new adventures

I think I've mentioned the parks (yes plural) across the street from our apartment. There is a city park with tennis courts, great playground, baseball, a good size lake and walking paths/trails. This links to a county park with a bigger lake, more nature stuff, then into a huge state park of 5000 acres w/30+ miles of hike/bike/equestrian trails. We had to get mountain bikes. I finally got mine a week ago. I have been into the park several time on my cyclocross bike, but a lot of the terrain is steep and rocky, not really CX territory. Annadel Park has a history in mountain biking as the site of the first(?) national championship mtb race, it was won by John Tomac, I believe. Today I ventured into some new areas. It's been 14 years since I had a mountainbike, so I have some skills to reacquaint myself with, but it was fun. The lake in the photo is Lake Ilsanjo 750', home is 165' and only 4 miles away. Lots of wildlife, deer and turkey are seen regularly but also bobcats and mountain lion, so far not seen! The area is volcanic in origin, all this area is - and makes good soil for grapes! It has been mined for Obsidian by ancient native americans and into the 1900's for cobblestone. So you guessed it, it is rocky but heavily wooded as well. Lots of exploring to do. panoramic shot of typical norcal hillside Mt. Hood in the distance, see previous blog 9/23/09 the lake is clear and good for fishing and swimming.