42 Miler

Dan recently celebrated a birthday and today he finally got to open his present- A 42 mile ride with a whole lot of vertical.

Happy Birthday Dan!

We parked at the top of East fork road and rode the old trail that connects with Thompson Creek Road.  From there we headed down to Applegate Lake.  There is about 1200 vertical to get to the top of Thompson creek road from where we parked the truck.  The road to applegate lake from the top of Thompson creek is traveled frequently by cars- we only saw 2 on the way over.

On the way to the Lake- Carberry Creek

Now once we got there it was time to begin the fun.  It only took 1hr to get to the lake from where we parked the truck. Stein Butte was our goal, ride to the top of that and then head back.  I got the idea from a map I picked up at a local bike shop.  Treadmaps.  Pretty nice map and a lot of information.  I purchased the Southern oregon map.  A few specs on the trail from treadmaps include a Elevation Gain/Loss of 2110ft and a Ascent Total of 3786 feet.  4.9 miles total.  After a few miles up we could tell that this trail was going to be a tough one.  It seemed to go on and on.  It is a really nice singletrack with some very steep sections.

Dan ripping up the Butte.

Once we got to the first ridge top it was quite a view- what we like to call a "double rainbow" experience.

Looking north towards Applegate Lake

At this point it was easy to tell that it was going to be along ride.  We left the truck at 3:30.  It took an hour to get to the lake and we were about 2.5 hours total trip time to this point.  We had a few more miles to go before the turnaround point.  It was going to be getting dark soon.

looking south towards California.  This ride is quite close to the Oregon/ California border

Below you can see some more detail about the Stein Butte Ride

We spent probably about 1.5 hours in very dark conditions.  Good thing 1 of us brought a light.  We also luckily packed our jackets.  The temperature dropped as soon as the sun went behind the mountain.  There was a little cramping on the way back.  There was 1 individual on the ride (not to mention names) who brought 1-21 oz water bottle with Gu Electrolyte brew- its good, but not that good.  Great ride overall.  We climbed a total of 5225 vertical feet.  Right at 5 hours total trip time.  A lot of good memories.  I have realized that the Applegate Lake area really has a lot of good trails to offer. Next time maybe I'll drive over there, maybe not- its always good to get a challenge in.