Needed to get out and enjoy the intermittent non-rainy periods over the long weekend. Briefly considered Syncline yet again, but as the poison oak was bad last time, can only imagine what it was like with another two weeks to grow and fester. Some quick interwebs research decided to try a piece of trail in the hills outside the land of cheese and meth heads.
Distance: Was a short one, 7 miles
Weather: Overcast, a touch chilly, one brief ‘if you blink you’ll miss it’ period of sunshine. Do mosquitoes count as weather?
Short summary: Nice change of pace and scenery, with a very ‘northwest’ (think: green and wet) feel to it, but this trail needs some love. Wildflowers starting to do their thing. Only saw one other person, so that was a bonus. Kept the ‘number of times I fall fully clipped in’ average consistent at two.
The up: Following a creek and the gully formed by one the entire way, 1/2 mile of fire road gives way to singletrack for the uphill. Some sketch/exposed portions of path barely two tires wide with a hearty fall if you go the wrong direction. Very loose in parts, trail giving way under your foot if you dab. Dry in spots with perfect traction, other spots wet with moss covered rocks with zero traction. Was with the world’s slowest mtn biker so had lots of time to take photos.
Elevation profile
The down: Fun up high, flowy singletrack with grip for days, and enough undulations, twists and turns to keep the smile going. Down low between the wet, the tree covered interruptions, the exposure, etc. was a bit underwhelming – lots of riding the brakes, and with my brakes stopping is merely suggested by pulling the levers and is no guarantee
A couple pics that look like they were taken with vaseline smeared over the lens are below. #iPhone4phonecamcansuckit
Trees down across the trail
Nice stretch of uphill
Pic doesn't do this justice. Landslide, that section under the root is probably 15 feet before hitting the back wall
Ahh yes, the burgeoning sport of mountain bike hiking
I wanted to photoshop a leprechaun aka pic of a-man here, but I don't have photoshop or a photo of him
Nice visuals
#2: Forest Park
Wanted to get out and recreate and give thanks on Memorial Day. Figured what better way than to conquer the Germans* in my own little way by way of a ride to Germantown Rd.
Distance: Right at 20 miles
Weather: Sunny! Not that I could see any of it once I got into the canopy of Forest Park.
Short summary: Decided to try a new route after looking at the available options. Definitely a nice change of pace and scenery in the park, and by taking Holman avoid most of the Livestronging/Team in Training going on.
The up: Not really a lot of up on this ride, which was a bummer as I could use the workout. MUDDY! Wow. Holman does NOT drain well in parts, definitely dismounted and walked around to not destroy the deep spots. Nice steep climb to start off the day with some obvious muddy spots but also spots that appeared normal but were so slick that you literally spin your wheels in place.
The down: The ups and downs weren’t really that distinguishable from each other, outside of the last downhill from Saltzman to 30. Pretty much just a low effort spin otherwise.
Ended up having a post-ride Rocky Mounts rack megafail. Loaded the bike up and went to lock the handle down and had it shatter in my hands! I had been thinking the other day that they could use a better way to microadjust, that the point between too loose and unable to tighten was hard to adjust, but never expected the handle to break as I wasn’t putting a lot of pressure on it at the time. I’ll write it off as a one in a million issue and bring it back to REI and give them one more chance, but the metal handles on my buddy’s Yakima were looking pretty nice the other day… Finished the day with in the sun, cleaning and lubing the bike, sipping on Blind Pig from Saraveza.
Have only used the rack three times and the handle broke!
An old college buddy was in town this weekend before he started his new gig, figured as Saturday was supposed to be spring-like that I’d bring him out to Syncline as 1) it would be dry relative to anything else around 2) I like Double Mountain and 3) wanted to check out a few bikes at one of the shops in town that he was going to rent from.
Late start on the day as we had to wait a bit for breakfast in the city at Tasty n Sons (BTW, great hostess, great service, great food, worth checking out). Loaded up the new Rockymount Pitchfork for it’s first ‘further than 5 miles and freeway speeds’ test, into local shop for a rental (their rental fleet consists of Camber 29ers….not bad for $25!), onto the trailhead. Quick change and onto the ride.
