It seemed easy enough. I’d guided rafts through the Big Eddy stretch hundreds of times, I thought, as I sat in my little yellow kayak above the rapids. And I’d kayaked plenty of class IIIs and IVs.

But none of them were so thoroughly lined with lava rocks as sharp as these.

All summer long, I’d played the “should I or shouldn’t I?” game with this stretch—the rocks in the river here, just above Lava Island, are young, geologically speaking, and razor sharp.

But as the raft of a friend who would run safety for me rounded a bend, I knew my summer’s worth of contemplating was over.

It's official—the lovely city-owned historic building formerly known as the Mirror Pond Gallery will soon have a new tenant.

Bend's David Marchi, an experienced mountaineering, heli-ski and cycling guide, is opening Crow’s Feet Commons, a backcountry ski/boutique bike shop that will also serve coffee and beers in The Rademacher House, which was the former home of Arts Central. Marchi signed a lease Sept. 21.

This is great news for three reasons.

After leading through the halfway point at the 2012 U.S.A. Cycling Mountain Bike Marathon National Championships, Bend’s Adam Craig thought he had the race sewn up.

Last year’s marathon champ continued to ride comfortably at the front of the race until mile 52 of the 54-mile event.

“I pretty much won the whole time until about two miles to go,” joked Craig about last Saturday’s race. Near mile 32, the Rabobank-Giant rider said he started to run low on fuel and then, with 2012 U.S. Olympian Todd Wells bearing down, Craig dropped his last two gels while racing down Dinah Moe Humm Trail.

Climbing up Flagline Trail is kinda tough, but it’s fun and scenic and generally not THAT hard.

Climbing up Flagline 17 miles into a 54-mile mountain bike race, however, is a real kick in the pants.

Once again, Central Oregon will play host to the U.S.A. Cycling Mountain Bike Marathon National Championships, Sept. 15, but rather than hold the start and finish in the Old Mill, a la the 2011 edition, the race will instead be staged out of Wanoga Sno-Park and will include more single track, more miles, more high altitude and more elevation gain than last year’s race, which featured miles of pavement and minimal uphill pedaling.

For the second consecutive year hundreds of "mature" bike racers will flock to Central Oregon for the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships. This year it's a five-day affair that will kick off Wednesday, Sept. 5 and run through Sunday, Sept. 9. Unlike last year, however, this year a “masters racer” is defined as those aged 35 and older. In 2011 the youngest master's category was the 30 to 34 age group.

Other notable changes for this year's edition include new courses for the time trial and for some of the crit races. Rather than race another time trial up and down the broken pavement of Skyliner’s Rd., race organizers elected to hold the race outside Prineville on the Crooked River Highway that will take racers upstream and into the Wild and Scenic Crooked River canyon.