Ashland Mtn Lakes ride (well, we tried) May 25-28, 2012

5/26/2012 Bear Creek Greenway from Ashland to Medford 40 miles 5/27/2012 Mtn Lakes Loop from Ashland to Green Springs to Dead Indian Memorial Highway back to Ashland - 2.7 miles Leslie and I drove down to Ashland on Friday of the Memorial Day weekend. Stayed a nice hotel on the east end of town and generally really enjoyed Ashland. Saturday the weather was cool, windy and looked like rain so we took a driving tour from Ashland through the Applegate Valley and Jacksonville. We checked out Jacksonville and the continued on the scenic drive to Grants Pass. In Grants Pass there were jet boat races and a fair in the park called Boatnik. It was basically all about God(Bible fundamentalists and survivalists warning that the end times are upon us), Guns (get your leather hostler engraved to match your bullet studded belt and 50 cal machine gun lawn ornaments) and Ganja (the hippies are nice folks here). We stayed about 15 minutes and got out of there. Once safely back in Ashland we hopped on the bikes and biked the Bear Creek Greenway almost end-to-end. Its a great paved bike trail and its about 28 miles one-way. We had a nice pasta dinner in Ashland. Sunday was much warmer and we were eager to do the 50 mile 4700ft Mtn lakes loop. We headed out Hwy 66 and I made it 2.7 miles before a spoke broke on my Roubaix Roval 322x rear wheel and I was done. We dumped off the bikes and drove the route anyway and it looks like a very nice ride. Lots of climbing but its scenic and the traffic seemed to be light. The 13 mile downhill back into Ashland would be sweet. Sunday evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at Louie's and saw the play "Animal Crackers". Monday we headed back home.