Evening ride

Sent by a Dorkus Incredibleus

Time to prepare for Winter

With snow on the mountain tops getting lower every few days, it is time to start buttoning up the house, turning the garden over, and getting the firewood ready.

Though it took a few weeks, Riley is almost done splitting and stacking our firewood for the year.

Why we ride cyclocross bikes

Besides the cross series of races, the cross bike lets us ride more than just pavement at speed, but also the many dirt and gravel roads and light trails. The only downside; washboards at 25mph....

Fwd: Chelan biking

On vacation at Chelan Lake in Washington. The region is big into wine and orchards, along with being a vacation spot. It's a pretty hilly area, which makes it good for biking. This us a shot looking west along a lake above Chelan. Very pretty area. 

Palisades Ride up Willow Creek

A nice quick 19 mile ride up to the Palisades consisting of 11 miles of fire roads up the mountains, and another couple of miles on the ridge line with a 6 mile single track descent. Parts of the trail were unridable, at least by us, because of the grade and the rocks, or downed trees. Some expected the ride to take about 3.5 hours, but it ended up at 5 hours.

The long slog up

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This why the area is called the palisades. Lots of rock piles and open rock slashes.

Really nice views of the valleys below

And the single track starts.... immediately with rocky technical climbing at 8000 feet.

A mile and half of this

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Leading to some fun descending.

The trail had been cleared about 2 weeks ago, but you wouldn't have known it for all the downed trees we encountered.

The view from Willow Creek lookout

This view is from the lookout tower on the East side of the valley towards the West, looking at the Bitterroots. A little bit of brown smog from a few fires in Idaho drifted into the valley. The elevation of the lookout is ~8220 feet.

Tuesday night ride - Calf Creek

This would be a friends first ride in the Bitterroots on her zero suspension bike.

A little walk up a short steep (pictures never look steep) after a long climb.
But rode everything else, including the steep descents.
Calf Creek is a fun ride to do with such varied terrain. Starting with the sage brush down low, up to the pine and fir forests to some near rain forest valleys with marshes.
And finishes up with a great trail across the rolling hillside.

Tin Cup overlook and Shannon Ridge

I like the ride up above Lake Como. If it was paved, it would make an awesome stage in the TDF with some of the smooth switchbacks.

This is the overlook. I was taking a few pictures of the valley when I looked down and realized I was on a rock that was jutting out about ten feet and had a good 60 foot drop to the next rock ledge.

Naturally, I don't have any pictures of the single track descent, too much fun to stop!

Thursday night ride, Twogood Cabin

A fun little ride up to the Twogood cabin and back, along Warm Springs Creek. This is the only section that is smooth and easy, and lasts about 60 meters. At the end, a bbq and beers await.

A casualty from a previous group? Looks like this Marmot may not have been fast enough to avoid getting run over by a bike or horse. Shortly after I passed this guy, another one jumped out in front of me and ran the trail for about 10 meters before diving into a burrow.
Besides the scree fields, this trail has a number of challenging sections with many roots and rocks jumping out at you mixed with crazy sharp and sudden turns.
A tough spot right after a series of tough spots.....
It was warm and muggy, so the stream crossings were quite welcome.
There were many downed trees after the storm a few days prior and many more that had recently been cleared. This is something that you usually encounter on the first rides of the season, not the middle of Summer.
One of the few fast sections on the way up.

Thursday night ride, Fred Burr canyon

Looked like it would rain and be cold on the drive in, but the clouds parted and gave us a nice sunny ride up, though the rains gave us quite a bit or water to ride through.

This is a recently reworked section, but way too short.

Couple of the Wednesday night crew graced us with their presence, only because they did their crazy long ride on Tuesday...

Still a lot of snow in the upper elevations, and still cold up there.

Tuesday eve ride.

No pictures, just wanted to say that the ride went from warm sun, to sprinkles to sun, to driving rain and wind with lightning. I was ready to ditch the bike to wait for the storm to pass. Nothing like riding a lightning rod in a lightning storm.

Thursday Night Ride - Two Bears

A pano from about half way up the climb.

This ride typifies most Bitterroot rides; long climbs at the start, crazy descents at the end.

After some nine miles of climbing, we hit the single track ridge trail.
Naturally, there are a few steep pitches along the ridge. Had a great view of the valley and the area around Corvallis Hill where we live. The top was about 6600 feet.
The final part of the descent. Got pretty crazy with loose rocks and steep cliffs. This trail is shared with motorcycles and we let them pass here. Funny, I can ride this on my bike, but I'm afraid to try it on my motorcycle, yet these guys flew down the hill.

Tuesday eve ride.

Check up on the Hops. They are starting to grow!

And the water dropped about a foot since last week. The bike path is now ridable.

Dead Suzy Ride

Fun little trail on the North side of Lake Como. Short and steep is the best way to describe it.

Oh, it can be pretty rocky too.

Thursday Night Ride - Butter Cup

Butter Cup is a ridge line ride which starts right after a 6 mile climb up forest roads. The views of the Bitterroots was fantastic from the tops of the peaks we were on. Very dramatic.

Here's the abrupt start of the ride where things get interesting.

A nice descent, not as technical as some, though.

With all the rain this spring/summer, the wild flowers were amazing. Normally, by this time of year, they've already wilted.

The final descent into Little Sleeping Child was sketchy due to a combination of loose rocks, overgrown grasses (so you couldn't see the trail), and some very steep sections.

A warm Tuesday eve ride

Finally, we have a day in the 80's. Last week I discovered someone up the road from us growing hops. He said this was his first attempt. Hopefully, we will see the lines full of flowering vines by the end of summer.

This is a shot looking up Mill Creek. There is still plenty of snow on the summits, and more back in the valleys, but it is melting fast. The peak on the left is about 8300 feet.