Little Bald Mountain

Clancy, Deb, and myself drove over to Whistling Jacks in Cliffdell, WA on Friday nite. We got there just after 8:30, when they stop serving food, but they were sports and served us anyway. A few beers and a steak later, we backtracked a few miles on 410 to get to our camp site, which was called Halfway campsite, or something like that. It was right at the base of the ride, so was very convenient. Saturday AM we returned to Whistling Jacks for breakfast, and realized it had a very nice view of the river.

Eventually, Tim and Walter met us at the base of the ride, where we started the shuttle. It was exactly 15.0 miles up a forest road to the start of the ride. The conditions of the road was very good for the most part. A couple of spots were rough for my car, but we got by them fine. Walter and I were wanting to ride up the road, but had second thoughts as it seemed we would be splitting the group. No biggie, the ride down was plenty fun for the day.

The start of the ride had a significant amount of climbing and scree fields. That was a surprise, being at elevation and having a few beers the night before, and a heavy breakfast, I was quickly pegged as there was no warmup. The ride down even was a good workout, as most of it required pedalling as it was not very steep - the 2800 foot descent was drawn out over 15 miles, so it had a lot of flat spots and even a few more small climbs. The views were fantastic, as was advertised in the guidebooks.

At the start of the ride, my rear brakes were rubbing, so Tim and I adjusted them, thinking it was a simple matter of being off center. There was a small amount of warpage. I wasn't too concerned at first, as the last two rides (Mt Margaret and Tiger Mt) they were performing great. Soon, it just went kapooey. Brake squeal started to sound more like metal on metal, and they were stinking. I was fairly certain I was about to ruin my rotor, but there was no bailout on this ride and I figured I would rather pay the fifty bucks for a new rotor than to waste a great ride. Later in the day, I pulled the brake pads out, and found the left pad had much of its metal scraped off, and the clip was missing. It looked like much of the rotor was gone.

I was wanting to do Cowiche the next day, but having no rear brake it seemed wise to just go home Sat night and go bike-part shopping the next day. It was nice to stop at the Mint along the way. The hard part was passing by Ranger Creek and not riding it. It was a fun time on Saturday for sure, but I really would have liked to start the day earlier and ride up the road to make for a more honest loop.

Clancy

Deb

Beaver Lake: Microsoft Day of Caring

60 of my colleagues and myself spend the day doing trailwork at Beaver Lake. This was my first time there. The trails were in fine condition, for MTB singletrack. The goal was to make the trails better for multi-use, including horsies and hikers. Half of my coworkers focussed on a new parking lot area, where they did a lot of landscaping. The rest of us hit the trails. Most of us doing trailwork were trimming the sticker bushes (salmon berry bushes or whatever). Despite the multi use, there was not much horse crap. Next time I would like to see a bunch of rakes, as that would have made cleaning the trail of dead organic matter a bit easier. Lunch was provided and we all got XL t-shirts. This made for a very nice day. I think we only hit about a quarter of the trails, but that is fine because the trails were really not that bad condition to begin with.

Whistler XC + DH Riding!

Ethan and I headed up North on Friday nite. Too late to buy beer for the campground, we hit the Grizzly bar in Squamish. Got into camp around 2:30 AM, so we bailed on the tents and just slept under the stars. Saturday, Ethan and I rode Kill Me Thrill Me trail just a few miles north of Whistler. Afterwards we capped it off with a few hours on Comfortably Numb as an out and back. Saturday nite was memorable :). We hit Earls bar in Whistler, very cool place and great food. We stayed at the Alpenglow, which I thought was very good accomodations especially for the low price that it was. Sunday breakfast we discovered that when you order a crepe, you get a crepe. Didn't matter, loss of appetite and this just made it easier to focus on the coffee. Once the coffee kicked in, we did too, and had a great day of downhillin at Whistler. I get a lot of comments by taking a Ellsworth Moment to the bike park, but wow, Ethan gets a lot of credit for riding the park with a 5 inch suspension. Finished the weekend up at the Longhorn before driving back to Seattle, got home super late but it was all worth the trip.

Middle Fork and Crystal Mt weekend

Clancy, Deb, Ethan, and I hit the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie, from the trailhead to Dingford creek. We spent a lot of time hanging by the river on the way back. At the end of the ride, we went for a quick swim in the river. A bit on the cold side, but totally necessary. We hooked up with Ted later for dinner and drinks at a local bar.

Sunday, Ethan, Alexi, and I rode up Crystal Mt clockwise, and then down. Afterwards, we shuttled up Corral Pass road to get another ride in for the day. We rode down Deep Creek. All I can say is, what a helluva great ride. Technical steep downhill, yet I was able to reach high speeds on it.

Tiger Tent Days

The BBTC had a tent out tonite at the Tiger parking lot, to enlist more membership. I mostly enjoyed hanging with several close friends having barbeque food and a beer. Then.... Chad and Justin decided to do a nite ride. What a great nite for it! Kind of an adventure to climb up Tiger with beer, but it was all fun. Chad and Justin encouraged me to try the big log over the gap on Preston, and I made it for the first time at nite! Finished the ride around 10 pm.

