Misty Golden Ears

I decided to go for a bit of a pedal today.  With my bike loaded on my car I headed to Golden Ears park and Alouette Mtn.

My route took me up the Eric Dunning Trail and then along the Alouette Mountain Fire Access Trail to the second shortcut trail.  Along the way I spotted a few not so well known off the map trails that I one day hope to explore.

On the fire access road between the two shortcut trails is this lookout.  Over the years the view is getting smaller and smaller due to the trees growing and blocking the view.  My guess is in 5 years some trees will need to be removed.

Once at the top, I started my descent which is about 20 minutes or so with next to no pedaling.  It's not a bad ride when a nice easy pedal is desired with a fun descent on a smaller bike.

Morning of Repairs

This morning I met Mitch at The Woodlot to go for a ride and to give him an introduction to trail building.  Mitch wants to help out on the trails, but he hasn't ever done any trail work.

While I pedaled my Rune and he pushed his bike up, we were able to talk about some trail basics and other things bike related.

At the top of Cabin Trail we geared up and I began riding down to one of the last bomb hole sections that I plan on repairing on Cabin.  I had Mitch collect most of the rock while I pieced everything together.

Within 20 minutes the hole was fixed and we began riding down. Once the trail leveled out and the pedaling began, Mitch's chain snapped and needed repairing. Then when we rode down Snakes and Ladders, I had a flat. By this time Mitch had to leave so I rode Shotgun solo hoping that nothing else was going to break on me.  I didn't have a good feeling seeing a couple Turkey Vultures circle me in the clearing.

I've had many days without a mechanical, but all it felt like I did today was repair things.

Wrong Turn

My plan today was to go for a spin for a few hours and see if I could find an easier way into the UBC Research Forest. I seem to have found a decent route. It needs a few trees cleared off it and there is a significant creek crossing that requires your feet to get wet but it is a lot faster to get into the area than my previous route.

The picture below shows where a bridge used to be located. Several years ago the road in the area had some huge washouts so the road was shut down and the bridge was removed.

If you look really carefully you can see and imprint across the cement that reads "UBC FRST 78"

My plan was to ride to Jabobs lake and then turn around to come home. I made on wrong turn and decided to continue on a logging road that went up to a clearcut that isn't really shown on many maps. The climb was easy and gradual and ended with an okay view of the Fraser Valley, but is wasn't what I was looking for.

The Fraser Valley with through the haze.

Looking west to Gloomy Peak and Gabbro Mountain in Coquitlam.

Once I snapped a photos I headed back to my car and home. Not a bad exploratory ride considering a wrong turn.

View Clearcut East of Jacobs Lake in a larger map

Rock!!

I hit the Woodlot today on my Rune. I had a few tools in my pack to do a little trail work on Cabin Trail. I must say that I picked a pretty nice day to go for a ride and do some trail work.

Off to one side of the climb, somebody has been stacking rock for the past several months. This formerly small pile of rocks is getting rather impressive.

On Cabin Trail / Goldmine Trail I have been making an effort to fix the bomb holes that have appeared over the past few years. Most of rocks used in the picture below were collected by a small group of us (five riders) a few weeks ago. Today I pieced them all together to make this section flow again. The rocks are all locked together by gravity (weight of the rocks), wedging of small rocks in cracks and a few pinned pieces of cedar that I staked into the ground. Before this rock was put in place there was a 3 foot deep bomb hole that you nearly came to a stop on when riding the trail. Now it is nothing but rocked in flow.

The rest of my ride consisted of the end of Cabin Trail, Snakes and Ladders and finally Shotgun. A sweet ride, a good build and lots of rock!!