[Borregokid]

While sitting in the Fire Department parking lot up at Schweitzer I ran into a couple of the local boys out of Ellensburg, Graham and TJ from the local bike shop. I knew they hadnt done much of the WIMS races but they had come to Schweitzer to kick ass and take names. I asked them about their training and they mentioned Gooseberry Flat up in the Taneum was their main training trail. . It must have been a good trail because Graham was number 3 and the highest junior finisher from Washington at Schweitzer in sport. TJ just missed the podium finishing 7th sport in 19-24.

Anyway I have been wanting a little more trail info on the area. I stopped in Recycle Bicycle in Eburg and they had a new publication "The Taneum and Manashtash Trail Systems: Mountain Biking in Kittitas County, Washington." The author of the publication is Marc Fairbanks a student at CWU. One of the nice things in the book is that he had broken down the five Taneum shuttle trails so you can quickly figure out which trails can be shuttled. He covers 15 different trail-rides in the area.

Just as a trail update I ran the Taneum Ridge Roller yesterday. I was surprised the trail was in pretty good shape. By this time last year it seemed like the motos had turned part of it into moondust. Too bad my hardtail cant go down as fast as it like to go up.

 

[Borneo]

Bummer is that I forgot to look at that when we stopped by your house Sunday... .
So, what werte the other, "Shuttleable" trails in the area? And the other rides they recommended? I'm thinking that S. Fk Manastash is too far to shuttle.
I've got the Green Trails handy and can look them over.

 

[Skookum]

nice thanks for the tip.....

 

[Borregokid]

The five trails Fairbanks list for shuttling in the Taneum are South Cle Elum Ridge #1326, Lower Taneum and Taneum Rollers #1363, Goosebery Flat , Gnat Flat#1236 and Hoyt Minining Trail #1347. I guess Gooseberry Flat doesnt have a number the end of the trail is at Taneum Junction. You drive up road 3330 for two miles until you see the trail on the right. It drops 700 feet in a little over a mile. So you can see you might be making a few trips if you like the trail.
For Manastash the booklet list two loop trails Shoestring Lake #1385 to South Fork Masastash #1386. This is a 7 mile loop. The other loop is Hereford Meadows #1207 to South Fork Manastash #1386 . That a 13 mile loop with 1700 feet of elevation.
Borneo-Those roads we went up I just went up again today, they are pretty dusty. I talked to one of the loggers coming out and he said they had to bring the boom in because they couldn't get permits to knock any more roads in. There are at least three different sites that have set up since Friday they are logging at including one on the ridge. The logger said they were going to Jack Creek later this week for some more logging. This is all US Timber.

 

[Borneo]

Gooseberry is over with pretty quick. I suppose it could be a decent DH run to the moto camp. (waving my hand with a flat hand...) Eeeenhhh..
Hoyt is just plain wacky and most DH folks will be huffing it from time to time as it's a ridge trail. It's the only place I've ever seen anyone(Spanishfly) accelerating with both wheels locked up!
Shoestring, Keenan Meadows, and Hereford Meadows abosolutely rule for a good xc style DH. I've dropped those over the years with both of my kids on the Adams Trail-a-bike. How often do you get to take your kid along for a fun downhill?
I'll be back over there in the next month or so for some of that.
Another good "shuttle" would be dropping Peaches Ridge/S. Fk Taneum to the CG.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting back over to Cle Elum Ridge Sunday. (Rat Pac?) The wife, kids and friends are going back to the West Fork for more.