|   Quicky Epics or Falls Creek Flash (SS forum x-post) | red-haze
Jun 16, 2002 11:08 AM | | 21 miles may not be quite epic length, espcially if most of it is downhill, but me quads be talking to me today!
I was locked out of riding the Tour De BlaSSt on my singlespeed Saturday as they stopped taking registrations a few days ago. imagine my sadness ;)
instead i led a ride up into the gpnf to check out conditions on Falls Creek Trail. Sam and Josh showed up from Vancouver, WA and I took Sue's son Alex up the Windy River Highway to Oldman pass, after first stashing the shuttle rig at a super cool campsite near the bottom. yea, ya, i know, the S word, get over it...besides, oh nevermind.
I was the lone SS and as usual full rigid too (but that 3" front tire is soooo sweet). 
Even with the shuttle there is still plenty of climbing, but its the fun, rooty and rocky kind we worked our way up the trail towards the horse camp. but first, we must try to ride over SNOW! yes, there is still plenty of snow in the high country (3500'+) and we had fun riding as much of it as possible. wish ida got the camera out to take pics of alex pedalling furiously with the velociraptors shooting up a rooster tail. but alas, whenever we stopped immediate involuntary blood donations were made.
but we did stop to play at a teeter-totter
I give it a shot
Alex makes it over 
Josh makes his mark 
and Sam does it too 
soon after this we really hit the snow. its a good thing i know this trail pretty good, because a forest under snow looks nothing like it does in the summer. after about a mile of hike a bike, the snow disappeared and the d/h began. no pics because it is just TOO much fun going over the little rocks and drops and logs and swoopy swervy corners to stop for such stuff. Several times there were great views of Mt Hood.This forest is quite a bit drier than what we have on the west side of the cascades, but not as dry as Bend, OR so its actually possible to see a few feet into the forest and enjoy the big straight trees 
having scoped out this trail before, I don't like to have to ride 4-5 more miles of stupid road at the end just to get back to the shuttle rig. so two years ago I scoped out a cross-country route that goes over the wind river, without benefit of bridge. well, mebbe this log qualifies as a bridge, but there were two more crossings and we ended up getting our feet wet.
and Josh decided that it wasn't too deep to ride.
(not his bike...can ya tell?)
Falls Creek is always enjoyable and this was no exception. Alex got to test his new avid mech disc brakes and i was looking forward to seeing what the trail was like, 'specially with the SS. Josh and Sam got a new trail to add to their repitoire (sp?). Now to just get them to ride it as a loop...hehehe.
Bike ON!
bob
http://red-haze.com |
| Nice RR and Pics..... | Battman42
Jun 16, 2002 8:06 PM | | I am planning a trip up that way at the end of July and hope to hook up with Oldschool who is taking a week there at the same time.
Tim |
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