Look of the future. DNR sign post.
Lot's more trails still to be built.
We had to pick up the white car from the shop in Fall City today (recharge AC), so we made a bike ride out of it. Originally, we were going to ride Tokul, but at the last minute changed plans for Raging River. Francine has ridden it twice, out and back, to the clearcut, before the grand opening on May 19th, and conditions were great. This is a lollipop ride. You start on the stick, and go left, clockwise around the lollipop, making your way back to the stick for your fast, screaming fun descent. They now have an uphill only trail called Upward Mobility to Stan's Overlook, about 3 miles? From there to the end of the stick, to the intersection with "Return Policy", you are on a two-way trail, with pretty good sightlines. When we got to the clearcut (about 7.5 miles), our original destination where we were supposed to turn around for an almost all out descent (except for a short .5 mile uphill), we opted to complete the entire loop. After about 9.5 miles, we hit the top, and we descended No Service down to the river at the bottom. This is a black rated trail, which had Francine walking in a few spots, more as we got closer to the bottom, where the trail gets steeper. At the end of the trail, went right on the road for about 1/2 miles to the start of the uphill on "Return Policy". The bottom mile of the trail is in a clear cut, but there seemed to be much more shade than I remembered. Must be time of year (did last year in July & August) and temperature (was 85 each day last year). After about 1,000 feet of climbing, we were back at the end of the "pop", and ready to start the screaming descent on the "stick" portion of the lollipop. How can a trail be this much fun? The sight lines were generally fantastic, which meant there were sections you could see no one climbing, and seriously let the bike rip. The corners, rollers, berms, and high speed sections were an absolute blast. Again, how can riding your bike be this much fun. Once back a Stan's Overlook, the new descent only trails start. "Poppin Tops Upper" is rated black, but really only because of two, sort of steep, bermed, corners/switchbacks. Totally ridable for Francine, with just a little apprehension on the first time. This should be changed to a Blue-Black rating. This turns into "Poppin Top Lower", "Flow State Upper" and "Flow State Lower", all blue rated trails. We normally don't like flow trails, which all 4 of these are, but they were so much fun and in awesome shape. 20 miles. 4100 feet elevation. What an awesome descent. Quite tired though.
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| Francine on "No Service". Only hand built trail in the loop |
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