Find of the Day

Came across this while riding tonight out in the middle of a meadow. Neato . . .

Video of Don riding "Primal Scream" Trail

On a recent July 5th ride at Ft. Lewis (area 23), William W. took this video shoot of Don D. riding the tough, and steep pitched “Primal Scream” trail.

Preping for Primal Scream takes some
psyching up and mental preparation.

Welcome to William W. & Dog Rescue

We’ll have more to pics and a video to follow on this shortly yet first an introduction to William W (Left) who joined Don D., and John for his first mountain bike ride today. William rode a nice full suspension bike (Kona King Kikapu) rented from the Bike Stand. For a first-timer, he did amazingly well in hopping over logs and navigating some of the more technical pieces today. A dog also joined us today. In spite of providing him a lot of water, the distance and heat just got to be a bit too much. We drove a truck in to extract him out of the woods with about a mile to go. Not worth risking the well-being of “man’s best friend.”

(@Right- Don & William)

Remote Trails Can Be Lonely -- Affected by Recession Too?

A few of us went up to the South Fork Skokomish River area (South of Lake Cushman) for what we recalled two years ago as “heavenly single-track.” Things change over time. Marriages do. Friends do. The type of cars we drive. Our bodies do. Work and trails do too. Over time, trails can become overgrown, and in a tough economy, coupled with remoteness can yield tough passages, whether biking, or hiking. So no heaven today. We parked a ¼ mile up North from the Brown Creek Campground area, rode up FS Rd # 2300 to #2361 to its end – about 12 miles.

Going back down the river involved taking trail #873. The first 1.6 miles goes fine until you come to a river crossing. When you cross (wade) the river you end up with a “hike-a-bike” bush-whack for about 3-4 miles. There were several sections of trail completely washed out by the river, and other sections of trail with 4-6 huge trees to climb over, under or largely deviate around -- places where one only gains a mile in a single hour. If you decide to not to cross the river (like we did initially) you end up with a “hike-a-bike” that drops over a cliff down to the river, or leads up a jeep trail back to #2361.
Here’s what we recommend based on our lessons learned.

• Park at Lebar Creek Horse Camp. (Don’t forget the $5 day fee like we did or you could receive a citation.)
• Ride trail #800 out that then connects to #873 after about a mile (heading in a northerly direction). The first 5 miles of the trail is quite well maintained along with a few technical pieces, including 7-8 quite steep, sharp-turning, and very exhilarating down-hill switch-backs as you head out. Coming back you may likely find some way too steep and long to ride.
• After 5-6 miles out on the trail, it sort of disappears and it becomes quite overgrown with vegetation. When you start hitting / seeing logs across the trail or see the trail head over a cliff to the river, that’s the sign to turn around and go back down (by sometimes going up very steeply).

Net for the day: 25-26 miles, 5 hours, 2,100’ in elevation gain, and twitching muscle spasms towards the end makes for spastic partners for one’s significant other (the wives). Fireworks and a good meal soothes the worst parts of this though.

“Magnificent Seven (7)” Ride

Seven of us gathered (gaggled?) today and had one swell ride from Yelm area toward Rainier direction and back. There was lots of fun single-track and friendly yammering throughout the “3-hour-tour.” A fair amount of the trail was so overgrown it segued to “ride-by-faith.” The weather never “started getting rough” and the bikes never got “tossed,” and no bike or rider ever got marooned (on a “tropical isle” -- weak analogy to “Gilligan’s Island” here). Someone (think it was Al?) coined the group “magnificent seven.” The question surfaced, “what happens if there’s an 8th . . . and, someone pronounced . . . “I thought there’s only 6 of us?” There was either too much lactic acid buildup or not enough oxygen intake at that point because I don’t recall anyone responding. Sad to say we had to “take a body count” a number of times just to make sure there was actually seven. SOME thought there truly was only 6.
Video: Bill and Al.

Join us in saying “welcome” to Bill. E. (far Rt.),
and
Barrie W. (we never use last names for privacy).
Barrie shot many of these pics. Thanks Barrie!

Armor & Low Slung Top Tube = Amour

Tried out a Specialized P2 “Jumper” bike this afternoon on single-track for 1 ½ hours. Jumped on and off everything one could - rocks, big roots, gaps, holes, but the 5-6” high log was a TOTAL show-stopper. I literally became “hung up” attempting to jump over it. The front tire cleared it perfectly and like perfect science the momentum started to carry forward and glide over the front chain ring and bash guard until it met . . . the rear tire and science decided to flunk my sophomore moves and the bike from any forward inertia. Science stopped everything. Mr. Zech, my high-school science teacher, was undoubtedly laughing. Is it ironic there are skulls and cross-bones painted on the bike’s down tube?

