Heading upAaron, Kendall and I headed over to the Gulch on Saturday, June 15. This is our favorite mountain bike ride, bar none - it kicks your butt with 14 miles and 4000' of climbing (on the road, the easier way up) then rewards you with 12 miles of sweet, sweet singletrack downhill. We were eager to understand the condition of the trail given the extensive forest fires we had last summer - the trail was closed in late August for that reason. June is early to ride the gulch, but there was no snow even up at the top of the Mission Ridge, and the trail was smooth and dry.
We were surprised to see the road closed to cars just after the access road turns to dirt, and we couldn't figure out why because it was in good condition all the way to the normal parking area. We rode up the road (the trail is for manlier men than us - it takes significantly more energy to ride up), and the second leg was still severly washed out in several places.
Aaron and Kendall at the lower Devil's Gulch trailhead
With sore arses, we reached the top of the Mission Ridge trail and dropped in. The forest service had done a great job of clearing the trail - many blowdowns had to be cut to open it up.
Aaron riding through a scree section on the upper trail.
We quickly came across remnants of the burn, most of which were on the upper (Mission Ridge) trail. The trail was as good as it gets - not too dry so minimal dust kicking up and a perfect 70 degrees. We rode the whole thing in about 4 hours, and finished up with a beer and the fantastic barbeque at Country Boys in Cashmere
Ready for the down!
Kendall on the trail, Tronsen Ridge in the background.
No comments:
Post a Comment