Distance: Longer than usual due to world’s slowest rider not being there, but far from difficult – about 11.5 miles.
Weather: Heh. Started off nice and springlike, though a touch windy. Turned into what I can only imagine it feels like to ride into the eye of a tornado. 35+ sustained headwinds, rain, hail, thunder, etc. for the last 4 miles or so. Awesome.
Short summary: Good times with a touch of adventure. Tried a new way, had to bushwack for a bit + the full frontal weather assault finish made for one of those days you won’t soon forget. The a-man jinx has (thus far) been avoided
The up: Just the usual low speed/enjoy the scenery and bullshitting with old friends climb. Lots of wind, at points you’d had to stop as it would push you off the trail. Pretty nuts, the shaky vid below doesn’t show nearly how it was. Doubletrack/Jeep Trail up the the brown house, left up the singletrack, onto the fire road, got bored of that so turned around and hooked a louie back at the brown house to explore a bit.
The down: Welp, not as fun as it could have been had we gone down Little Maui. Tried a new trail that was fun and flowy for a bit, eventually the trail just disappeared – conveniently right about the time the weather went to hell. Little bit of bushwacking here and there, one banged knee and some racked nuts, couple mile spin down the road, back to the blackhawk.
In what’s become a ritual, post-ride pizza and beer DEVOURED at Double Mountain Brewery. Yes, I’m a sucker for wood fired pizza and it’s a proven fact that beer tastes better after riding, snowboarding or surfing.
Route overview. Same ol' same ol' halfway with a finishing twist
Elevation summary. Still need to do a hors catégorie climb
Captain Spandex shows how the bright Camber pops against a dark background
Just an average, albeit muddy, ride on the fire roads of Forest Park.
Distance: Around 15 miles. The iMapMyRide profile is wrong since I forgot to turn the thing off and includes a side trip to Ben of Race Peak Performance’s house.
Short summary: Muddy. Another Forest Park yawner that’d be more fun on a cross bike, though it’s the type of trail that a 29er feels like the right ride as well. The smell of the PNW in spring always brings back memories though, and I do appreciate having a park like that close in, just wish there was more double/singletrack – not that it would have been rideable given the rains though.
The up: Leif Erikson to Upper Saltzman. Low angle, puddle strewn, Team in Training joe cubejockey triathlete runner douche infested fire roads. Everybody you encounter is all nods and smiles though, none of the hikers/runners vs. bikers crap that you see in some places. Piles of dogshit and/or bagged dog shit every couple hundred yards, will be no surprise if they outlaw dogs in the park (not that they’d enforce it…).
The down: Upper Saltzman to Lower Saltzman to 30 to Thurman. More enjoyable than the up due to the mud and feeling the tires lose traction and regain it every 25 yards. Couple mile road spin to give the personal illusion of some semblance of fitness and speed to finish.
Spring finally (temporarily) sprung in the PNW on Friday, figured I’d best take advantage before another five day stretch of gray+rain pain. Decided to head out to Syncline again as it is in some weird Bermuda Triangle of weather that allows it to stay dry when the rest of the world within a one hour drive are building arks and rounding up two of every animal. As the GF had the day off decided it’d be a good day for her to get out on her newtoher Giant XTC2 courtesy of Fat Tire Farm’s rental sale and get her a first taste of ‘real’ mountain biking (she’s done a few Forest Park yawners, but I don’t think that counts as mountain biking).
Distance: Short, damn short. ~7 miles or so.
Weather: Dope. 65ish. Perfectly clear with a slight breeze to keep you cool on the uphill.
Short summary: Slowest….ride…..ever. When you get passed by 70 year olds out dayhiking….only 1/2 kidding. To be expected though as Emily hasn’t been on the bike much nor ridden any trails since age 7 on a My Little Pony bike.
The up: Nothing like a crawling speed fully clipped in fall before even getting on the trail. Skills. Always forget I’m NOT on my city bike with flats. Dry trails. A bit rutted about 1/2 mile from the infamous brown house. Beautiful views at a pace slow enough to take them in. It took Emily a bit to get into the mentality of it, to settle into a pace that was comfortable for her, and just get comfortable on a bike in non-fire road situations. After she shook off the initial fear/hesitation from doing something new she ended up doing well and enjoying the day. To make it a bit more interesting for myself I’d ride ahead 1/2 mile or so and wait for her to catch up.
