This trip report is from November 1999. It was originally titled...
Leatherman's Tool
Four of us ventured out to Mad River Saturday. We had been debating all week about whether we should gamble on having passable trails at MR (snow) or go up to Walker for a sure thing. Part of the discussion went thusly.....
Three points to ponder: 1)One of my top five all time fun rides was a snow day at Hungry Valley. 2)This is almost certain to be the last chance at a Mad River ride til late Spring. 3)This is the kind of thinking that made the Donner party famous ("excuse me, are you going to eat that?").
We met at the Monroe park'n'ride promptly at 7:10, loaded up and split for MR in two trucks. Raul and I were in the 'jabberbox' truck while Dale and Gary were in 'men of few words' rig. Jabberboxes got to Goose Crick first to find it all locked down for the winter. There was snow but less than an inch. We scouted up the road and when Dale showed up we parked at Deep Crick instead. As we were unloading, a white Volvo pulled in and a slightly senior couple got out ready for a hike. Due to the fact they were unwilling to even make eye contact let alone talk to us I wondered if they were perhaps Tanke and Forsgaard - our friends from WTA. At any rate I asked the group to be sure not to provide any photo ops when we passed them on the trail. We started up the trail to Goose Crk and I caught up to the couple at the normal trailhead for GC. I stopped my engine and said "Good Morning". I talked with the couple for several minutes while everyone caught up and when the lady asked if we were going to splash them with mud I assured her we were "treading lightly today". I was so sweet I almost gave them insulin shock I'm sure.
At the Alder Ridge split we decided to take a shot at the Alder/Mad River/Chikamin loop with lunch at Mad Lake. We climbed through fairly easy snow up to the second car park where they post the seasonal trail closure sign. The trail was not posted and since I had just called the Ranger station to ask about trail conditions (no info provided) we proceeded. The first several switchbacks were fun and pretty easy with my brand new rear tire. Gary was having a bit of trouble with his DOT Pirellis (XR250L), Dale was doing ok with his Kenda and Raul was making slushies with his Kenda shod mega motored XR.
We got past the rock step switchback OK but not much further up the trail we hit the first bad sheet ice. "Elbows Up" I told myself as I focused waaaayy up the trail through the ice. Finally I had to hop off and push to make it around an icy uphill turn. It was then I noticed how quiet it had gotten. I doubled back and found the rest of the group had been failed by their DOT knobbies (couldn't have been anything else) and were pushing each others' bikes up some of the very slick spots. Raul suggested we consider turning back but I lied and said there wasn't much further to climb. Raul was right.
Getting going again, I finally hit a spot I couldn't make by myself and turned around. When I met the group I suggested maybe we should turn back and said I was no longer so sure of how far there was to go til the easy part. We all got to the place I got stuck, pushed all the bikes up. Raul mentioned that we had a real good chance of running out of daylight and I sensed he was concerned for our continued existence. This was something new to me as I've never been in a situation riding where mortality was an issue. All the guys who had trouble going UP the ice didn't want to go DOWN the ice so we decided to see if we could punch through and head for Maverick Saddle. Suddenly not having fun anymore I took off and slithered all the way to the lookout at the "summit" (where we talked to hunters a while back). By now the snow was deep enough that it was taking a lot of energy just to keep riding. Hard to keep the bike going and the front wheel straight. I decided to keep going instead of waiting - just to see if it indeed got better. The snow got deeper and deeper until I was pushing through drifts. I went to the place where the forest fire was (with the red boundary markers) and the snow was no better under tree cover. I thought back to my earlier jokes about the Donner Party and tried to figure out where I fit into the group's food chain. Gary is pretty big and Dale had the Leatherman's tool we'd need to prepare dinner so it would be just like the old movie "Eating Raul", or so I figured.
I had had enough and turned around.
Coming back down was much easier. It was not hard to get the guys to turn around at this point. It was two hours after we first thought about turning back and we were not going to make it back to camp before serious darkness. I figured we would have no problem getting back down to the fun trails though and we may just survive after all. We made it down the bad icy parts with little permanent damage. Didn't even pop the cherry on any of Gary's stock street parts. Raul had a knee tweeking fall. Hoping that Raul's knee is OK. It was still dangling by a single tendon so he'll do fine.
Coming down the hill - expecting to see my wife and family again after all - I got my second wind and started having fun again! I proceeded to do my irritating Rebel Yells and Whooping that indicate I'm diggin' it.
We ended our ride with a nice street ride in pitch dark. DOT Gary leading the way - Dale and myself in the dark and Raul providing backup.
I can hardly wait for the next Mad River ride ----- NEXT JULY!
