The Chronicles of Gnarnia - Washington Cascades

[squonker]

Wow, what fantastic scenery! Thank you!

[swamp]

bad ass.
just bad ass.

[woodschip]

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. Nothing like taking on something that you know might tax your abilities a little bit knowing your bud has your back and can be depended on WHATEVER happens. I'm fortunate to have a brother and 3 grown sons ,all of whom can be depended on like that. Not that I'd brag on them or anything like that. Your pictures make me very jealous!

[waycrazy1]

I was up there last Sunday. It was a tough trail but a blast. Nice pics and report.

[n16ht5]

Thanks.. Went back out again this weekend.. Another epic ride.. 7,820ft, two peaks, 85mi, both tires flat.. Here's a teaser

[chrome bandit]

Outstanding pix. Inspiring!

[n16ht5]

This weekend my friend Tom and I went back up to the mountains to go riding and camping.
Friday evening when after we set up camp we went out for a ride... and planned to get back around dusk.


Tom








Went playing on Cougar Rocks.. I thought you could get to the top from here...


But I think you need a trials bike.. and some big kahunas


So I headed back down


Looking back up where I came from


So then I got the great idea of taking the Jimmy Creek trail down as a short cut to the camp.. It is not on the map, but I had it penciled in on a old trail map I had found in the closet.. Probably years since I last rode it... and there was a big black diamond penciled in next to it...

This was at about 10:00PM and after about the 25th tree we had to jump/pull/cut/bushwack around or over.. and we had a long ways to go yet. Got back around 11:30PM.. We were so happy to have made it back. Cooked some manwiches up and hit the sack.


So the next day I got an even better idea to ride across the mountain range to the north mountain trail system... and take another shortcut that I had penciled in years ago








...

[n16ht5]

The trail we went down was another black diamond trail (according to my pencil years ago).. turning around after we met the first set of trees was not something we wanted to do... getting back up even without the trees was much more fit for a trials bike from the rutted out drops and switches with such a steep incline.

Well we finally made the campground at the bottom of the next valley and we were hot and hungry. We had just dropped about 3,000+ft in elevation on one short trail with over 15 trees across it and no chainsaw (next time I am bringing a top handle with extra gas)


Time to cool off


Skivvie dipping in the glacial-fed creek... felt so nice!


And lunch


Now on to the next (unmarked black diamond) trail


Thankfully it was cleared just a few weeks ago! We didn't see a single tire track, however. Not even a hint.




..Double diamond unmarked trail?


It was difficult to keep the tires from sliding off










Coming out of one of the switchbacks.. We were getting very tired and worn out from last night's night trail spectacular and today's downhill tree jumping frenzy.

Tom said "I am done" about here and slumped down next to his bike to take a nap in the shade.


Having come this far I pushed on, as some of you would expect me to


...

[n16ht5]

The views were getting to be incredible.. You can just make out Glacier Peak in the background. You can see we were getting higher than some of the glaciers too


And the flowers were out as usual




And then I made the summit.. I didn't take a picture of it, but I smashed my rear brake disk guard off on a big rock climbing to the summit. Luckily the brake rotor was spared at the expense of the guard.


7,820ft... the highest point in elevation that you can ride to in the state






You can just make out Glacier Peak




Looking over the edge of the ridge while coming back down.. While riding down I noticed my front tire felt very sloppy. I didn't bother to look at it though as I was more concerned with getting down the mountain...


Looking at the trail going back up


Having a Rekluse while going downhill on steep switchbacks combined with a bunch of gas and water strapped to your fender is a bad combination. I had a close call while coming down a switchback where I could not get my rear end to swing around because of the extra junk on back, and yet I couldn't get my foot to swing over the rear for the same reason. And then on top of that, with a Rekluse there is nothing to hold your bike back when it is in gear.. it is basically as free rolling as neutral. Luckily there were some trees that held me back on the edge from flying to oblivion.


So that sloppy front tire turned out to be a flat front tire
One that was too big for Slime to stop...

Oh well, I have Tubliss.. who needs air with that, right?... ?

Not to mention that I have about 10mi of road and gravel plus 25+mi of mountain range to go on singletrack left before we get to camp...



I figured I could throw my spare front tube in if I need to later on...

Well...

Until this


...

[n16ht5]

So it was getting late.. and dark. And we hadn't even passed Klone Peak yet.. still a few hours from camp at normal riding speeds...


And of course I didn't forget those pesky tires...


Or maybe I did
What the heck, one more summit for the road eh?


This is Klone Peak, 6,820ft of mountain... yes it was not a part of the route back, but it was close by


Hmm.. it's getting awful dark. Dang these bugs are big. Man am I tired...


Downed my last gatorade and headed for camp.. and didn't stop until we got there. Rode flat front and rear through the dark at speeds I probably shouldn't have gone.
But we made it. Yeah, I didn't take any pictures when we got back that night. We were done. 85 miles of riding that day and who knows how many trees in the past two had done their job to wear us out.


And the Tubliss held up like a champ. Without Tubliss in there I woud have probably been completely hosed.. we only had one spare front tube between the two of us.. and prying a trials tire off with two tiny little 5" tire irons in the dark with man-eating bugs on top of a mountain is not fun or easy. The Tubliss kept the beads of the tires on the rim, and made a cusion of 100PSI buffer to protect the rims from total annihilation while slamming over rocks and creekbeds at 25+MPH.

Now I know what is TOO low of pressure to run while riding rocky trails.
When we first got back I touched the back tire and it was burning hot from running so far so fast. I am amazed that the tire did not disintegrate!


The carcass is pretty stiff on the Dunlop MX front tires... thankfully. Neither tire was pluggable as the gouge was too big in the front and the rear was gouged in the soft trial tire sidewall.
The tire still took a lot of damage from running flat all day.. side lugs are chunking off and most of the other lugs are rounded off now








the rocks took their toll on his tires too, although he was running much higher PSI than I was and did not get any flats (he also did not ride the super rocky section at the top earlier that day).


Let's get out of here.. Sunday morning

[GalacticGS]

Looks like another great ride and report!

Thanks for sharing!!!

[awshouse]

Chris!! Dude, you're an adventure magnet. Wish I could have joined you this weekend for the second chapter of Gnarnia. Looks awesome. Let's stay in touch for another one soon. Great photos as usual.

Andy

[n16ht5]

You gotta come next time, Andy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrBZjhs9smE&hd=1

[WetSideRider]

Nice ride, you animal.

I like the view at about 2:18 on the video. Makes your palms sweat just a little.

[Scooter_Junkie_Girl]

Awesome pictures!!