MTB to Lumato Falls:

Despite the fact that I was coming to Bend to do a Half Ironman, Stan insisted that I bring my mountain bike to get in a ride with him. We are doing a 100 mile MTB race in August and he wanted to get in some training together, and also to show me the great trails here in Bend.

We headed out to one of his favorite trail heads and he promised to keep the ride relatively flat and easy for me. I of course knew this was a lie. Despite my legs being dead from the half I worked to keep up on the great single track trail. In honesty, he did keep the ride as flat as possible for a MTB ride, that just isn't always very flat.

As we stopped at 10 miles to have a gel, he said there was a waterfall a few miles up the road. I was told there were three options. Option 1 was to drive to it once we were done with our ride, option 2 was 2 ride up the paved road to the falls, and option 3 was a 3 1/2 mile trail up to the falls. He knew I would cave to the pressure and do the extra miles on the trail. The falls were about 125 feet high and beautiful, and we saw them from below, above and even hike down underneath them.

We ended up riding almost 30 miles, which was tough 2 days after the half, but the trails were totally worth it.