Findley Night Ride

It is starting to get dark earlier now.  I headed out about 8:15 and darkness was falling fast.  I climbed fairly quickly up Findley tonight right at 31 minutes to the top.  Most of the climb was in the dark.  On the way down I saw a black tail sticking up in the air, right on the edge of where my light could reach.  I slowed down to soon realize it was a Skunk.  I went slowly along the road hoping that it would veer off into the brush.  Unfortunately it just walked along the road for probably 3/4 of a mile.  Finally it decided to leave and I was able to get down the mountain.  I think I would like to get a more powerful light to pick up on these critters a little more quickly!

Findley evening ride

Tonight we wanted to go on a slightly longer ride than just findley and back.  The standard Findley ride is right at 9 miles.  This evening it was 11 miles.  We went up the next ridge, near a logging operation.  There is a great view from up there, there is one more ridge to climb up there to get a panoramic view.  We stopped at the first saddle.  See the locations on the map.  We were able to talk as we climbed --we weren't going 100%.  We still made good time to the top.  I forgot to reset the timer so I don't have an exact time for the ride.  It was about 1hr 15 minutes.  Most of the time on the climb the % grade was hovering around 12 to 15 percent.  The total vertical was 1850 ft.

Panther Gulch Ride to East fork

We headed out about 7:15 p.m. with lights ready.  A fairly warm day today.  It seems that summer has finally decided to show up - still only in the 90's.  When we took off the temperature was very comfortable.  We got up to the yellow gate on panther in about 40 minutes from Dan's house.  A fairly comfortable pace, where we were able to talk as we climbed.  It started to get pretty dark a little after 8 especially in the real shady areas.  It is a nice decent on the old jeep road that connects with the upper part of east fork.  (see the location pin on the map).  Good ride and took about 1 hour 30 minutes.  Next time I think we will leave a little later to enjoy some of the night riding.

Findley early night ride

Headed out probably 7:45 tonight for the top of Findley Road.  The sun was behind the mountains and it was starting to get dark.  There was enough time to make it to the top of the ridge in the light.  I looked at my timer, it read 5:02 at the bottom of Findley road.  At the top, the timer was 35:32.  Basically, 35 minutes from the house (30 minutes from the bottom of the road to the top of the ridge) which I believe is my best time.  I still haven't made it less than 35 minutes from the house.  When I made it back to the house- 52 minutes round trip.

Findley to Ferris Gulch to Panther Gulch to East fork rd

It has been a while since I've done this ride, I didn't remember when it was- I looked back and it was about a year ago- 8/20/2010.  It took me 2 hours and 8 minutes back then.  Left the house at 4:30 and it was still a little warm.  A fair majority of the route had shade.  Took 36 minutes to get to the top of Findley Road from the house.  Along the ridge to the top of panther gulch I kept it in the 2nd chainring most of the time and cranked away.  It was 19 miles and took 1 hour 46 minutes round trip- I guess I am in better shape than last year.  Also a year ago I was riding a much different bike.

Findley Night Ride

I've been wanting to try a night ride for quite some time.  I think I found a pretty good light system for a very resonable price.  It started with a cheap zefal combo headlight/ taillight.  I then saw a nice flashlight that boasts 220 lumens - and it fits in the zefal mount.  I'm not sure what the zefal light puts out but it is not for riding off of the paved bike path.  All for about 37$ with amazon prime!  It was time to ride so I thought why not my "favorite" ride.  I headed out about 8:20 pm and knew it would be dark soon- sunset is 8:15 now.  The moon was very nearly full.  I took a picture with the old iphone which didn't turn out that well.  It was quite a scene looking towards Ferris Gulch as the moon was rising.

It really added a new dimension to the ride that I have done a lot.  It was a solo ride so I was a little nervous a few times.  With my light system I hit 25 mph on the downhill- much slower than the 34 mph in the day time.  It felt pretty fast anyway...  A lot of fun and I look forward to more rides as Fall is soon approaching.

Pipe fork and Glade fork - a new ride.

Thanks to our local community list serve I met another mountain bike rider.  He had an excellent suggestion to go on a ride that is off of Rock Creek.  Below is a map of part of the route we took.

We went up Rock Creek across Glade fork to the Pipe fork.  The climb was about 2000 vertical until we headed down a great single track.  We unfortunately ran into a new logging operation where part of the old road was redone- I guess it was a pretty nice section to ride before.  There was, at times about 6 inches of dirt powder because gravel hadn't been added yet.  The bikes needed a bath after this ride.  We didn't head up the ridge towards Thompson creek as time was running short.  Just headed down the upper east fork road.  Again the location says Cave Junction which is wrong, it should say Williams.  I dropped the pin on the Rock Creek Road that we took that connects with the single track trail.  Overall, a great ride!  Next time a few pics...