I successfully completed another go of Angels’ Staircase near Carlton, WA way back up in the mountains. As I previously wrote I remembered the effort and conditions to see the views. Times have changed, I have experienced more trails and I am 2 years older than previous ride. Somehow this time the climb hike a bike above Cooney Lake was not the most hideous climb I had ever made although this year I negotiated several snow patches. There might have been more overall hike a bike because of fatigue caused by not nourishing my body. This was real outback riding.
I drove up to the TH mid Sat afternoon where the parking lot was plugged w/ vehicles including 1 camp of throttle twisters stirring dust up and making noise. Small flies that look like house flies were using all their mouth parts biting in full force, at least no mosquitoes as no standing h2o was near. TH was @ 4700′.
The heat of summer is past, now the days are hot and the nights are sleeping chilly. On Sat the temp was in low 80s so on my ride on Sun I wanted to get it on early.
I left Sun b4 the dirtbikers. As they went by they dusted me, no slowing down. A returning downhill rider deadsticked his bike and almost ran me over. Several other riders came down w/ their engines on, for these I stayed almost on the trail causing them to slow down, several almost stalled while going by. I got some recognition as a trail user. Up ahead thru the trees I saw flashes of a foreign red color. I came upon this scene:
I split off the more heavily used trail for Cooney Lake and grunted my way to the lake. From the lake I could see what i needed to climb to continue the ride. I could have turned around and been back @ the van drinking chilled adult beverages but I deferred gratification and climbed up.
Trail topped out @ 8000′ amid the whitebark pines.
Then the descent down the Staircase switchbacking thru talus until back onto mountain dirt. Trail hits an intersection w/ Prince Creek dropping 6900′ down to Lake Chelan. Then I started climbing again bound for Boiling Lake and Horsehead Pass and the start of 6 miles and 2500′ descent over chewed up trail. This bike rode way better along w/ the Betterride skills. It was still a body jarring descent. Ride was 21 miles in 4 hrs 40 mins climbing 5126′ and burning 3955 calories.
Back @ the TH most all the cars including the dirtbikes were gone. My solar shower was soaking up heat from 7 hrs of sunlight but was only tepid. Still I bared all to the biting flies to wash off the grit. I prepared a small dinner that didn’t replenish my stores and i went to bed hungry, as a result I did not sleep very well. I was beat and hungry.
This AM I wolfed my bfast then headed down mountain and up the Methow River to Winthrop. I had still not made riding decisions. My plan was to hang in Winthrop and research options. I parked @ the city park to do internet work. A woman rides up and starts a conversation about riding. She and friends have been spending time riding trails trying to find any that are better than theirs here, they have found none, even after having ridden Oakridge recently. She is marketing director for the Methow Valley XC ski trails which are world class. The trails cross like 140 land owners. I got shivers as I have visions of doing something like Kingdom Trails in East Burke, VT which is a pay to play on private land and The Methow Valley has potential. Kristen will be leading me around Buck Mtn tomorrow.
So, for now I am hanging in Winthrop, WA, a town that has an old western wood sidewalk motif.
There is a smoke jumper base in Twisp just down river. Up the Chewuck river outside of town was the 30 mile fire where 4 ground fire fighters were burnt alive in their shake and bake tents. As a result of the accident numerous policy changes were made among them requiring mandatory rest days, down from my 1970 season of working as long as they can stand up.
So Winthrop on the dry side. Fall is moving in.