East Mt Hood Epic...revised for 2010

This is pretty far in advance, but I want to plan it early. 

I've heard there has been an epic ride around the East Mt Hood area for some years now, but it seems to either be losing steam or be a little obscure or something.  I've inquired and the gist of what I heard was that it was something that was camping related, rides for all levels, route sometimes decided that morning.  

I would like to propose, plan, and coordinate a ride that is for people who want a long day in the saddle, experience most of the trails in the East Hood area, and push themselves within a group of like-minded riders.  The ride would have support and flagging, ideally, so people from out of the area would be stoked to ride with us knowing they wouldn't get lost or run out of food.  The focus would be the ride, not all the other stuff we normally have to think about, food, maps, etc.  

I'm tossing this idea out now in order to solicit responses, good, bad, and informational.  Here's my tentative plan for the ride:

June 12, 2010...start at Bennett Pass, ride Gunsight to 15 mile, do that loop, cross the road (first aid) to 8 mile, do that loop along with Knebal Loop but jump off early in order to head over to Surveyor's (potential for more aid if needed) and finish with Oak Ridge Trail.  It would be great to finish in HR but there do not seem to be any good singletrack trails that would work for a Hood River finish.  Ride would be 55+ and I'm not sure yet on elev gain, would be sizeable.

Logistics that need to be worked out if a lot of people sign up (which would be frickin' awesome!):

Shuttling, parking at the finish (maybe finish on the highway somewhere in order to access a bigger parking lot), get food donated, volunteers for aid stops, a mechanic or two to help people with broken bikes, lead and sweep riders, flagging in order to alleviate anyone having trouble understanding where to go, place to hold party afterward in order to consumer lots of food and beer, and I'm sure other things as well, special use permit, etc.

In the end, I just want an event in which people can push themselves and see the awesome rides around the East Hood area.  If people aren't interested and this just becomes me dropping an ice chest in the middle so me and a few friends can ride, sobeit, but ideally it'll peak the interest of other riders and we could all have a great day pushing ourselves in our own backyard!  (side note: I think I missed the permit process for 2010 so this might be more of a "group" ride with support, then if it's successful a full blown event could happen in 2011.)

PS, if you have info about the rides that have taken place in the past and/or of the people who organized them I would love to hear about it.  If there's already a big ride scheduled I would rather pool resources/efforts than have two seperate events pushing for the same goals. 

take care

Jarred

jarredjackmanATgmailDOTcom