Pat and Larry have their time in Lake Chelan Shores, as they have 7 weeks. We are sneaking over there on Kevin's 4 day. They have two weeks in a row this time.
Got there on Tuesday, about 12:30pm with an easy drive. Had lunch at the unit, and plopped ourselves at the lake, in the shade, under our usual tree.
Wednesday, July 28, we went Mountain Biking up at Echo Ridge. The trails up there are getting better and better. They are letting the road bed that most of the trails are on turn to single track. They used to drive and mow the entire path, which kept the road double track. Tim's, the resort at the bottom of the road, is selling, and you can't park at the corner, where the pavement turns to dirt anymore. So, we headed out about 1/2 mile on Cooper Gulch Road and parked at a small pullout.
There happened to also be a trail at the pullout, so we headed up that. It dropped in behind Tim's Resort/Cabins and the ski area, and came out at the start of the climb, Switchback Alley. Up we went, going right when we hit The Shoe, as we wanted to check out the new trail Divine Intervention. It was built as a downhill, but it made a nice climb up to an old road turned single track. Went left here, and coasted generally downhill to the lower parking lot. Took Lot-to-Lot to the upper parking lot for a rest. Next, we took Upsy-Daisy to descend on Zippity-Do-Dah. Both these trails were fun and singletrack. Zippity drops up off at Chaos Corner. Here we went left on the road for 1/4 mile to an unmarked singletrack along the fence. We think they will be building trails out in this section of the property. The path went for about 1/2 mile before ending at Alley Oop.
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| Francine climbing The Shoe |
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| Climbing Divine Intervention |
There used to be another trail that continued on, but it might have been on private property, as the owner moved his fenceline this year, and the start of the trail is now on his property.
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| Francine riding thru the burn from a couple years ago on Dust To Glory |
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| Francine on Waterbar Heaven |
Here we went right on Alley Oop back to Chaos Corner. Rolled up and down on Windsinger (which is much easier than Nuthatch - a road) to Grand Junction. Climbed Morning Glory to High Five Junction. Went right down Far East to Dust to Glory out to the North Junction. Here we took our final descent down Waterbar Heaven to finish at Tim's Resort. They have been working on Waterbar Heaven, and time, has also turned it into a funner singletrack descent. Finished with the 1/2 mile slight uphill on Cooper Ridge Road to the car. 15 fun miles.
Thursday, we opted out of biking. Went to town and the museum and hung out at the lake. Did we say is was hot? 97 degrees today. The wind finally picked up in the afternoon, and Kevin made it out on his windsurfer. We had calm weather on Tuesday and Wednesday. Did we say that the lake is warm also? Not sure how warm it will get in August. A little unnerving for the lake to be so warm.
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| Kev out front of Lake Chelan Shores |
Friday, our last day. We headed up to Echo Ridge again to bike. This time we parked on the paved road, at Switchback Alley (3000 feet). Climbed that using our same ascent as Tuesday, ending at the upper parking lot. Our plan was to ride Outback and Mallory's trail to the top, at 4324 feet. Headed out No-Where to Hide, a doubletrack, to Spaghetti Junction. Went right on road 8010 shortly to a left onto Little Critter to T-Bone dropping us out at North Junction. Instead of descending Waterbar Heaven, we climbed Outback on the new sweet climbing trail. Went right on the Outback loop and climbed to the top on Mallory's trail. Nice new climbing trail.
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| Francine - Outback trail counter clockwise |
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| Kevin at top of Mallory's Trail at top of Outback Mountain |
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| Francine signing journal at top of Outback Mountain |
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| Francine descending Mallory's Trail |
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| View of Lake Chelan |
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| Descending the only rocky section of Mallory's Trail |
After finishing the Outback loop and returning to North Junction, we climbed Lickety Split to Big Critter to climb Far East, so we could descend on Morning Glory. Went right onto Upsy-Daisy descended Lot-toLot to Divine Intervention to The Shoe and final descent on Switchback Alley. Fun day. 19 miles. The Trailforks app said 5,000 feet of climbing today, but we don't believe it.
