Findley Peak at Sunset

This afternoon I was able to get out on the bike in time to make the sunset up at the peak.  Great weather!  Lots of sunshine but a little on the cool side.  I was short sleeves and leg warmers all the way to the top.  Once I was at the top it was definitely time for the jacket.  I was able to get up to the first ridge in 33 minutes.  I pretty good time considering the condition of the road.  For the entire ride, I was able to make it without putting my foot down and stopping.  A good accomplishment for me as the road was very slippery.  The most difficult section is actually the last push up to the peak.  Once I got up there, it was probably about 10 minutes till sunset so I snapped a few pics.

 

I thought this pic was cool, with the sun in the background.

Going

Going...

 

 

 

 

 Gone!

A great ride other than my rear brake has been giving me fits.  It has been rubbing on the rear rotor and now the lever is way too soft.  I think there is air in the line.  It's to the shop as it is beyond my mechanical capabilities.  I hope I can have it back by the weekend.  I think the weather will still be nice for riding.

Ferris Gulch to Findley downhill

Its been raining off and on again.  We were lucky enough today to have another break in the weather.  We had a crew of 3 today.  Ian hooked up with Dan and I to go for what we had planned to be a fairly quick ride.  It is right at 15 miles round trip.  Headed out about 2:15 on Williams Hwy towards the Junction of Hwy 238.  Headed east on highway 238 towards Ferris Gulch Road.  We hit the climb pretty hard to the top where the rock pit is and snapped a few photos.

Happy to be here!

Lets get serious now.

Ian brought his Contour 1080p helmet cam- pretty sweet!  Here is some initial footage of the downhill where Dan had a "not so good" day. I guess a bad day mountain biking is still better than a good day at work- most of the time anyway.  Dan had a pretty serious crash towards the end, luckily no broken bones.  We will see how he feels tomorrow after this one.

The middle section of Findley has some very slippery sections now.  Someone actually tried to drive up the road and the road is really ripped up now.  There was a nice coating of mud on the bikes so we had to give them a bath...

A break in the weather?

It has been raining pretty heavily off and on over the past few days.  I noticed this morning that there was a break in the rain and it had really warmed up.  I had the chance to get out on the bike so I took it!  Amazingly enough, it was shorts and T-shirt weather.  I knew that the weather could change at a moments notice so I packed my jacket and my leg warmers just in case.  As I was heading towards Findley Road I noticed towards Greyback mountain that there was a heavy storm coming.  Is there a chance that it would miss me?  The wind was blowing towards me, moving the storm closer to my direction.  I hit the bottom of Findley and started the climb.  I knew that if it did start sprinkling I still wouldn't need the jacket since the Findley climb will surely warm me up.  Well it wasn't too long into the ride until the rain started to come as well as a drop in temperature.  I was fairly close to the first ridge top when I decided to put on the jacket.  I climbed in a decent time regardless of the extra muddy conditions.  After the first ridge, I decided to head to the peak, it wasn't raining that hard and I was prepared in case it really started coming down.  It continued to cool so once I reached a fairly flat portion of the road I put on my leg warmers.  I climbed to the top of the peak.  It is pretty muddy so it was an extreme challenge to make it without stopping.  I made it most of the way and had to walk a short portion.  It wasn't raining that hard and got a nice vista of the valley.

I didn't stay long at the top because I knew I would start getting cold.  I did take enough time to text this pic to my riding buddy who is at work today.  Brutal, I know.  Great downhill with mud flying everywhere.  The bike and I needed a serious bath.  I am hoping to get out again- looks like the weather is going to clear up.

Panther Gulch to East Fork Loop

We took off about 2:00 this afternoon and enjoyed some beautiful weather.  It was a little cool but the sun was shining.  We headed up to panther gulch via Williams Hwy.  We decided to head up to the upper road that traverses the ridge south up Panther Gulch.  We noticed several hikers parked at the Layton Ditch Mine trail.  I took a few photos off the Jeep road looking west to the beautiful Williams valley.  It was a 19 mile trip, 1hr 45 minutes.  There are quite a few road miles and it definitely got a little cool on the way back.  I have noticed that Mountain miles you never get very cold.

Nice view of the valley!

A look at the "Jeep" road back up the hill.

Not riding enough...

I headed out solo towards the Findley ridge top about noon today.  Surprising weather.  Sunny and fairly "warm"- relatively speaking.  I was dressed with shorts and a short sleeve under armor under my riding jersey.  I knew that it was way too warm to have the jacket on up Findley.  I packed it in my backpack because I knew it would be cold on the way down.  I was straining to keep a decent pace up.  I pushing it pretty hard- at least to my limit at this point in my fitness level.  Took me 33 minutes to get the top of the ridge.  I really haven't been riding enough to challenge my ultimate goal of a sub-30 minute time up Findley ridge.  It will be tough to get more rides this time of year due to weather and daylight.

A new ride- Upper East fork ridge

Today I headed out excited to try a new route.  The temperatures have dropped significantly.  I had to dress accordingly- I decided it was time to try out my new Novara Thermal Tech Leg warmers.  We decided to drive up to a fairly central location on the route- note the location at the bottom of the post.  We headed south on east fork until you hit the second gate.  We headed up a few miles on East Fork.  There is a gate that essentially marks the official end of east fork.  From there you can continue south on east fork until a turn out and the road turns to a single track.  You have to cross a creek which I believe is Pipe Fork.  There is another yellow gate that seems to be in the middle of nowhere.   There is a fairly obscure trail that you head east on.  This will connect you with a system of old logging roads on what I would call upper east fork.  I can't tell you exactly the route we took.  The map below highlights the approximate portion of the route that we took.  There was  some great single-track and some great views from the ridge top.  Not a lot of miles but a lot of fun.  Thanks Mike.