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| Seth and Kevin topping out, "Chair 2 Summit" |
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| Lower slopes, Alpental |
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| Seth and Greg wind their way up Meister. |
Dec. 28 Alpental
Still riding the mountain bike, more than skiing. Hooked up with Seth and Greg this Saturday to get few turns in, on the crunchy slopes of Alpental. The ground is fairly well covered, but the skiing was horrible, due to the rains of yesterday and the cooler temps of today. Everything below the fan, to the base, totally sucked. The top half of the mountain was okay. Weather was gorgeous and as usual, just glad to be out skiing.
Dec. 20 Alpental
Thin snowpack, thick snow, still skiing.
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| Don Hecker skinning up gunmount. |
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| Don on Debbie's Gold |
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| Don |
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| Kevin |
Dec 12, Crystal Mt. Ski Resort
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| Kevin and Greg Louie |
Francine had the day off and was itching to get outside. With the forecast a little uncertain we headed for Crystal Mt., picking up Greg Louie along the way. The ski conditions were surprisingly good. Nice packed powder that was very carveable. The snow base was a little thin, but we did very little damage to our skis and the ground was pretty well covered everywhere we went. The sun was even shining most of the morning. Now, if we can only get a little more up at Snoqualmie.
Oct 30/31 Dirt Riding in the Teanaway
Couldn't get my ride buddies lined up for the same day, so ended up riding two days in a row, over the Teanaway Valley. Can't complain.
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| Eric Rides Rock |
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| Scott |
Oct 15, Chinook Pass
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| Kevin boots up from highway 410, Chinook Pass |
Greg and I missed the powder dump about a week ago. Greg still needed to get some October turns, and with no precipitation in sight, we thought we might as well enjoy the sunshine. We considered hiking up to Green Valley at Crystal, but the idea of driving to 5,400' convinced us to try Chinook. Snow was looking a little thin, but there was snow on the ground at the parking lot. We hiked around to our usual spring, north facing slope, and were pleasantly surprised to see pretty good coverage. Snow was firm, but softening in the sunshine. We took four laps and called it a day. We both agreed that we had never worked so little for October turns. Pretty nice to step out of the car and have snow in October.
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| Greg skins up the slope |
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| fall corn snow |
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| Day 1 of the new season! |
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| Kevin |
Oct. 13, Rocky Top - Yakima
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| Kevin navigates the rocks, below the summit of Rocky Top. |
Oct 10, Devil's Gulch
Always a hellacious climb. Trailhead parking lot was open, contrary to reports of road being washed out. We parked two miles down the road at an open gate, due to reports that the trailhead was still inaccessible. Trail was in awesome shape, other than a few side creeks had run big during the last rain event. Quite a bit of erosion at the three stream crossings. We rode up devil's gulch until it intersected with the mission ridge trail. Went a couple of miles further, but whimped out and didn't go to the top, about another mile. It was pretty chilly, the clouds were moving in, and our legs were wearing thin. Ended up with 25.6 miles including the additional 4 miles on road. Downhill was a treat, but you definitely pay for it with a grunt of a climb.
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| Add caption |
Sept 21, Roslyn/ Rat Pack/ Canyon #6
Decided to head east to avoid the rain. Trails were primo above Roslyn. then we hit Rat Pack, which was about as good as I have seen it. Still not fully wiped out, we climbed the logging road back up towards the ridge and dropped into Canyon #6 to finish in Roslyn. Beautiful day. 13.5 miles.
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| Trail conditions were making Francine happy |
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| Steep |
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| Same shot - zoomed in. |
Sept. 12, Roberts Creek Trails, Sunshine Coast BC
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| Kevin switchbacks down Highway 103 |
Yesterday we rode the Hwy 102 trail. Today, we need to ride the Hwy 103 trail. When we were bombing down the mystery trail two days ago, we ran into a biker. She told us how she climbs the trails in the area, so we followed her advice. We parked in the same spot under the powerlines, like two days ago. We headed out the Powerlines to climb on Black Tower. Took that all the way to Cunning Stunts. Climbed to the road and went up DNZ, as it was in the shade compared to the road. We were climbing a downhill flow trail with jumps, rollers and gaps. But generally, we could go around the features. Hit a doubletrack and continued climbing. Originally, we were going to climb Janet's Jungle, to get up to the Dude's Bypass trail. Janet's Jungle trail was going straight up hill, so we continued our nice contour on the doubletrack. After two more intersections, we were at the bottom of Grant's Grind, where we were two days ago. Continued on the double track to the next right, and climbed the double track that turned to trail in the clearcut. Hit a double track and went left. Didn't go right at the next intersection, but went right at the second intersection, which put us at the bottom of Guy's Gulch, where we had been 2 days ago. We were so beat at this point two days ago. Our route choice up today was much easier.