The down: Again slow, but to be expected with the n00bidity (yup, that just happened, made up a new word, call Merriam), getting a feel for bike control, where the brakes engage and how much pressure is needed, shifting weight around, counterbalancing, etc.etc.etc.
Post-ride pizza and beer DEVOURED at Double Mountain Brewery aka Cheers – seriously, everybody that came through the door knew the servers, hostesses, etc. Insane pizza if you’re into high heat, wood fired, chewy with char pizza goodness.
Was trying out a new app ‘iMapMyRide‘ and outside of it’s hunger for battery life I’m impressed. A couple screenshots of the type of data it gives you on the free version below.
Mountain bike walking due to pulling a Schleck
If the sky wasn't blown out you'd see Mt Hood standing tall in the distance. Unimpressed by the massively overhyped camera in the iphone
Posing near the syncline of Syncline
Walking for a second after hitting a pedal on a boulder
Moments of walking interrupted by short bursts on the bike
After a long, broke ass summer finally had the time to take a little ‘summer vacation’, get outdoors, and check out some sick PNW scenery. Was fortunate enough to have a friend’s name pulled in the lottery for passes, and fortunate again that one of those passes had my name on it.
The Enchantments. Overall sick stuff, the scenery is less Pacific Northwest and more Sierra Nevada meets Switzerland. Free range larch and odd furry white urine vacuums. Good times all around.
Will keep building on the TR as I get time to actually upload pics and post, for now a quick rundown.
Running from Sasquatch on day 1
Adam trying to look chic in the hills with his scarf
The color and the temperature of this water will both take your breath away
A’ight, off to MT to burn off some frustration. To be continued…
Back. MOAR!
Ben is proud of how he matched his sleeping pad to the lake color
Aasgard Pass gatekeeper
Moving water was freezing at 5k feet. Was going to be fun going up.
Nice scenery on the east(?) side of Dragontail
Crappy views from a ho hum little lunch spot
Full suspension rock hopper
Bemis and Kohler doing their thing
The greatest of all time eating breakfast
Night shot of the 'bar' where many Wild Turkeys were killed
Night 2 camp at base of Little Annapurna. Not much sleep that night due to wind.
Beautiful morning made getting up after little sleep easier
Some of the best water ever right there
Water crossing
Oddly sketch downclimb. The rocks were iced over with the slickest ice ever.
Larch
View of our last night's destination, the far lake
Took a few (badly timed) days off last week, to get away before my biz partner leaves town for a month for his wedding and assorted festivities. Ended up going to the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area as it seemed like a trip that could combine a few of my likes – snow, mountain views, and lakes to flyfish in. Advanced notice: lots of dog gayness in this TR. I call others out on it, gotta call myself out on it when it happens!
Started at the Pamelia Lake trailhead and made our way up a nice (just pre-bloom) rhodedendron lined trail to Pamelia Lake. Pretty average lake overall for my purposes, with trees tight to the waterline and the crowd there made it feel about as close to car camping as you could get without having your car ten feet away. We had originally thought we may stop at Pamelia for a night if we liked it, but there was no second thoughts once we got there.
Jack White wrote a song about this, no?
Up, around the lake, through the trees, followed Bear Creek for awhile, and started ascending via switchbacks. Didn’t take many pictures, just imagine your typical PNW hike, just without ripe berries. Eventually the trail disappeared under 6+ feet of snow and we had to guess our way to the lakes. Photographic memory FTW.
The deepest (and coldest!) of many stream crossings
"Trail" and Mt. Jefferson
Got to lake #1 and it was 2/3 frozen over still! Never saw any fish rise so just kicked back and enjoyed the sunshine and the views.
