May 5, 2012

Despite the continued rain, and a baby with a slight head cold, I was able to get out to go explore a new "trail" that I had seen on a map.  According to the map it was about a 6-7 km gravel road that went up into the hills on the opposite side of the pass from our perspective (to the east).  As with my other favorite "off road" cycling spot, I expected that the roads would be unimproved and there might be some substantial climbing.  I was correct, to my delight.  I made my way steadily up the road noticing a large number of waterfalls, a combined effort from continued snow melt and the rain we have had recently.  As I was nearing the crest of the first pass (I could see the road level out and start to decsend on the opposing hillside).  I started going over a few small ice / snow patches that still covered the road - thus dismounting and walking was the only reasonably safe way to move forward considering the near vertical cliffside a few hundred feet to the river just to my left.

After crossing a bridge than spanned the chasm over the river I hit more and larger snow patches.  After getting over / around about a dozen I started the descent toward the next set of hills; unfortunately, this is where I also ran into the largest snow patch I had seen thus far and decided it was not worth crossing as I was sure there would be more as the road went on as the canopy was quite thick so minimal sunlight actually hit the road.  I had not stopped on the way up to take any photos, so knowing that I had "extra time" I took my time on the way back stopping and taking photos.  I do look forward to the thaw as this promises to be a great route into the hills.

Photos

Jeff