final fest recon mission

I was up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to preride the big loop for Fat Tire Fest Five. Well, sort of anyway. As I drove into the forest, I hatched a brilliant scheme - ride the same loop, but backwards. Just to double check the preferred direction. No matter how you do it, though, the ride starts with a stiff, stiff rocky jeep road climb in. If you can clean it, your are definitely the man. I didn't, so I stopped to enjoy the scenery.



I topped out on the climb a mere 30 minutes in - I was making good time. At this point, I diverged from the beaten path and headed off on the grand loop. I rode through old forest road and trail and crested a hill. Not stopping for the views this time, I started to descend. As I descended, the road got rougher, steeper, and narrower. At one point not too long ago, it was narrow singletrack. Unfortunately, last summer some ATVs were through here. Now, it's a combination of singletrack and ATV trail. Not bad, though, by any means. By this time, I was happy to be riding this 'backwards,' as this section was turning out to be a heck of a downhill.



The descent ends in the bottom of a very deep (1000' deep) river canyon. The goal was to cross the river, climb out and loop around back to the river about 3 miles upstream where I'd cross it again. What's this, though - a new trail next to the river?

Yeah, I know it's hard to see, but it really was there. I followed the trail, upstream, secretly hoping that something would pan out. The realistic part of me, though, was telling me to get back on course while I still could. Thankfully, in situations like this, I rarely listen to the my realistic side. I decided to press on. After riding and bushwacking a bit, I came to some narrows in the canyon. Rocks were blocking my way and I could go no further. But wait - I think I see a trail on the other side of the river...



Let's just say that, despite how it looks, that thing was moving swiftly and the water was nut deep. Did I also mention that it's over 8000' feet and it was only 9 in the morning and the water is all snow runoff? Yes - it was cold!

Of course, as soon as I crossed the river, I saw that the trail on this new side was only 30 yards long before it crossed back over. Argggghhh! I crossed it again, picked up the trail, and kept going until I found a place to go if I never wanted to be found. Not that I'll need to, but don't tell anyone about this, just in case!



After that, I played the same damn game of crossing the river back and forth. By the time all was said and done, I'd crossed it 5 times. Also, by the time all was said and done, I was almost a mile upstream and the trail dissapeared, just as the realist in me had predicted. There's a trail on top of the ridge to the east, though, so I opted to hike out. Heck, I could see the top of the ridge. The hike out of the Canyon couldn't be too bad, eh? It was. the top of the ridge I saw was really only a false summit about 20% of the way up to the very top. Arrrghhh again!

So, by now I'm almost a mile up the canyon on the water, and I'm 20% of the way climbed out. The walls were super duper steep and covered in deadfall everywhere I looked. Combining that combo with a 30 pound bike does not generally equal fun. I did find something to indicate to me that I was not the first to have done this


After 30 minutes or so of hiking and monkeying aroud thru the deadfall, I made it to the top of the ridge and back to a familiar jeep road. Finally, I was back on track. I stopped again to check out the scenerey

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. The descent back to the river was sweet, though, but the climb out was hard - especially at this point in a long ride. The rocks and drops didn't do much to energize me so I stopped for the view again. View of the trail this time, though.
This was the last climb of my day. Kind of bittersweet, though..

You know - you're tired from riding all day and want to get back for a nap or something, but you're also bummed the ride is over. Just one more descent and it's back to the car. Luckily the descent was fantastic, as usual. Just too quick.

Overall, the day was great. Was out for 3+ hours, beautiful blue skies, no flats or mechanicals, and zero people encounters. I couldn't have asked for more.