When we were setting up camp we kept catching whiffs of campfire. The homemade rock fire ring near our site looked old so didn’t think it was coming from there, assumed maybe the winds were just blowing smoke from 5 miles down in the valley. However, when we finally went over to the ring we could still feel a ton of heat coming from the ‘dead’ fire, and all we had to do was stir it a bit, throw a stick on and it blew up into a full-blown fire! We saw nobody else that day, no tracks in/out, so not sure how long the fire had been there smoldering, but c’mon people make sure your fires are dead before you leave a spot – especially when you made your ring two feet from a downed tree! Snow melts, melting snow makes water, it ain’t that tough.
Dog meets dehydrated food
Chilled for the rest of the day, made some din, drank some port and soaked in the sights.
Waiting for the alpenglow to set the hills on fire
Next day took a suncupped hike around lake #1, then packed up to find lake #2, with the hope that it’d be a bit less frozen over given it’s larger size.
Mt. Jefferson from lake #1
Over the river, through the woods and EUREKA! an unfrozen lake. Reminded me a bit of Desolation Wilderness, and beautiful.
Ahhh yeah
The sun came out and the fun came out for the next couple days. Eat, drink, flyfish, hike around, dig holes (Jasmine), repeat.
Looking for baby seals to club....
Another hack cast from the log jam
Beautiful brook trout galore
The lady tries her hand and catches her first fish on the fly
Schnozz deep...
...and dog tired
The weather is turning, get out there and get ‘er done!
It’s sunny. Finally. Bummer that we finally received January’s longed for 40s and raining this past week, but my mind has shifted to surfing. I need a warm water surf trip ASAP to shake the winter rust. Memories…
Preface: Up til Friday I’d never met Kyle Miller in person. Originally heard about him by by way of his occasional trip report on splitboard.com and TAY. Noticed he spent a LOT of time in the Crystal Mountain area, which is near and dear to me (well, near is relative right?), and after seeing his epic Olympics TR I knew I wanted to meet up and ride with him at least once this season, plus I figured I owed him a beer for the ‘behindmydeskcantwaittoquitthisfuckingjob’ stoke he provided me and many others. After you’ve read through some of his TRs on his own site and at frequency I think you’ll agree that dude gets after it!
PMs and numbers were exchanged, forecast looked less than stellar, but we both decided what the hell – any day in the mountains is good, and if we happen to get good turns as well than it’s icing on the cake. Plus, my Heavenly riding buddy Kevin had torn his achilles two days prior – made it hard to pass up an opportunity to play in the mountains after having the reminder that the opportunity to play in the mountains can be snatched from you at any moment.
I’ll let the photos do the talking, long TR short the day went from greybird to bluebird, from western to eastern Washington, from ooooooh to OH SHIT! and finished in the bar drinking to new friends and adventures.
We set off in greybird conditions, hoping to find the sun
Dan skinning
Kyle skins toward the light
Sun rays
Kyle scopes a potential line while Dan captures the moment. We sawed off a small piece of cornice here, could have used a Backcountry Bomb!
Mount Ronyay pokes it's head out. At this point I could have used a namesake beer.
Lunchbreak, eyeing the potential lines.
Dan snapping photos of the ridiculous scenery
Lines lines everywhere
Dan assesses the snow conditions
...and deems them satisfactory
Kyle assesses Dan's assessment
...and agrees
Kyle's jacket, always tough to impress, gives the trip one thumb up
Good trip and good turns, appreciate Kyle Miller and Dan Howell letting me tag along and slow them down. This turns were for you Kevin, hope that achilles heals up in time for next season!
Yes plz. Are there any Novembers you can recall where there have been more bluebird days with fresh? As much as I love a good PNW flat light day, hugging the trees so you can get a feel for slope contours, I’ll take fresh and sun 9 times outta 10. Reports from Baker to Crystal to Hood have all been ridonkulous. Let’s hope this trend holds up!
If you look closely you can almost see the green squares and blue circles...
A little windy at the top
EDIT:
Adding a bit more to the post from earlier to keep an old rider’s memory alive. To save time driving out to the storage shed and digging thru my crap I borrowed a Lib from a buddy, a Tommy Brunner model (was hard to find the board in the US at the time, I think it was a Euro specific model). Damn fun board actually, nose was a bit soft for my liking though I say that a lot so maybe it’s just me. For those who’ve never heard of him, Tommy was a big mountain rider killed in an avalanche in AK a few years back.
SAY WUT?