In another bold (asinine?) move one launched off of a 6” ramped up log only to find out that both feet CAN actually LIFT completely OFF the pegs a couple of inches and land back down with a “thump.” NOTE: this is not a good sign, and it should scare the bejeebees out of one if it happens.

Today’s science lesson is: Body Armor = Amour. Low slung top-tube = precious and priceless.

Short Intense Ft. Lewis Area #23 Ride Today

An interesting profile of an intense ride today.
Thanks Jeff for the mapping provided at this link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6350343

Roadies Suprised by Non String Being & Pimped Mtn Bike

One of us P.O'd a couple of "roadies" on separate occasions Friday afternoon on a paved Chehalis-Western "recovery" (HA!) ride of 32 miles. The riders weren't happy to see your editor being less than 6', and . . . stocky keeping up with them as "string beings" for respectable distances on a "Pimped Out" mountain bike compared to their fancy-smansie racing bikes. This editor thought he lost one particular rider only to come around a corner to see him red-faced, drinking, and leaning up against his bare-boned elegant racing bike. He looked stupefied to see someone on a mountain bike, full Camelback pack on, and mouth guard hanging from a chin strap. He was panting, mouth wide open, and eyes followed suite. He looked absolutely stunned. It was precious and worth every forced pedal stroke this editor delivered. The muscle burn was worth it! (Okay, tomorrow we'll recover.)

Sprint and Leisure

Started the day with a 9 mile sprint up and back from Benham Falls parking lot to Lava Lands Visitor Center. 777 feet elevation gain, running 32 minutes out and 26 minutes home. Sweet ride - i.e., no snow or falls like yesterdays five hour hike-a-bike marathon. Just what the doctor ordered.

Second ride of the day was a nice family ride - about 9 of us altogether. Helen and Maggie toughed it out for 10 miles, though Helen did not enjoy the single track and Maggie is now running a fever. Suzanne took her Yukon on it's madien voyage and has a couple of bruises to prove it. Pinky's rear brake seized up - only one bolt left on the disc. Took one from the front and nursed it home on the front brake when required. Picture is of Suzanne on her new ride with Maggie and Uncle Pete trailing behind. Heading home to Olympia in the morning.

Doing "B52 Bomber"

Awesome views today with a 19 mile, 4 hour, 2,400’ elevation gain ride. Started from Summit Lake area up B5200 (a.k.a., the “B52 Bomber”) to Rock Candy Mountain saddle and back. Legs got spent way early in the ride while trying out a new seat. During the first 2.5 miles and steep 1000’ pitch, the seat was initially angled down far too much. It changed the whole dynamics of leg leverage and peddling. Adjusted the seat two more times and finally found the sweet spot but legs were tapped after already experiencing such a l-o-n-g edgy muscle burn. Here’s pic of the Sound from Rock Candy and a vid of Summit Lake and South Sound.

Hike-a-Bike-athon

Note to self: Memorial Day weekend is too early to ride Cultus Lake. A normal 2 hour, 12 mile ride was a five hour marathon of pushing bikes through snow and much hoisting of iron ponies over winter falls. Egads. Notwithstanding, Pete and the boys (Christian, Michael and Bryant) were troopers. The effort was rewarded with shakes and fries for the boys and pie a-la-mode for the men at Cultus Lake Resort when all was said and done. Looking to ride the lower elevations around Sun River tommorow with the wife (on her new (used rental) full-sus Giant Yukon FX). Here's to seeing today's ride in the rearview and tommorow's ride yet a dream of bliss on rubber on dirt.

mtbMistress.

Edge 705 Initial Exploration

A 01:44:20 ride covering 11.48 miles and 623 ft of elevation gain. That is what Edge tells us. The Edge misses, of course, the sun, the trees, the roots, the puddles, and the companionship. A good exploration ride today, mostly on double track and a few single track sections which had been previously discovered. And, the maiden voyage for the Edge. Will be nice when the Topo Maps are loaded - still hoping I can add trails to the Topo using some third party software. Will have to wait for that. In the meantime, you can (I think) check out the ride.

Mystery Poles & "Go Figure 8" Work(aholic) Out

One is wondering about this mystery of poles found today on a trail waaaaay out in the woods off of Kennedy Creek area. Any ideas? (They are 6-7' tall poles, and mostly all debarked.)