Lima, day 2

After a long flight, I slept in at a hotel in Mira Flores. The rest of the crew, Miguel Glenn Kevin and Kim, arrived in the morning and needed to rest as well. Early afternoon we hooked up and went for a walk in Lima and ended up at a quaint restaurant. Super cheap food, and it included beer as part of the lunch order! Gotta love that.

Later, we went to the DoubleTree El Pardo hotel and tapped into my rum. Everybody in a happy mood.

Still early, we went for a walk down to the seafront in Lima. Cool area, we went to a bluff overlooking some surfers.

Lima, Peru!

I arrived in Lima Peru late at nite. Miguel and friends were supposed to have met me at the airport, supposedly arriving an hour before me. After waiting an hour and a half, it was evident they were not there. So I called customer service, paged Miguel. Some asshole taxi driver pretended to know Miguel and said they were at the hotel and had already paid for my taxi to the hotel. One helluva expensive taxi ride, but I arrived at the Hotel El Ejecutivo in Mira Flores, which actually was a nice part of Lima. Got a good nites rest and breakfast at the hotel was nice, but simple. People at the hotel were really nice, and there was free internet. I was able to email Miguel who confirmed that they were stuck in Miami and so we will meet up the next day.

At least I was clever enough to buy a really good bottle of Rum, that was essential for the festivities the next day...

Crystal Mt Loop 3600 ft elevation gain

Crystal Mt Loop

3600 ft elevation gain. Paul Smith, Glenn Rogers, and myself rode the Crystal Mt loop, counterclockwise. Reference: http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/scr/of_detail.cfm?category=Biking&rt=41219 except in reverse of his directions. No snow on the climb. Lots of snow on the descent. Recommendation: do it clockwise to the top, then return the same way. I would wait at least 2 weeks before sending anybody down the way we did. The descent had lots of snow and navigation challenges just finding the trail, and even then it may be iffy.

The hikers we ran into were very friendly and spent time with us discussing routes and showing us a map. I'm sure we would have found our way out, but it was nice of them.

Currently, Crystal CCW to top and back would be fun. Doing CW or doing as a loop is strongly discouraged until the snow melts.

Mission Ridge and Chikamin

I met up with Clancy, Deb, and Brian at a campsite in Leavenworth. Two nights of camping under the stars, no tent, just open sky and a beautiful starry night.

Saturday we shuttled Mission Ridge. Very fun singletrack, a few climbs, just enough to keep us somewhat honest. After doing Mission Ridge, I don't know if I'll ever go back to the neighboring trail, Devils Gulch, this is much better. A swim in the river in Cashmere was all we needed to get clean and cool off. Later, dinner at Visconti's Italian Ristorante in Leavenworth was very good, I'll never go back to Gustav's.

Sunday, we shuttled again! At the top of the road to Chikamin Ridge, midway up Chikamin Tie, I realized I locked my bike to Brian's car and left the key in my car at the bottom of the trail. Doh! So, I gave everybody almost an hour head start as I drove down to retrieve my keys. I went into hyperdrive to catch them, which made for a thrill ride, as Chikamin Tie is very fast to begin with. Halfway down Minnow Ridge I caught up with the group. Still pumped, I cruised along and passed two other groups before doubling back up Minnow Ridge to ride with my friends. We continued down Lower Chiwawa. There was a creek crossing almost up to our knees, rather unavoidable as the bridge seems to have washed out years ago. Finished at Alder Creek Trailhead. The day was perfect to hit Lake Wenatchee for a swim afterwards and drink some hard Lime.

Ranger Creek 4100 feet Elevation gain

I rode up Ranger Creek today, up the trail, not via Corral Pass. Notes below are reverse from Zillys Kissing the Trail ride 48 guidebook. Ranger Creek is snow free till the shelter, as well as the intersection higher up. This is the intersection from Ranger Ck trail 1197 with Dalles Ridge trail 1173, reference guidebook, mile marker 9.4. Although I rode along the ridge a ways past that intersection, I did not see snow. A group of bikers had come from Corral Pass and hiked over a mile thru snow sometimes as much as 3 feet deep, largest section around a half mile, as I heard (I was riding solo, so not confirming their part of their report). They said you could ride about 1.5 miles past the intersection mentioned above before hitting snow.

My ride had an hour thru White River trail before heading up Ranger, about 45 minutes of riding along the ridge mentioned above (great views in both directions along the ridge), and the climb. As I was descending I ran into another biker so I headed up again as it seemed a bit safer to ride with someone as it was getting late. With all that, I was a lot more tired at the end of the day than expected. The trail is not crazy steep, but it climbs consistently for a long time.

Just to bring us to reality, myself and the other guy were two solo riders who hooked up near the top, and the unknown rider who joined me got all bloodied up from an endo. Just a flesh wound, he'll be fine. I love solo riding, especially for big climbs, but maybe it would be wise to start earlier (did not start till 12:30) so that in the event of having to hike out, there would be sufficient time.

