learning new skills at the shop, and tending to blossoming friendships and plants.