4th OF JULY MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE

True summer finally arrived on the 4th and so we hit the trails--out to Chuckanut (2-Dollar above) and up to Lake Padden where we took one run at the Expert Mountain Bike course. (Next Saturday, by the way, is the 20th annual Padden MTN Pedal.) 

He we are finishing up on Taylor Dock. I rode the single-speed and thus today, I hurt appropriately. Here's our route:

EARLY MORNING CHUCKANUT RIDE

Sun was up a little after 5 this a.m. and we were on the trails a little before 6. Another early morning Glenn Gervais and the Logos crew ride, always a great time. Up Cleator (on a single-speed, it ain't easy), down Double-Black Diamond (admittedly, I walked much of it), 2-Dollar and back to town. Great way to start the day!

Before heading down, Glenn takes a moment to catch 40 winks.



MORE CLIMBING FOR A RIDE I MIGHT NOT DO

For someone who's only possibly maybe considering riding the Mount Shasta Summit Century, I've sure been putting in a lot of upward-tilting riding behavior lately. Monday was four times up Squalicum Mountain Road with two of the repeats starting at Northshore Drive and Academy Road (15-percent grade for the first few hundred yards). Academy to Toad Lake to Squalicum Mountain is a sustained 3-mile climb that gains just about a thousand feet.

Yesterday was fat-tire climbing Cleator Road and Burnout Road with a side exploration for what seems to be the sadly departed (and ironically named) So Easy trail. Depending on where you start, the roads are good for 40- and 30-some minutes of sustained climbing. Not exactly sure, for unfortunately my beloved Garmin 500 do-hickey kinda went haywire on me. I got caught in a foggy downpour (as the above pic sorta attests) but I hope-slash-can't imagine that that was the cause of my Garmin's current spot of bother. It's certainly not the first time it's gotten wet.

Looking across the Land of the Lost toward Lake Samish and Lookout Mountain (in clouds).

Re: So Easy, known as Ender and Rockyard on Darrell Sofield's terrific Chuckanut Mountains map, I did not --as Bono sings on one of the biggest hits on "The Joshua Tree"--find what I was looking for. Or rather, I didn't find a ridable trail, just sort of a messy (ish) path (ish) that kinda continued but nothing that beckoned, This is the way! Admittedly, I went only a hundred yards or so, but carrying a mountain bike through the above tangle isn't a good idea especially when you're by yourself. So I headed north down the new logging roads across the open clear-cut (incredible views) and met up with the Dictionary Trail (called Overlander on Solfield's map) and back down toward Fragrance Lake Road and the Interurban. Before I did I snapped off a few pics.

Past the clearcut one can see Bellingham Bay and the lowland part of Lummi Island; Chuckanut Mountain (Chinscraper side) is in the foreground. The curving dirt road leads to the Dictionary trail.

Moving a few degrees to the right (east), that's Lost Lake between Chuckanut Mountain and the big ridge one needs to climb to get to the Pine and Cedar Lakes side of the world. 



On the way out, I stopped at Clayton Beach at the south end of Larrabee State Park. (Must remember not to tilt my head when taking self-photos; it don't look butch. And the upside-down glasses behavior looks dodgy as well.)

In other biking news, last Sunday Bake and I headed up to Galby for the first time in perhaps a year. Had a great time. The top Pig and then Atomic Dog (which I kept mixing up with Unemployment Line and refrerring to as Unemployment Dog) which he found great fun!



 Oh, and check out my latest story about 5 Roads to Nowhere in today's Seattle Times.   

AREA MAN POSTS ANOTHER DARN MOUNTAIN BIKE VIDEO

I've been dying to use the song "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse for a video so I cobbled together footage from last summer and last week from Galbraith, Chuckanut and Devils Gulch-Mission Ridge near Wenatchee. Riders are Mellow Johnny (seen above), the Titanium Cowboy, and Matt Rose. Find the vid on YouTube here. Please enjoy.

CHUCKANUT-BLANCHARD MOUNTAIN DOUBLE

Saturday, John Clark and I got a ride in that we've been wanting to do for a while--Chuckanut Mountain, then on to Blanchard. Conditions were perfect--blue sky, temps in the 60s and 70s and, far as we could tell, no wind. After having to stop at the corner of Eldridge and Walnut to watch the largest Donut Ride peloton we've ever seen pass by, we set off in the opposite direction just after 7 a.m. for Fairhaven. There we picked up the Interurban Trail and followed it just about to the end.

From there, it was up Fragrance Lake Road to the Lost Lake Trail, where we took a right (passing by the base of Little Chinscraper/Double Black Diamond) up, up, up to the shoulder just above the Lost Lake basin. Here we took a right (where the Dictionary used to be) and after passing through some disgusting mucky pond-puddles headed down, down, down a steep rocky gully on what the map calls the Overlander Trail. By map, I refer to the super-useful Chuckanut Recreation Area map (Square One Maps) which I highly recommend.

Eventually things level out, then go down some more, then up, then down and so on. Back here, it's all forested and winding dirt and gravel roads, the intersections of which all look basically the same so the map was invaluable. We'd ride for a bit, stop and consult the map, ride due south, consult the map then ride due north, then due south and so on. (See super low-tech map image below that kind of shows our route penciled in.)

With somewhat a sense of relief we hit the British Army trail, which was our super-steep Stairway to Blanchard. According to the map, it climbs 580 feet in just over a mile but I bet most of this is in the first three-quarters of a mile. We'd ride (seemingly straight up), then walk, then ride when we could, then walk, eventually making it to Lizard Lake where we dined on Power Bars, some kind of chicken wrap thing I bought at Haggen's that morning and Gatorade. From there we headed east along the lake, past a horse camp, to the Alternate Incline Trail which gets my vote for the funnest descent we've ever done on a mountain bike. Steep, but not scared-for-my-life steep, rather just this side of my downhill abilities.

From there, Road 1000, map-map-map, until we rode around a locked gate, passed a No Trespassing sign and popped out onto Roy Road near Camp Lutherwood at the far west end of Lake Samish. A great ride. Other folks do this ride and add the back way into Pine and Cedar lakes but we'll save that for another day. As it was, our stats were 40 miles, 4-1/2 hours of riding time, 4,400 feet of climbing.

IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO RAIN

Forecast said clearing was on the way so John, Vanderstaay and I headed down the Interurban to the Burnout Road and all the way to the top. Lots of climbing on the Burnout with three crazy-steep pitches. Rained harder the higher we got and the descent wet, cold, and slippery. Especially cold. Fast and muddy too, as shown by the above photo of John Clark who, with his mud mustache, resembles Charlton Heston in "Touch of Evil."

A really fun ride. Below, John and Steve make to the top of the second crazy-steep pitch enveloped in a rain cloud.

We shall do more rides like this!