:D
Leatherman's Tool
Four of us ventured out to Mad River Saturday. We had been debating all week about whether we should gamble on having passable trails at MR (snow) or go up to Walker for a sure thing. Part of the discussion went thusly.....
Three points to ponder: 1)One of my top five all time fun rides was a snow day at Hungry Valley. 2)This is almost certain to be the last chance at a Mad River ride til late Spring. 3)This is the kind of thinking that made the Donner party famous ("excuse me, are you going to eat that?").
We met at the Monroe park'n'ride promptly at 7:10, loaded up and split for MR in two trucks. Raul and I were in the 'jabberbox' truck while Dale and Gary were in 'men of few words' rig. Jabberboxes got to Goose Crick first to find it all locked down for the winter. There was snow but less than an inch. We scouted up the road and when Dale showed up we parked at Deep Crick instead. As we were unloading, a white Volvo pulled in and a slightly senior couple got out ready for a hike. Due to the fact they were unwilling to even make eye contact let alone talk to us I wondered if they were perhaps Tanke and Forsgaard - our friends from WTA. At any rate I asked the group to be sure not to provide any photo ops when we passed them on the trail. We started up the trail to Goose Crk and I caught up to the couple at the normal trailhead for GC. I stopped my engine and said "Good Morning". I talked with the couple for several minutes while everyone caught up and when the lady asked if we were going to splash them with mud I assured her we were "treading lightly today". I was so sweet I almost gave them insulin shock I'm sure.
At the Alder Ridge split we decided to take a shot at the Alder/Mad River/Chikamin loop with lunch at Mad Lake. We climbed through fairly easy snow up to the second car park where they post the seasonal trail closure sign. The trail was not posted and since I had just called the Ranger station to ask about trail conditions (no info provided) we proceeded. The first several switchbacks were fun and pretty easy with my brand new rear tire. Gary was having a bit of trouble with his DOT Pirellis (XR250L), Dale was doing ok with his Kenda and Raul was making slushies with his Kenda shod mega motored XR.
We got past the rock step switchback OK but not much further up the trail we hit the first bad sheet ice. "Elbows Up" I told myself as I focused waaaayy up the trail through the ice. Finally I had to hop off and push to make it around an icy uphill turn. It was then I noticed how quiet it had gotten. I doubled back and found the rest of the group had been failed by their DOT knobbies (couldn't have been anything else) and were pushing each others' bikes up some of the very slick spots. Raul suggested we consider turning back but I lied and said there wasn't much further to climb. Raul was right.
Getting going again, I finally hit a spot I couldn't make by myself and turned around. When I met the group I suggested maybe we should turn back and said I was no longer so sure of how far there was to go til the easy part. We all got to the place I got stuck, pushed all the bikes up. Raul mentioned that we had a real good chance of running out of daylight and I sensed he was concerned for our continued existence. This was something new to me as I've never been in a situation riding where mortality was an issue. All the guys who had trouble going UP the ice didn't want to go DOWN the ice so we decided to see if we could punch through and head for Maverick Saddle. Suddenly not having fun anymore I took off and slithered all the way to the lookout at the "summit" (where we talked to hunters a while back). By now the snow was deep enough that it was taking a lot of energy just to keep riding. Hard to keep the bike going and the front wheel straight. I decided to keep going instead of waiting - just to see if it indeed got better. The snow got deeper and deeper until I was pushing through drifts. I went to the place where the forest fire was (with the red boundary markers) and the snow was no better under tree cover. I thought back to my earlier jokes about the Donner Party and tried to figure out where I fit into the group's food chain. Gary is pretty big and Dale had the Leatherman's tool we'd need to prepare dinner so it would be just like the old movie "Eating Raul", or so I figured.
I had had enough and turned around.
Coming back down was much easier. It was not hard to get the guys to turn around at this point. It was two hours after we first thought about turning back and we were not going to make it back to camp before serious darkness. I figured we would have no problem getting back down to the fun trails though and we may just survive after all. We made it down the bad icy parts with little permanent damage. Didn't even pop the cherry on any of Gary's stock street parts. Raul had a knee tweeking fall. Hoping that Raul's knee is OK. It was still dangling by a single tendon so he'll do fine.
Coming down the hill - expecting to see my wife and family again after all - I got my second wind and started having fun again! I proceeded to do my irritating Rebel Yells and Whooping that indicate I'm diggin' it.
We ended our ride with a nice street ride in pitch dark. DOT Gary leading the way - Dale and myself in the dark and Raul providing backup.
I can hardly wait for the next Mad River ride ----- NEXT JULY!
:D
