With the seasonal window starting to close we find our Methow
rides have a, “Now or never” urgency.
After riding past the Beaver Creek Mountain Bike Trail a handful of
times I really wanted to add that to our list of rides completed. Hottie was up for it and so we drove up, on
the eve of hunting season to get it in before the snow fell.
As we saddled up there were snowflakes swirling in the
air. Setting off we pedaled hard as the
gravel road climbed relentlessly. Trucks
carrying anxious hunters passed us as they searched for a good spot to pursue
their trophies the next morning.
The higher we rode the more snow was falling and as we
approached four thousand feet the trees held little handfuls of snow on their
needles. Summertime is over.
When we turned onto the trail our feet were cold and snow
was starting to stick to our arms. The
trail turned out to be a hiking trail for which mountain biking was an
afterthought. I know there have been
some valiant efforts put in to make this trail more bike friendly. There is
still lots to do. We had several stream crossings that required dismounts.
The long dry summer had sucked the so much
moisture out of the ground that on some long steep downhills it felt like we
were descending a mound of flour. We had
to walk in places which felt like we were wasting all of the climbing we had
done earlier in the ride.
The colors along the trail were amazing and we saw bear
scat as well as elk and deer droppings so we knew we were not alone.
The snow didn’t let up and by the time we made it back to
the car we were both starting to dance with hypothermia. I loaded the bikes up and cranked up the
heater and we made our way back to the cabin.
Beaver Creek Trail in 2017; done.
No comments:
Post a Comment