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

.

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.

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.