Today was “Go Figure 8” (like last weekend) and “Then Some” (extra special pain hill-riding) today at Kennedy Creek. Goal was and has been to focus on hill climbing skills, and middle-gear workouts. We didn’t do the very steep “Heart Attack Hill” today but the next one, “LSDH” – Long, Steep, Daunting, Hill.

Today there were about 80-100 horse trailers parked under the power line at Kennedy Creek for the “Back Woodsman, Fun Trail Ride.” We talked to the organizer and she told us they got approved a bunch of new trails in this area (Green Triangle), and started punching them in shortly before this ride. They are well marked with yellow and orange hanging survey tape. We went on a few tails but kept running into horses. Some of the new trails are steep, very narrow, and rocky "baby-head" rough, especially dropping DOWN from “Windy Gap” (the scenic area previous pics were taken from.)

Stay in touch. Phone is on. So are we, except for Jell-O-ee legs. (They're out of commish for the evening until they can "get pumped" . . . up again tomorrow, maybe? Please? Please!)

Garmin Edge 705

At last I have taken the plunge and it has arrived. The Garmin Edge 705 - the ultimate in bike tech geek according to one article I read. Just out of the box and no playing with it yet. It is smaller than I thought it would be. Not a lot of information out there on how to use it, particularly in the manner I hope to - cartography 101: riding our home trials and creating accurate maps to share. Looking forward to the first ride this Saturday and the ensuing learning experience in map making. Stay tuned - hope to post maps of Ft. Lewis riding areas soon that make sense of the maze.

Remembering Mother's Day in a Fatherly Way

In honor of Mother's Day -- an early Father's Day ride yesterday with 2.25 hrs of hill-climbing, 12 miles & 2,200 feet elevation gain. 1st pic shows Eld inlet (?) near Shelton, and 2nd pic shows Olympics in the background.

Gum Surgery Recovery Ride and Nothing to Say

A ride with friends that took John's mind off throbbing pain (in the mouth). [Jeff, Don, Todd, Lisa]

This just in over the AP wire...

Galbraith Mountain, Bellingham, WA. - On a bright, sunny Monday afternoon, two brothers set out to conquer the mountain and did. A nice long burn going up as the elder adjusted to clipless pedals. The younger stopped at one point causing the elder to also stop. This led the elder to gracefully tilt to the left, whilst struggling to unclip, ending with full contact with the gravel road. Much loosening of the pedal tension later, the elder began clipping and unclipping with practiced ease. Upon arriving at the top of the mount, with cell towers pointing to the skies, the descent began. A full vista of Bellingham and the Northernmost waters of Puget Sound glistening before them, the brothers carved up succulent single track like it was so much medium-rare prime rib. With horseradish spicy dips and turns, the trail led first down and then across the mountian. An unbelievable run with only short intervals of gravel road to traverse before the next course was served up. But for a fading sun and a child to be picked up, the two would have stayed for dessert. A four-star day - both the company and the trail. Will look to repeat in June, perhaps starting earlier in the day so that we may repeat the repeat in a single repast. (Sorry no photos - the knucklehead younger left the camera in the car!)

Gum Surgery and Not Really A Ride

Other day one had gum graft surgery. Plus drugs. One tried to ride a bike on flat trail surface tuday and tupid bike wobbled way much side-to-side. So, after hour. One quit. But had to go down steep hill and fall down. No pain though! Happy happy!

Teen Nephews Visit to “Kick-Out-The-Jams” (Ref. MC5)

Jeff’s teen nephews Christian (center), and Eric (right) were up from Redding, CA for a visit, and joined us for a MTB ride today. They did excellent on the single track (well duh, they’re young, and full of testosterone!), and though we sort of got slightly displaced (never lost), they still were exclaiming “at least we’re having fun.”
Today’s jaunt was about 2 ½ hours, 90% up and down swooping, and twisty-turning single-track at area #21 and numerous trails at the power line. “Love the paths off the line."

Have a healthy and stellar week ahead . . . and better than the last!

More Please . . . Cross Country?

Little to say here yet could we have a little more please? Pic: John E, Ron (pointing to more), and Al on Saturday. Sunday, Jeff H. and John S. walked out the door to push for more . . . new single track -- some brutal. John went "man down" two times and another "stupid one" over the handle bars going over a log. (Jeff: "Let go of the front brake dude!")

Riding time this weekend about 6 hours. It’ll have to do. Whoot for more!