Bloated Skiing

July 24, Winthrop - Starvation Mountain

Saturday was a day off. Kevin & Don went rock climbing, and Francine & Val went to the farmer's market in Twisp.

Today, Val had a meeting in Twisp at 2pm, so we got her to shuttle us most of the way. Climbed a mile or two to the start of the ride. Unfortunately, quads are finding their way onto many trails in the area. It didn't help that this section down to the Blue Buck trail was also a firebreak when they had the big fire a few years ago. I believe motorcycles are allowed, but NOT quads. So, we had 5 miles of quad/moto style road/ trail, instead of nice narrow track. At the intersection of Blue Buck trail, what was once sweet, narrow singletrack, had also been visited by quads. After about 5 miles, we came to a big intersection with roads. Surprisingly after this, the quads went another way. And once we left the burn, we had some fun, narrow singletrack. Not sure if I would do this ride again. Too much road, quad track, burn area, etc. from what was once an awesome singletrack downhill. 15.5 miles with shuttle.

Don rides through the burn

Francine

River crossing

July 22, Winthrop - Bear Mountain & Middle Fork Figure 8

Third day of riding. New ride for us. Climbed forest roads and came down on Bear Mountain Trail. They ran a race on the first half earlier in the year, so it was a little beat up. The next half of the downhill was quite nice. Settled in for another road climb to the Middle Fork Trail. The first half mile saw the once narrow single track turned into quad tracks. Fortunately, at .6 miles, the trail contoured around a hill, and the quads had to turn around. After that, we had narrow, primitive single track. Nice, sweet descent. Another perfect day with the weather in the 70's. 15.5 miles.

July 21, Winthrop - Sun Mountain

Val is still on the hard-tail, so Sun Mountain is next. Convinced Don & Val to drive up to the mountain and ride more loops up there. Parked at Chikadee Trailhead. They usually ride from their place. Did Rodeo, Fox, Black Bear,Winthrop Trail, Patterson Lake, Up Radar Creek, down Magpie to the cabin and had lunch. Went out Yellow jacket, Fox out to Aqualoop. Back on the road to Yellowjacket, up Cris Cross to Overland and back to the car. Great ride, as the trails were nice and hard pack. We are used to coming in October, when the trails are loose and real dusty. Thank the wet spring. 17.7 miles.

Patterson Lake Trail - Headed to Radar Creek

July 20, Winthrop - Buck Mountain

We got invited to Don and Val Hecker's place in Winthrop for the week. We had a great time last year, and were excited to go back. Temps are only in the 70's, as opposed to the 90's. Val's suspension pivot was fried, so she had to rent a 29er hardtail until the parts came in, so we had leisurely breakfast before heading out to the trailhead. Everything in Winthrop is green with their wet spring. Had a nice 3 mile climb up the road before hitting the trail. This ride, which was once trail pieced with roads, is now awesome narrow singletrack. The new upper section seems to be the obvious way to ride the loop. Coming off the top, the bushes are growing, making the swoopy, turny trail a little hard to see. Near the end, Don wanted to also ride to Buck Lake, but we were done, and Val needed a different seat, so we booked down to the car. Trails were hadpack and smooth and narrow. This is a must do, short loop. 13.5 miles.

Val

Francine

July 17, Golden Spike, Tokul

Kelly took us out to show us the Golden Spike trail, a new connector between Tokul West and Tokul East. Trails were a little wetter than we expected. Went up Tokul East to Golden Spike and down Tokul West. Great to have a new option to change up the ride and be able to ride both areas. Can't wait to go back when conditions are drier. 14 miles.

July 13, Cooper River Trail, Salmon la Sac

Caught the Cooper river trail in excellent shape. Thanks to Tim B and EMBA for brushing out the section along Cooper Lake. Rode up to the Wilderness border, halfway to Pete lake, then spun around and rode back to the Salmon La Sac trailhead. About 14 miles - do this out and back - old guidebooks recomended some kind of loop.

June 26, Chinook Pass

Steve Sandberg drops in for the first run of the day.

