Tuesdays with Dirty: Beards of a Feather…

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I’m just off the plane from Bend, OR and that was one hell of a trip. The official goal of this trip was to meet up with some friends that were competing in the National Beard and Moustache Championships. In reality it was an excuse to ride some buff singletrack, chill with old friends, and to sample what appears to be  the town’s never ending supply of micro brews. 

The drive from Hipstertown USA (Portland) to Bend seemed to take forever. No amount of rental car rally driving and Hamm’s road sodas can make that drive through the night any more fun. Trust me, I tried. 4 hours of sleep later we boarded a bus to go on a brew tour of Bend.  Its hard to describe just how rowdy this scene was. Imagine 30 dudes with beards, drinking heavily at 1 in the afternoon and nobody had to worry about driving. The ladies over at Specialized Events ran the tour, showed us a great time, and put up with an incredible amount of bullshit from the group. We started at McMenamins, then on to Cascade Lakes, and culminating with Deschutes Brewery. It was quite a day. This is the last image on my camera from the tour, everything else after that got a little fuzzy:P6040007

That  first day hurt me and shut me down pretty hard. So I slapped together my trusty Travelers Check and took off for the woods to lick my wounds and find some singletrack. I had a general idea of where to go and under threatening clouds I set out to get dirty.  All that I can say is that there is some damn fine riding in and around Bend. City bike paths would lead me to singletrack that would lead to dirt roads that would then take me back to more singletrack. I popped out in town 6 hours later to find, what else… another brewery! Ridiculous.

Bend is the real deal. Good times were had by all, and I will be back soon. 

Links: The Competitors, Beards on Bikes, Photos.

Keep it dirty…

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About dirty biker

I am a fan of singletrack, singlespeeds, single women and single malt. Currently in Carbondale, CO Follow on Instagram @dirty_biker

11 Replies to “Tuesdays with Dirty: Beards of a Feather…”

  1. Dirty,

    Thanks for the amazing endorsement of Bend! I was born and raised in Bend and hope to start running be running my first round of tours late this summer. Trying to fully explain the radness of Bend is truly like trying to explain sex to a virgin, but you managed to capture the epic riding and incredible micro brew scene very well. So glad you enjoyed my home town and thanks again for the Bend love!

    Ryan

  2. I was so stoked after a week of riding in/around Bend, that I joined COTA (The Central Oregon Trail Alliance) http://www.cotamtb.com. It was the least I could do after enjoying trails that are lovingly worked on by locals (bikers, hikers and horse folks) and, in a bizarre twist, love to share them with outsiders. Now I sit 900 miles away daydreaming of my next trip there.

  3. @BS- that was the one thing I noticed too! Bend is this amazing little mountain town with ZERO locals only vibe.
    It was a welcome change from the vibe of the 4 corners area

  4. Nobody probably vibed you because you looked like you were on an Al Queda fieldtrip! HA!

  5. For the Love of God man put the crackberry down and drink the beer!!!!!

    Badass post. I have the sudden urge to drink heavily and move to Oregon.