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| Yet, another bridge, this one crossing a big creek. Hwy 103 Trail. |
Headed up Guy's Gulch to the doubletrack, went right, and made our way to the start of Hwy 103 trail. Continued climbing on the 103 trail to the top. On the descent we went right on Red Baron Trail, a "blue square" trail. This basically went straight down the mountain. Another painful loss of elevation for Francine, who did quite a bit of walking. Hit the road, went right, and left onto Charlie Brown to Pumpkin Patch to Lost'n'Found to Patrick's Pass to Black Tower. Once we hit the powerlines, Francine opted to take Black Tower down to the house, like two days ago.
Tomorrow we pack up and head home. Oh - tomorrow is our 16th wedding anniversary.
Sept. 11, Sprockids Mountain Bike Park, Gibsons, BC
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| 5 Way - Heading out Hwy 101 trail to Hwy 102 trail |
We originally discussed driving to Gibsons (15 minutes?) to park the car at the Langdale Ferry, taking the bus back to the house, and starting a point-to-point ride to the car, utilizing a big climb to Hwy 103 trail to Hwy 102 trail to Sprockids Park descending all the way to the ferry at Langdale. We quickly lost enthusiasm for organizing the bus thing. So, we drove to the Sprockids Mountain Bike Park in Gibsons instead.
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| Lots of practice riding log bridges |
We climbed the doubletrack from the car to the Skills Centre. Found Rock’n’Root to start climbing on
Technical Ecstacy to Sidewinder. We
really enjoyed the buff, pine needled trail conditions on Sidewinder. They even made the steep grade somewhat
tolerable. At a 5 way, went straight
onto Hwy 101 trail to Hwy 102 trail.
Continued our climb on the Hwy 102 trail to its end at the B&K
Logging road. Turned around and bombed
back on Hwy 102 trail to the 5 way. Here,
we continued up on Sidewinder Up.
Continued up on Pressure Drop.
Went thru many intersections, staying on Pressure Drop. The signage in the Park is great, but there
wasn’t always a “you are here” marker, so you didn’t always know where you were
on the map. Bypassed “Torrent Trail” as
the sign said it was REAL steep. So was
Pressure Drop, which was a painful loss of elevation, straight down the hillside. Ended up on Upper Flume and Lower Flume. Right next to Upper flume was a nice looking
Flow type trail that we should have taken.
Went by the sign that said “Trial to the Ferry”, so since we didn’t park
waaay down there, we went right, and the trail dropped us out right at the
car. Nice way to end the ride. 14 miles.
Sept. 10, Roberts Creek, Sunshine Coast BC
Today we rode out the Powerlines, up Black Tower to Patrick’s
Pass to Lost’n’Found to continue climbing up Pumpkin Patch, which was on the
edge of a clear cut. Went left on a dirt
road to the main B&K logging road.
Climbed about ¼ mile and went left at the next road intersection for
another ¼ mile to find Dude’s Bypass on the left. Contoured here, and took the third left down
on Grant’s Grind. This dropped us out on
a doubletrack dirt road where we went right and right again at the next
intersection. We climbed the double track which turned into
singletrack near a clearcut. Hit another
doubletrack, went left and right again, still climbing. Saw a faint trail on the left and took
that. Hit an intersection, went right
and started heading straight up. Continued up and up,
with much hike-a-biking until we hit a road.
We were confused as this trail did not seem to be on the map, but we
found our location by turning right on this road to the next intersection,
where we found the start of Hwy 103 trail.
We were fairly pooped, and thought we just climbed Suzies Q, but it wasn’t
on the correct place on the map. So, we
bombed down the mystery trail we just climbed.
Went right at the intersection we were at earlier and contoured over to
the bottom of Guy’s Gulch trail at a 4 way.
Save that one for another day.
Went straight onto Up’n’Over and down to JB Connector. Climbed this to the doubletrack and went left
at the next intersection to climb to the Mach Chicken Downhill. Descended and crossed a road and continued
our descent onto Sleepy Hollow. Crossed
another road and rode out Rod’s Rocky Road to the Circle Loop. Circle Loop had been clearcut, so rode around
the circle down to the powerline road.
Went left to the car.
Francine added on about 1.5 miles, by continuing out the
powerlines about ½ a mile to take a right onto Black Tower. This trail dropped down to Malcom Creek Road
which crossed the highway 101. Descended
on gravel road to a “T” and went right.
At the end of the street was a trail that cut thru the woods “Roberts
Creek S??? District public way trail that dropped out on Robinson and a left
onto a street just opposite from our treet, Stephens. Sweet descent to the house. 14 miles.
