Dropping 5,000 vertical feet in 16 miles, the Downieville Downhill is the longest and most demanding downhill race in the nation. The course features the world famous Butcher Ranch, Third Divide and First Divide Trails. This speed-greed thriller is guaranteed to leave downhill fanatics begging for the finish line. Winning times have averaged more than 41 minutes, making the Downieville Downhill the "Ironman" of downhill races. Course speed record belongs to Mark Weir with a blazing time of 40 minutes and 54 seconds.

Post Canyon is a only a couple of miles outside of Hood River, but it might as well be located in Vancouver, BC. The trails are great, but the stunts are insane, bike video quality. Most of the stunts were waaaay over the head of a guy with 43 candles on his last birthday cake, but I did manage a few, and even took a 6' digger off a log ride. I'd try a few more if I had an EMT crew standing by...

The term conjures up an image of my new Santa Cruz Superlight getting run over by a bus while being ridden by the crackhead who stole it. Skeggs is kind of the same way. On one hand it's got miles of really buffed singletrack, 2200 feet of elevation, and it's 10 miles from my house. On the other, it's got park rangers running around the fire roads with radar guns. They'll give you a ticket if you exceed the 15mph speed limit. I'm not making this up. If you need a great example of government being a pain in the ass to its citizens under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, this is it. Those same rangers also make sure that the trails are kept clear of anything that doesn't belong on the average suburban sidewalk, like sticks and stones. While this makes for a fast ride, it's kind of nuts to think there are over 20 miles of trails here and not one log pyramid or other man-made obstacle to ride over. It's still a great ride, but man, it could be soooooo sweet if the trail cops would let the riders build the trails.

Northstar has a good MTB program and have their two main chairlifts running all summer. The trails are pretty torn up by this time of the year, and it's kind of like riding on big rocks and six inches of brown powdered sugar.