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.
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....
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.
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
.
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
.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
