Rolling late into the North Bend Safeway parking lot i met Lisa and Geary. They were happy to razz me about being late. We did make it to the Paris Creek parking lot on time where we met Borneo Bob who is renowned for his punctuality.
So we all jumped aboard my car and drove up to the top of FR138 at the Boulder-DeRoux Trailhead, where there is literally only room for 2 vehicles to park. Luckily one was open and on we marched. Well rode actually, the first section of Boulder Trail is pleasantly ridable. With a huge benched skree section, and challenging yet ridable sections of rock and root. A mile or so into the ride Bob inquired where the tough hike a bike was? Of course he found out soon after asking.... A middle section of hike a bike that was wide steep and rocky. Something that i hadn't noticed before is there is a section where you walk inbetween 2 creeks. All the creeks in the Boulder drainage are pleasantly cooling as you make your way up to the saddle. i promised everyone once we reached the meadow where the trail mushily meanders thru a marsh, that we'd be very close to the top. A quick stop there where Lisa discovered some frogs. Again in my haste to catch a frog in the area and throw him in Gallagherhead Lake i nearly killed this poor fellow by throwing a dirt clod at him to try to scare him out of the water. My aim was too true, a direct hit, good thing those little guys are tougher than nails.
So at the top of the climb we ran into the forest road, where normally i would have led everyone towards the left and on towards the lake. Luckily Bobs inquisitiveness brought us directly across the trailhead to a little lookout of the DeRoux drainage with Esmerelda looming across the small valley. Horse tracks were evident going down a barely distinguishable trail. Turns out it was a connector that brought you down in the DeRoux meadow. Going this route eliminated the forest road climb to the lake and we only missed the switchback section right from the lake. The trail itself while most likely decommisioned still see's plenty of horse traffic, is slightly rutted, and only has a few ridable blowdowns that the horse people have no problems manuevering around. A trail that is nothing special but certainly makes the loop better by eliminating a little forest road and an unecessary first trip to the lake.
So down DeRoux we bombed. Trail is slightly dusty now but not too terribly bad. Very technical and a joy to descend. Our encounter with other trail users were infrequent and freindly.
Again we used Bobs expansive knowledge of the Teanaway and took a nice shortcut out of the Horse Camp to the road where a nice spin up to "Esmarelda" Basin Trail. We all had to find our "happy" place to make it up this climb. While there is definately more time on the bike than the Boulder ascent, not having fresh legs and having the hot sun on our backs made for a difficult climb. Still the views are just so amazing it makes you forget about the pain. A nice break and we were ready to descend Esmarelda, where we all missed at least one of those damn switchbacks. We all were of the mind that if the Forest Service decided to divert the trail straight across to the lake we would be very happy. The descent is very rocky exposed and not really that fun. Personally i like the middle section where rounding some switchbacks give you a lunar landing kind of feel since they are so exposed and the rocky cliffs and the exposed rocky expanse in your periphreal give you a heightened sense of how much it would suck to fall off the trail at that point.
Down to Fortune Creek where the only thought was getting this final climb out of the way and getting to Gallagherhead Lake for a refreshing dip. And how refreshing it was, i think next time up there i'm going to bring a life preserver and water wings for my feet and take a nap in the middle of that lake....
So with the payoff of being refreshed from the rest and swim at the lake we were off to descend Boulder. Ahhhh Boulder so good, you just got to ride it yourself to understand. Bob said it reminded him of ElDorado? Lisa mentioned that she couldn't believe that we climbed the same trail. We all agreed that the climb is not as painful as it appears it should be as we descend down the steep goodness. With the trail meandering off course at times, a few rutty sections that should be high-sided, and some baby head rocks that an occasional moto stirs up are really the most dangerous sections of the trail. With absolutely nobody on the trail we were free to descend unimpeded, and also stop at our will to enjoy the views of this spectactular underused by mt. biker trail.
Geary beat us all down the trail and i said "Yay!" as i shot out near the car. So did Bob a short time later, and so did Lisa a moment after that. So the concensus of the journey was that it was probably the hardest under 20 miler (19.6) ride that we've done, but we were all in agreement it was a damn good loop after it was all said and done.
