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.

Trail conditions were making Francine happy

Steep

Same shot - zoomed in.

Sept. 12, Roberts Creek Trails, Sunshine Coast BC

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.

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

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. 

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.Headed

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.

Kevin basking in the sun

 

 

Francine hiding in the shade

 

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

Ferry boat ride to the Sunshine Coast, B.C.

We checked into Nestledown B&B for a 2 night stay in the Halfmoon Bay area.  We think the Sunshine Coast is to Vancouver, like the San Juans are to Seattle.  Only a 45 minute ferry ride from Vancouver gets you to the Sunshine Coast.  Rushed out to ride, at 4pm. 

Rode up Litttle Knives trail in Halfmoon Bay

Rolled down the Lower Road to Sargeant Bay Provincial Park to start our ride.  Headed up Roller Coaster and up Little Knives to the Highway (101).  We rode on gorgeous, moss and pine needle covered trails.  Signage was also nice.  Crossed the highway to Trout Lake.  Then headed on Lumpy, back to the Highway.  Headed up June and up Missing Link, Wally and Fork Off, still climbing up to Woodpecker Ridge.  Finally, after about 7 miles, we started heading downhill. 

Lots of moss and pine needles.

Francine

Hit Datsun Alley to Pterodactyl.  Took a new trail off of Pterodactyl, called Toe.  This took us down, bordering private houses, and well below where we needed to be.  The next trail was called Tac, and we started climbing again.  We were ready to be done, as we needed to eat dinner.  We assumed we still needed to ride Tic, and were still climbing.  After Tic, we kept climbing on Out & In.  Hit Sprockids Run to the school, which finally stopped climbing.  From here it was a long downhill on pavement to the B&B.  Had we known the local trails a little better, and had a better map (which we purchased later), we could have stayed on trails longer.  12.4 miles.

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.

Heather leads the pack up the ridge.

Heather, Francine, Chris, Corrine, and Kevin
Mt. Rainier is obscured in the gray.

Chris cruising down Lucky Shot

Corrine drops down to Lower Henskin Lake