As a huge fan of bike to run adventures, I was intrigued when my friends Dan and Xavier blasted up the soon-to-be-classic Brokentop Bottle Shop to Broken Top Summit route. I left around sunrise in a rain & thunderstorm, not thinking much of the weather except that it felt pretty good given the 90F forecasted for later. I pedaled through Shevlin and up the never-ending twists of Mrazek to the Metolius-Windigo trail. Chugging up through Happy Valley I noticed a red wildfire plane circling over my head, and the distinct smell of freshly burning wood nearby. The air quality seemed okay, but I called my partner as I reached the Broken Top trailhead. She informed me that there were a half dozen new fires burning in the area, one of which started on the south flank of Moon Mountain (about 1/2 a mile from the road I just pedaled up). I thought this was rather exciting, and figured I'd have a good look at the situation on my way back and could always bail down to Cascade Lakes Highway if it got any worse.
I dropped my bike at the trailhead at 3:00 hours in, and ran around B-Top to the standard Northwest Ridge. I cut off a little bit of trail near Green Lake and poled my way up the ridge to the summit block. I reached the top in 4:34 from the bottle shop, which I figured put in me a good spot to shave some time off Dan and Xavier. The fires on Bachelor showed no signs of stopping, but my Moon Mountain fire looked like under control thankfully. I ran down the scree field and was definitely feeling the legs on the trudge back to the bike. Once on the bike (at around 6:00 from the start), life was good again, as bombing down Met-Win after a long day is perhaps my favorite activity. I hit Shevlin Park road and reluctantly pushed it up the hill in some serious afternoon heat, so ready for some cold brewskis. I hit stop 8:01:48 from the beginning, a pretty epic day, much shorter than some of my other bike/run trips but also at a much faster pace.