Not a bad loop if you get 3 consecutives "Yays".
So we all jumped aboard my car and drove up to the top of FR138 at the Boulder-DeRoux Trailhead, where there is literally only room for 2 vehicles to park. Luckily one was open and on we marched. Well rode actually, the first section of Boulder Trail is pleasantly ridable. With a huge benched skree section, and challenging yet ridable sections of rock and root. A mile or so into the ride Bob inquired where the tough hike a bike was? Of course he found out soon after asking.... A middle section of hike a bike that was wide steep and rocky. Something that i hadn't noticed before is there is a section where you walk inbetween 2 creeks. All the creeks in the Boulder drainage are pleasantly cooling as you make your way up to the saddle. i promised everyone once we reached the meadow where the trail mushily meanders thru a marsh, that we'd be very close to the top. A quick stop there where Lisa discovered some frogs. Again in my haste to catch a frog in the area and throw him in Gallagherhead Lake i nearly killed this poor fellow by throwing a dirt clod at him to try to scare him out of the water. My aim was too true, a direct hit, good thing those little guys are tougher than nails.
So at the top of the climb we ran into the forest road, where normally i would have led everyone towards the left and on towards the lake. Luckily Bobs inquisitiveness brought us directly across the trailhead to a little lookout of the DeRoux drainage with Esmerelda looming across the small valley. Horse tracks were evident going down a barely distinguishable trail. Turns out it was a connector that brought you down in the DeRoux meadow. Going this route eliminated the forest road climb to the lake and we only missed the switchback section right from the lake. The trail itself while most likely decommisioned still see's plenty of horse traffic, is slightly rutted, and only has a few ridable blowdowns that the horse people have no problems manuevering around. A trail that is nothing special but certainly makes the loop better by eliminating a little forest road and an unecessary first trip to the lake.
So down DeRoux we bombed. Trail is slightly dusty now but not too terribly bad. Very technical and a joy to descend. Our encounter with other trail users were infrequent and freindly.
Again we used Bobs expansive knowledge of the Teanaway and took a nice shortcut out of the Horse Camp to the road where a nice spin up to "Esmarelda" Basin Trail. We all had to find our "happy" place to make it up this climb. While there is definately more time on the bike than the Boulder ascent, not having fresh legs and having the hot sun on our backs made for a difficult climb. Still the views are just so amazing it makes you forget about the pain. A nice break and we were ready to descend Esmarelda, where we all missed at least one of those damn switchbacks. We all were of the mind that if the Forest Service decided to divert the trail straight across to the lake we would be very happy. The descent is very rocky exposed and not really that fun. Personally i like the middle section where rounding some switchbacks give you a lunar landing kind of feel since they are so exposed and the rocky cliffs and the exposed rocky expanse in your periphreal give you a heightened sense of how much it would suck to fall off the trail at that point.
Down to Fortune Creek where the only thought was getting this final climb out of the way and getting to Gallagherhead Lake for a refreshing dip. And how refreshing it was, i think next time up there i'm going to bring a life preserver and water wings for my feet and take a nap in the middle of that lake....
So with the payoff of being refreshed from the rest and swim at the lake we were off to descend Boulder. Ahhhh Boulder so good, you just got to ride it yourself to understand. Bob said it reminded him of ElDorado? Lisa mentioned that she couldn't believe that we climbed the same trail. We all agreed that the climb is not as painful as it appears it should be as we descend down the steep goodness. With the trail meandering off course at times, a few rutty sections that should be high-sided, and some baby head rocks that an occasional moto stirs up are really the most dangerous sections of the trail. With absolutely nobody on the trail we were free to descend unimpeded, and also stop at our will to enjoy the views of this spectactular underused by mt. biker trail.
Geary beat us all down the trail and i said "Yay!" as i shot out near the car. So did Bob a short time later, and so did Lisa a moment after that. So the concensus of the journey was that it was probably the hardest under 20 miler (19.6) ride that we've done, but we were all in agreement it was a damn good loop after it was all said and done.
Not a bad loop if you get 3 consecutives "Yays".