Kelly motivated me to go ski Chinook Pass with him. He had talked about skiing Chinook Pass a couple of months prior. I am sure he did not realize the pass would take until June 23 to open. Chinok offers some great end of season skiing. It's pretty nice to be able to start on snow, right from car, in June. Kelly, also, invited his buddy Steve, to keep the pace manageable. Steve had the full downhill setup with heavy Volkl powder skis and Marker duke bindings paired to his Dalbello Pro boots. Kelly took the lightweight approach and borrowed a dynafit setup from me. Steve might have been a little more worked by his heavy equipment, but he looked pretty happy, once he pointed the skis downhill. Did the Naches Peak circumnavigation. Parked just on the East side of the pass, then circled clockwise into the nice backside bowl. Took two runs on the back then dropped the frontside back down to the highway. Timing was perfect as we followed the warming snow around Naches Peak.

Steve

Kelly boots the final pitch to the summit ridge

Kelly

Steve

Still a little bit of the snowpack left.

June 23, Taneum

Took the green dot roads over to Taneum and enjoyed the entire area, by ourselves, as the main access road was washed out this spring. Pushed Francine's limit on some of the rugged singletrack.

Francine rides through a meadow.

June 15-19, Bend with Bob

Signed up for another Evergreen MTB assoc. ride organized by Bob Bournique. Location was Bend, OR., with camping right in the middle of the "Phil's" trail system. We had about twenty riders, and either I am getting slower, or the standard is getting much higher. Everyone was in great shape, and Bob punished us for our fitness by laying out some excellent long rides, all starting from camp.

Bob rails around a corner on Mrazek trail

Ken cruising

Half the group

Last day - Gray Butte

Good views / Good descents

Post ride jump!

THURSDAY 6/16 - 28 miles: KGB - GS - down lower Storm King - up Funner - down Tiddlywinks - Storm King - COD - 4610 road - GS - KGB.
FRIDAY 6/17 - 30.5 miles: Marvin's Garden - Phils Trail to Helipad - down Storm King - up Deschutes River Trail to Benham Falls for lunch. Back down Deschutes River Trail to Entrada Lodge - up COD - Marvin's Garden.
SATURDAY 6/18 - 32.5 miles: Marvin's Garden - Ben's - Skyliner - up 4601 road - down Mrazek - 4606 road to Phil's - Marvin's Garden.
SUNDAY 6/19 - 15 miles: Grey Butte loop with out an back to Burma Road, and down the trail to Skull Hollow.

June 9, Syncline

Third day of riding. Maybe we should of picked something with less climbing. However the views made it all worth the climb. Unfortunately, we took Hidden Valley trail down, which was narrow, sidehill, and had occasional tough rock sections, all flanked by poison oak. Next time will do a more moderate trail for the downhill.

June 8, Post Canyon, Hood River

We've ridden Post Canyon for years and years. Our host at the house we rented for 3 days, David, offered to lead us around. He took us up Seven Streams, our normal up route to the Family Man area. We then hit 8-Track, a new trail for us. At the intersection of The Boot Trail, David had to head back for an appointment, so we continued on without him. Did The Boot Trail and the new Twin Peaks Trail. Started heading up Upper 8-Track, but turned around as we didn't want to climb, and didn't have a map. Took Trail 158 as a sweet descent. Then went up to Mitchell Ridge and down to the car. These were probably the best dirt conditions we have had. Not slippery, very few puddles, and perfect dirt. It is nice to see the improvements and new trails added to the system. New signage is also nice, even if they use numbers instead of trail names. 14 miles.

Kevin at the bottom of a sweet descent on Trail 158

Trail name that only a County land manager could love.

June 7, Hood River - Hospital Hill

Headed to Hood River with Francine for three days of riding, around the town of Hood River. Today, we paid our toll to cross the Hood River Bridge and drove to the hospital in White Salmon, Wa.. Rising above the hospital is a huge hill that has some tasty singletrack. We tried to make the tough climb to the top even harder by doing the switchbacks from hell (millenium trail). With the hillside falling away and thanks to the cattle grazing the area, we were barely able to climb the thin ribbon of trail. Once up top we had stellar views and enjoyed perfectly tacky trails. A bit of work, but a sweet ride. 13 miles, lots of up.