May 20, Rat Pac

Steve blasts through creek at bottom of Rat Pac.
Trail reroute returns to old exit above high school.

Steve and Scott wanted to ride Rat Pac in Cle Elum. Parked at Scott Gray's, Seattle Firefighters back driveway. The High School Mountain bike races were being held in Roslyn that day, but we climbed up thru the Roslyn Community Forest, that is being logged mid-week, and didn't see any racers. Climbed Alaska (currently called Forest of Endor on trailforks), off of 2nd and Alaska street. Hit the single track trail on the right, called Trees on trailforks to its intersection with Lower Contour (called Todd's Traverse on trailforks). Lower Contour turns into Grotto, which painfully makes its way up to the top of the Ridge. Steve said the last time he climbed with a Roslyn resident, and he was able to ride the entire time. We assumed he climbed Fourth of July Trail to the ridge. We are going to try that next time. After making Steve hike-a-bike so much, as he doesn't have the easy gearing that we have, we opted to skip Upper Rat Pac, and just head down Rat Pac. Trail conditions were perfect, damp and tacky after Saturday nights rainstorm. Scott S didn't make it very far, before he heard brakes sounding like metal on metal. Stopped and looked at his brakes, and that is what they looked like. So, Scott got to make the descent on just the front brake. Super fun descent on primo dirt conditions.  Trail second half pretty much an all new route.   Extension to Cle Elum seems to be gone.  Makes getting back to Roslyn pretty easy.

Scott