Boneyard: RVOD Maryhill G-Ride

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While everyone gets amped for Maryhill Festival of Speed tomorrow and Giants Head this weekend, this past weekend was the RVOD G-ride out at Maryhill Loops Road. For those who aren’t familiar, the G-ride is for geezers, groms and gals (everyone else too really). More importantly it is also a celebration of life to raise awareness for mental health issues. All in all, it’s a great way to support a good cause, enjoy skateboarding with friends and commemorate the life of Ryan Vanderveen who loved to skate with his friends. I was lucky enough to be one of the skate instructors for the weekend so I got to spend my weekend hanging out and giving pointers to new skaters on the hill.



The drive out to Maryhill (from Portland) is quite interesting. You start off in luscious green terrain but then slowly that goes away and yields a much drier landscape.



No more trees :(



For those who aren’t familiar with the Maryhill Freerides, Deano is the man behind the scenes. He’s an OG Maryhill Rat, solid friend and has been putting on successful freerides for a few years now. Do yourself a favor and go to one of his events. You’ll be stoked.



Cody Shea is also a NW native and has been holding it down for the medic crew out at Maryhill. Luckily there were no major injuries this last freeride (aside the occasional dislocated shoulder and some road rash) but if there were something serious, Cody would have would give you a ride down the hill on his sweet ATV.



The terrain out in the gorge has been quite dry and fire risk was high. Just across the river in Biggs, Oregon they had a huge grass fire that took out a couple buildings. This is the remains of one of them. Remember kids, only you can prevent forest fires.



Lunch is provided at the hill by a local catering company and it was accompanied with this bag of chips. It seemed like a sweet deal until you read the label on the back that said these chips might cause cancer. For real tho, deadly spuds.



At the end of the first day I went and checked out Sam Hill’s grave. Never saw it before but I found it to be very suiting for the man.



It’s safe to say that his resting also has a pretty awesome view.



Just down the road I found a pioneer cemetery. Most of y’all probably don’t know this but I’m a huge fan of old cemeteries so I spent quite a while at this one.



Here is one photo of many that I took while exploring the cemetery.



Later that evening I went to the Shiloh Inn in The Dalles for some food and *drum roll* KARAOKE. Deano hooked it up and got a guy to set up an evening of karaoke out on the patio. Twas a great evening.



This is the usual scene you will encounter while at a freeride. People scrambling to get in a uhaul to get in as many runs as possible. Don’t worry folks, you will get enough runs in.



View from inside the sweat box.



View from outside the sweat box.



One things that is rad about the freerides is the different gravity powered vehicles that come out to the hill. This guy had a pretty sweet dirt surfer setup.



On Maryhill, everybody’s friends.



Glove swag.



Aerolid swag.



Taking it chill swag.



Sunglasses swag.



This guy (Curtis Head) is, from what I gathered, the first person to bomb down Maryhill. He used to race street luge and stand up back in the glory days of the X-games. When he was giving a talk at a school one of the teachers told him about a road that just got repaved near Goldendale but he brushed it off assuming that she didn’t know what a good hill for bombing would be. A while later he saw footage of a hill climb out at Maryhill and took off to go bomb the hill the very next day. After one run down he realized he found something special. Thanks for finding this spot Curt! Stoked to see you out here enjoying the road 14 years later.



The guy closest to the camera is Ciggy. He traveled all the way from Germany to spend time in North America and he timed his trip perfectly so that he could get in a Maryhill Freeride. Smart man.



This guy John and his homie had a super kush setup at the bottom of the hill. John is also a massage therapist and hooked me up with an incredible massage. Since he’s a skater he knows exactly which muscles need most the work. Thanks again John!



Another thing that is rad about the RVOD Freeride is that the Vanderveen family and the Maryhill Ratz are making a generous donation to Forefront to help raise awareness on mental health issues. Kudos to them for supporting a good cause.



Thank you for the good times and fun runs. For those of you about to strap up for the upcoming events, remember to have fun. Until next time!

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