As I write this, the last riders in today’s 12Mile SuperD are crossing the finish line near my house. Although not an easy race, it doesn’t match the Revenge of the Siskiyous races that used to take place here. Those races required some serious uphill climbs as well as the downhills. Today’s race only climbs 600 feet (while dropping more than 5,000).

On Friday, I rode my mountain bike along a good section of the route. I climbed about 1,500 feet before dropping the same 1,500 feet back to my house. On the way, I rode on Toothpick (out and back) and Caterpillar (downhill only).

The Siskiyou Mountains above Ashland offer up some of the finest single track in the country. Besides Toothpick and Caterpillar trails, you can choose from dozens of other trails like White Rabbit, Catwalk (from Four Corners), Bull Gap, BTI, etc. Most aren’t for the faint of heart and take some getting used to. Toothpick isn’t very difficult, although, as the name suggests, it is sometimes not very wide. One side of the trail falls off steeply down the mountain. I wouldn’t want to crash on Toothpick because if you left the trail it would be a long way down.

On Friday the trails seemed unusually crowded. Crowded is a relative term however. We saw about 10 other people in our two hours up there. We also saw about 10 dogs. I’m not a fan of dogs–especially when I’m on a bike. I’m sure the hikers with the dogs probably aren’t too happy to see bikers either.

I once road the entire Ashland Loop Road (28 miles including 3,000 feet up and 3,000 feet down) without seeing another human being. I did see a bear on that ride though.

Next winter, after a fresh snow, I’ll have to take a ride up there with my camera. I’ve done it before without a camera and it was amazing. For now, I’ll just have to leave you with a single photo.

This is taken from approximately the center of this map between the bottom of Bull Gap and the top of Mt. Ashland. I’m on the other side of the mountain as Bull Gap though. (You can’t see Mt. Shasta from Bull Gap although you do have good views of Wagner Butte at times.) Mt. Shasta is in the background.

Posted on June 15th, 2008 under Oregon. Tags: ashland oregon, bikes, lithia park, mountain biking, Oregon, pictures, rogue valley. Comments: 1

Congratulations to the Southern Oregon University class of 2008.

Posted on June 14th, 2008 under Oregon. Tags: ashland oregon, pictures, rogue valley. Comments: None

I should really have my daughter blog this entry, but since I managed her team I guess it’s as much my baby.

Last night was our final game of the season for the Ashland Little League minor girls’ softball season. We won 20 and lost less than a handful so on that front it was a good season. I really didn’t manage to win though. I just tried to get the girls to play as many different positions and have as much fun as possible. All of them were hitting the ball which is unusual at this level.

I think my daughter, Ellie, played every position. Most girls played everywhere except pitcher and catcher.

We had six different pitchers during the year and five different catchers so many girls did play every position.

The above one is actually from last year.

And, finally, here is most of my team.

Posted on June 11th, 2008 under Oregon. Tags: ashland oregon, pictures, rogue valley, softball. Comments: None

I know it’s the wrong time of year to be blogging about Halloween. But I’m stuck in a classroom with nothing to do at the moment as my students are all taking their final examinations for Intermediate Accounting, Part III. Don’t you wish you could join them?

Anyway, my picture selection is rather limited here at work so I’m dipping back into a few pictures from Halloween 2003.

The reason I have these old Halloween pictures at work is because I brought them in to show my class. I was expecting them to say things like, “Oh, isn’t that a great costume” or “Boy, that does look like Treebeard.” Instead, the first comment was, “Why is that kid drinking coffee?”

My son is actually drinking hot chocolate, purchased at Evo’s Coffee Lounge just behind him, as it was a very cold Halloween. We had just finished reading Lord of the Rings so he dressed up as Treebeard.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my daughter. There was a band playing so she was actually dancing–hence the hip off to one side.

Halloween in Ashland is a big deal (as is New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July). There is a huge parade featuring most of the kids and adults in town all in costume. People come from all over the Rogue Valley and Northern California. After the parade parties go on both downtown in the streets and around town pretty much all night long. I once made the mistake of holding my 8 a.m. class the following morning…

Not to be outdone by my kids, I walked the parade in costume too, looking for current and former students to scare whenever I got the chance.

Posted on June 10th, 2008 under Oregon. Tags: ashland oregon, pictures, rogue valley. Comments: None

Yesterday we attended two parties on two different ends of the Rogue Valley in Oregon. The views from both were spectacular and very different from each other.

The first party we went to was on the Rogue River in, or near, Shady Cove. Our friends were being unlawfully wedded on the banks of the river. It wasn’t really a wedding as they aren’t legally husband and wife, but they wanted to throw a party so that was the excuse. Between the two of them they had been married 6 times before they exchanged their “illegal” vows that won’t be recognized by the government.

The unwedding was nicely catered. The temperature was perfect, and by the time things started the previously overcast skies gave way to some really pretty cloud formations amidst the blue skies.

The property this took place on had some large trees on a football field sized grassy area between the house and the river. Whichever way you looked was beautiful.

After watching the wedding that wasn’t a wedding and eating our fair share, we headed back to Ashland for my end-of-the-school-year party. Graduation isn’t until the 14th, and finals are this coming week, but we, the faculty, tend to have this party the weekend before.

Just about every home in Ashland has a view of some sort. They are all different. This one is from the lower edges of the Cascade Mountain Range looking back towards the Siskiyou Mountains.

We hung out on the deck you can see in the bottom of this picture. The fields below the property had horses, goats, and lamas grazing earlier in the evening.

The rock sticking up about 15% of the way from the left side of the picture is called Pilot Rock and is located on the California and Oregon border. Last summer we climbed to the top of it. I’ll have to share the views from there on another day.

Posted on June 8th, 2008 under Oregon. Tags: ashland oregon, clouds, nature, Oregon, pictures, rogue valley. Comments: None

Thursday night I played softball at U.S. Cellular.

No, not that U.S. Cellular. (The above photo is one that I took when I was in Chicago last summer.)

Just up the road from where I live, U.S. Cellular sponsored the building of what may be the finest public sports facility in the country. It just opened a couple weeks ago, and last night was my team’s first game on the new field.

We played under the lights on the championship field which has fences 315 feet from home plate. Lucky for us we weren’t on one of the other fields, all of which have the fences 300 feet away as the other team hit about four balls that would have been over those fences. We hit only one that went more than 300 feet.

It was the closest game I’ve ever been in. We went 10 innings and finally won 7-6. That was the first time we led all night. We battled back from 2-0, 4-2, and 6-4 deficits to come out victorious and improve our record to 3-0. The game was far more exciting than what can be said in writing so I will just leave it at that.

The above picture isn’t from our actual game (nor did I take it), but it does show the surface of the field. The views around the place are actually much better than what you see in this photo. Maybe I’ll take some better ones when we play our next game.

The sports complex is easy to spot from I-5 between Medford and Phoenix, but not so easy to find if you want to drive there since it isn’t on any maps (yet), nor are there any signs pointing the way. To get there you need to be on Highway 99. Between Lowry and Stage is an unnamed road heading off to the east. That is the road you take to get to the new softball fields.

Posted on May 30th, 2008 under Oregon. Tags: baseball, Chicago, directions, jackson county, pictures, recreation, rogue valley, softball, US Cellular Community Park. Comments: None