Outside

Suzanne King surrounded by children sponsored by Grandmother’s Education Fund Africa in Kenya.THE SECRET TO WINNING

I think most athletes, no matter their talent level, fantasize about going to the Olympics. I was no different. In my early twenties, I got into bike racing and started winning on the collegiate circuit and some Northern California criteriums and track events. I lived to ride. But, put me in a road race with the likes of Katrin Tobin or Sally Zack and I was off the back like a sack of potatoes. It was pretty clear I didn't have the talent to hang with Olympians, so I had to find another way to make it to the Games. Through my career, I've ended up being fortunate to partake in the Olympic dream by working with some of the greatest athletes in history.

I became the sports scientist for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team and dedicated myself for two years to working with the athletes and coaches to use science and engineering to optimize athletic performance. I measured oxygen uptake, analyzed blood lactate, monitored heart rates, plotted pedal forces and studied drag in a wind tunnel. I created Coach Chris Carmichael's first training log (the earliest step in the evolution of Carmichael Training Systems). We had a very talented crop of junior men, led by future pro stars George Hincapie and Freddie Rodriguez. But, the standout of the squad was a 19-year former triathlete named Lance Armstrong.

Aisles and aisles of stuff at Outdoor RetailerOn Stuff

As outdoor lovers, most of us try to tread lightly on our planet. We Leave No Trace, we join Blue Sky, we ride to work, we recycle. But we also love our gear: our full-suspension mountain bikes with disc brakes, our biomechanically designed running shoes, our lightweight carbon fiber paddles. Cool stuff.

George Carlin, the satirical comedian who passed away in June, had a famous routine on stuff (Google him to find the YouTube video of his five-minute sketch). He made fun of how attached we are to, and possibly bogged down we are by, our possessions.

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard at storyofstuff.com takes a harder line on manufacturing and the evils of Stuff in our consumption-based socioeconomy.

So, how do we align our environmental ethos with our desire for techy new gear?

Manufacturers in the outdoor industry are faced with an especially ironic challenge. They are in business to build products that enable people to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, but the manufacturing of those products ultimately consumes finite resources.

Wallowing in the wallowas. BACKPACKING

Due to our huge snowpack, backpacking season has been a long time coming this summer, but it is FINALLY here! My friend Patty and I have a favorite annual tradition: A weeklong backpacking trip with our dogs somewhere within a day's drive of Bend. We load our packs with tents, sleeping bags and food from Trader Joe's, while the dogs don their Ruff Wear packs filled with buffalo kibble and milk bones. Our chosen routes always include lots of water in the form of rivers and lakes. Since I was spending this week in the wilderness without an Internet connection (horrors!), I thought I'd share some insight into a few of our great trips.

My favorite trip of all seven so far was the Wallowas in the far northeastern corner of Oregon. It is a long drive to get there, but so worth it because of the spectacular scenery. We hiked a 36-mile loop starting outside of Joseph, through the Eagle Cap Wilderness that featured breathtaking alpine scenery. I'll always remember the view from Glacier Pass down into the Glacier Lake basin.

For a fun trip only a three-hour drive east of here near John Day, try the Strawberry Mountains. It was our first trip, when the dogs were puppies. We did a 35-mile traverse and the highlights were climbing Strawberry Mountain and swimming in Strawberry Lake. The Strawberries are nice for a close trip, but not as rugged and beautiful as some other options.

Taking a ride on the wet side. THE GRASS IS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PASS

Alan and Bev Abbs are ultra runners from Red Bluff, Calif. who came to Bend a couple of years ago to compete in the Raid adventure race held here. That same weekend, they read an article in the local paper about the secretly great trails in nearby Oakridge. They decided to check it out for themselves on their way home and ended up buying a house there. Why? They were impressed with the endless miles of trails available and liked the idea of a respite from the hundred-degree-plus heat of California. I caught up with the Abbs on a recent weekend in Oakridge. The previous weekend, they were supposed to compete in the Western States 100, the granddaddy of ultramarathons, but it was cancelled for the first time in its history because of the raging wildfires in California. Bev was nursing a sore knee from overtraining anyway, so they planned a weekend of mountain biking cross-training in Oakridge and invited me to try to keep up with them.
The trails of Oakridge, a 90-minute drive from here, represent a nice change of venue for Bend riders and trail runners as well. We seem to have a narrow window when our trails are snow-free, yet not dusty. Just on the other side of the Cascades, you find lush vegetation which keeps the trails cool and shady and in excellent condition all summer long (though mud is an issue in the shoulder seasons). The first day, the Abbs' took me on a 35-mile ride that started with a grueling 2,500-foot climb, but the twisty, wildflower-lined singletrack descent down the Alpine Trail made it all worthwhile. The next day we wound the spring again with a steep 1,500-foot climb in order to descend the Larison Rock Trail. There are rides with less climbing in Oakridge (apparently the Abbs' don't do them), notably the epic 30-mile long Middle Fork Willamette Trail.

What would happen if you broke your leg out there?A SWEET SPOT

Laurie Fox decided to go for a run on Kent's Trail with her dog Lyle one December afternoon three and a half years ago. Unexpectedly, a few miles out, she slipped on some black ice and fell hard, cracking her ankle. Laurie is an experienced outdoorswoman; she attempted to fashion a splint from some sticks and she started crawling toward the trailhead, but she had no cell phone, night was falling and she was losing body heat quickly. Luckily, Laurie had a husband back home who knew where she had gone and that she was late returning. Also luckily for Laurie, a homeless man on his bike came across her and was able to build a fire and call 911. Laurie was rescued, but she has looked at her outings differently ever since. "I always have a pack with a whistle, some matches and a cell phone, at the very least."
Ironically, a similar accident happened to Karen Johnson, another experienced outdoorswoman, two Februarys ago. She headed out for her usual run with her dogs on Phil's Trail on a cold, foggy morning before work. She was aware of the ice on the trail and was running cautiously, but suddenly slammed to the ground. She remembers the loud cracking sound of the compound fracture of her tibia and fibula and the intense pain. "Jake is no Lassie," she said of her dog, but she did have her cell phone with her. She pulled it out, but could not get a signal. She could barely crawl, so she tried waving it over her head and luckily managed to get a call through to her partner Ken. "I'm above the chicken and below the rock and I broke my leg," is all she needed to say. Ken and Search and Rescue were able to save Karen, but she believes she would have died from hypothermia otherwise.