Sept. 9, Roberts Creek Oceanfront House, Sunshine Coast BC
Todday, we moved into our waterfront beach house. We took today off from biking and relaxed in
the hottub and Adirondack chairs on the lawn.
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| Kevin basking in the sun |
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| Francine hiding in the shade |
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| Early Morning Calm |
Sept, 8, West Sechelt, Sunshine Coast B.C.
Day two found us with weary legs and some steep climbs. Last
nights ride was a little longer than we planned. The guy in the bike shop yesterday
recommended we start today’s ride from our B&B, but since this ride went
higher than last night’s ride, we opted to park the car higher. The trails around here are quite steep.
Log bridge practice
Francine riding a wide log bridge
Headed up super steep Duroid Hill Road, hike-a-biking most
of the way, about a mile. Saw a faint
doubletrack that was hopefully our trail.
Went left and continued our climb onto Easy Street, right onto Over Easy
and started contouring on Desoto. Went
down on Skullduggery to Beaver Pond.
Climbed to Crowston Lake on Parbac to really start climbing on VFR. This lead to a steep downhill VFR. Rode VFR to the
bottom of Addernach to Lees’s Big Easy, the low point of the ride. Now we started climbing again to get to the
car. Rode 4D to 3D to the PowerLine
trail back to the car. 13 miles.
Sept 7, Sunshine Coast - Halfmoon Bay
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| Ferry boat ride to the Sunshine Coast, B.C. |
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| Rode up Litttle Knives trail in Halfmoon Bay |
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| Lots of moss and pine needles. |
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| Francine |
August 30, Crystal Mt.
Crystal Mt. ride with Chris, Corrine, Heather, and Francine. Trail was a major grunt going up, but was in great shape for the descent. Always a tough, fun, ride.
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| Heather leads the pack up the ridge. |
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| Heather, Francine, Chris, Corrine, and Kevin Mt. Rainier is obscured in the gray. |
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| Chris cruising down Lucky Shot |
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| Corrine drops down to Lower Henskin Lake |
August 27, Moto the Middle Fork
Went creeking on the Middle Fork of the Teanaway with Vic. Unfortunately the first creek flooded Vic's bike and it sputtered most of the rest of the day. After about 8 crossings and lots of brush we gave up and turned around.
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| Vic with wet feet |
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| Skirting the deep end on our way home. |
August 11, Duthie Ride
Hooked up with Chris, Heather, and Mike, with Eleni in the backpack, to do some laps at Duthie. Trails were in great shape and it's always fun to see so many mountain bikers in one place.
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| Kevin, Mike, and Eleni (future mountain biker) |
August 5, Post Canyon / Windsurf
We took yesterday off from riding. This morning we got up bright and early and did another ride at Post Canyon before we had to check out of our rental house. The wind was picking up, so decided to windsurf for a couple of hours, before heading home. Wind was really nice and steady and made for a great day.
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| Kevin starting to get up on a plane. Consistent winds with a 6.0 sail made for a fun day. |
August 3, 2013, Hood River Day 3 – High Prairie
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| Francine climbing Cook's Meadow trail |
Our legs are getting a little tired. Even though our rides have been short, there
seems to be a lot of climbing on the rides.
We decided to do a new ride for us, High Prairie. We parked at the intersection of Forest Road 44
and FR120 at elev. 4550 feet. Went west on FR44, and painfully descended on
pavement about 2.5 miles and approx. 500 feet to Surveryor’s Ridge Trail
#688. (In the future, we would recommend
climbing Trail 474 to FR 1720. Left here
to FR44, to hopefully get a trail descent instead.)
Rode Trail #688 for about ¼ mile and went left on Cooks
Meadow Trail #639 at 2.7 miles. The
trail immediately crosses FR44, and starts out with a good grunt, making you
think you will be hike-a-biking for miles.
Luckily, it has seen re-routes with rideable switchbacks and traverses
across the hill, definitely made by mountain bikers. Even though this was a grunt, the grade was
really rideable for almost the entire trail.
This trail was in great condition for Hood River in August. We climbed up to around 5,200 feet and
descended a couple of hundred feet to gravel FR4410 at 6.7 miles. Went left here and climbed 2 miles to 6,000
feet at High Prairie. Went left on
FR4420 and descended for 1.2 miles to the Eight Mile Creek Trail #450. Here we went left on the trail #450 for our
4.5 mile descent to the car. Bypassed
the 15 mile creek trail on the right on our way down. Trails were in great condition. Fun ride. 15 miles.
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| Cruising downhill at the junction of 8 mile and 15 mile creek trails |
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