A chainsaw would come in handy for a few blowdowns, but nothing to complain about.

I take issue with the guidebook rating this trail as expert level. Sure it takes a lot of energy, but this is far from expert level.

If you are OK with having to stop due to snow, or willing to hike thru a lot of snow, this ride is for you. Very fun day, a lot of singletrack mileage despite snow at the top. Reached very high speeds in big ring on the descent, woo hoo!

The picture is from the top of Ranger creek if you take a left on the trail to 1173, most people will want to take a right to continue on to Noble Knob.

Link to http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/scr/of_detail.cfm?category=Biking&rt=41218 for guide book reference, but this is for sissies who climb up the road. It really is best to climb up the trail.

Tyax Warner Lake

Kevin Kincaid organized a Float Plane ride. We took the plane from the campground to Warner Lake. We camped the night before and it was dumping rain all nite. Luckily the rain abated just before the ride started. We landed on Warner Lake, and there was snow on the ground. A bit ominous. We had a killer ride, 6 hours of hard and fast biking. Right after the ride ended, the rain started dumping again!

Description of the ride:
http://www.bbtc.org/recreation/calendar.php?event_id=3469

Some cool pics from the ride:
http://www.bbtc.org/recreation/show_image.php?image_id=1448
http://www.bbtc.org/recreation/show_image.php?image_id=1447
http://www.bbtc.org/recreation/show_image.php?image_id=1446
http://www.bbtc.org/recreation/show_image.php?image_id=1431

Lunarscape landing on the Plains

Mt St Helens NIGHT RIDE. Only Armando Malo allowed. There was a full moon out. Riding from Windy Ridge down Smith Creek, up Ape Canyon, across the Plains of Abraham to Windy Ridge as a loop. Zillys description of ride

Departure time from Puget Sound area was 12:30 PM, actual start time of ride was 5:30 PM, sunset at 8:14 PM, twilight at 8:47 PM, moon rise at 9:03 PM. The plan was to do the climb in daylight, enjoy the sunset up high. That did not happen due to late start, but it was nice to start the climb as the sun set. At times the full moon was directly in front of us and up the trail, such that it seemed like we were staring a freight train down in a tunnel!

A quality night light was necessary, HID is best but 10W OK. It is a loop, so the plan was such that if battery time ran out, we would wait until the cougarsö eat us. Radio recommended.

Armando and I agree that this ride is among the top 3 rides we have ever done.

Riding down Smith Creek was a total blast (sorry, pun intended)! We stopped many times for pictures. After one stop, I was ahead of Armando and got to the creek crossing before him. After waiting about a half hour for him to catch up, I thought maybe he had crossed the creek low (you should cross high, where the trail meets the creek), so I started down the creek looking for traces of his crossing, such as foot or tire marks. Eventually he arrived at the creek at the right location so I went back up the creek to regain the trail. Evidently, he had gone back up the trail thinking I had run off it as he normally would have caught up to me earlier. This was a reminder to start together or get a radio, as we basically had lost each other right as the sun was setting.

Due to the late start and leisurely events down Smith Creek, the ride up Ape Canyon was in the dark, but no worries. Well, sort of worried about the large animal in the forest that seemed to be near us for 20 minutes near the top of Ape Canyon - we think it was a bear, did not actually see it, but saw bear tracks leading up to where we heard the noise.

Along the Plains of Abe and Windy Ridge, we rode with the lights off, as the moon illuminated the trail nicely. No wind up top, perfect weather. After about 23 of the 27 miles, we took a break to enjoy a flask of Patron Añejo on the Plains of Abraham. 45 minutes later, after much laughing, we continued the ride. Wow, what fun to finish a ride powered by quality Tequila and a full moon! I took a couple falls on Windy Ridge, but I didn't care. Although I generally like to end a ride on the descent, this worked out best by ending at Windy Ridge after a substantial climb - thus we ended the ride with the best moonlight ride ever.

Doing the Smith Creek Epic, ending on an uphill, was a big ride. I would only recommend our route to someone who has already done the epic - an epic ride is big enough, you don't want your first time on it in the dark.

This was a rare opportunity, perfect weather, full moon. Precautions to take would be to take a buddy along, so they feed the bear instead of you. Some exposure, esp. on Windy Ridge. Moonlight with the HID off does add risk but we were more than happy to take that risk. During the climb, I was running a bit low on energy, so bring energy stuff. As the sun sets, it does get cold despite season being warm, so bring a couple light layers, according to your judgment.

The one thing that would have made it better would be to take a sleeping bag along. We really wanted to sleep on the Plains of Abe.

We finished the ride at 1:30 AM, but got home around 6AM, as the sun had already risen.

Ken at Smith Creek Viewpoint 08.19.2005


Ken Rippin down Smith Creek


Armando at Smith Creek


Ken at Smith Creek

Armando Plains O' Abe, wishing we could ride up Loowit Trail to watch the volcano explode


Plains of Abraham. Why is Ken happy?