Vacation in WA

allsk8sno · Aug 20, 2006

i would almost suggest not renting at silver...their DH bikes are just kona stinky's and if you can lower your seatpost far enough on your current bikes they should be fine, plus your suspension is much nicer than the dropoffs...but they might have different bikes to rent this year.

my only other suggestion or question is spokane? you have to hit up beacon hill/camp sekani or however its spelled. fun place with lots of DH and XC, everything inbetween.

Eren · Aug 20, 2006

Hey, i could show you around galbraith sunday or monday, PM me.

cheeselad · Aug 20, 2006

Hey I'm planning to head out to WA for vacation as well. I have the option to go in early to mid September but would prefer to go the first couple weeks in Oct. Is there a huge difference in weather between those two times? Actually a better question is, how is the weather in general during the fall in WA?

freeridekid · Aug 21, 2006

silver is fun, but nothing compared to a true bike park. they have one main dh trail w/ a few more options at the top. once u get to the bottom u have to ride for like 10 minutes back to the gondola on a paved bike path. i would definitely just ride ur own bikes, cuz they still just rent stinky's (which have dropoff forks that are crap compared to 36's). if u looking for lift accessed riding in WA/ID silver is pretty much ur only option so ya.

if u go to das rad haus in leavenworth i believe they run a shuttle for some nice epic downhills so i would definitely check that out. i wouldn't bother w/ any of the lake wenatchee trails as they are really sandy due to dirtbike use.

finally, i second the vote for beacon, that place is awesome!:love:

rainbow_smoke · Aug 21, 2006

silver is fun just cause its so long on the downhill and its pretty cheap, they only have a couple trails and really only 1 all the way down but the top has some fun options. its not whistler by any means though.

smutty · Aug 21, 2006

rainbow_smoke said:
silver is fun just cause its so long on the downhill and its pretty cheap, they only have a couple trails and really only 1 all the way down but the top has some fun options. its not whistler by any means though.

Sounds like we'll have to think about Silver mtn. We have alot of fun downhill places that we go to here on the east coast, not the longest of runs but fun (Jiminy, Diabo/Mtn Creek, Mt Snow...). And we've even been to Whistler!

smutty · Aug 21, 2006

freeridekid said:
if u go to das rad haus in leavenworth i believe they run a shuttle for some nice epic downhills so i would definitely check that out. i wouldn't bother w/ any of the lake wenatchee trails as they are really sandy due to dirtbike use.

finally, i second the vote for beacon, that place is awesome!:love:

Definitely not to keen on the sandy type of trail. We were planning on going to das rad haus. I like the idea of a shuttle! I also found rides on www.leavenworth.org, though not sure if they are in Leavenworth, Wenatchee or Chelan. Devil's Gulch (planning on this), Nason Ridge, Mad Lake, Chiwawa Trail, Chikamin Creek loop. Any thoughts on these?

smutty · Aug 21, 2006

oops.. this is BullitGrrl's husband!

riverside73 · Aug 22, 2006

There are some good trails around Coeur d'Alene. If you are doing any camping, Farragut State Park is about 20-30 minutes north of CDA and has a cool little trail system. you can ride from camp. LBS to check with is Vertical Earth.

Borneo · Aug 22, 2006

I'm surprised Skooks has not stepped in on this one. Kettle Crest is his neck of the woods and he showed us around there earlier this summer.
Definately a great loop is to ride from the CG just a few miles down the East side of Sherman Pass up to the pass and around clockwise to Jungle hill.

Here's his posting for the ride with more info.
http://www.bbtc.org/recreation/calendar.php?event_id=4072

No hucks and you earn your turns. But, an awesome loop with singletrack to and from the campsite. Finishing up with a bomber descent from Jungle Hill. 20 miles or so and about 2400 of climbing.

BTW: THere are options for Devil's Gulch. The "XC geeks" like me prefer to ride up DG and down Mission Ridge. Add the upper portion of both for the longer "figure 8". DG is a fine climbing trail and Mission Ridge is a hoot going down. Or, you can lazy out and just drive up.

There are some other fine trail in the Kettle area on the other side of the road as well. Check out the other rides posted on the BBTC site for that famed weekend in July by Tim.

As for weather, well, we have not had rain in a long time. So, pretty much everything is dusty and dry out here. With no rain in the 10 day forcast either.

Qman · Aug 22, 2006

smutty said:
Definitely not to keen on the sandy type of trail. We were planning on going to das rad haus. I like the idea of a shuttle! I also found rides on www.leavenworth.org, though not sure if they are in Leavenworth, Wenatchee or Chelan. Devil's Gulch (planning on this), Nason Ridge, Mad Lake, Chiwawa Trail, Chikamin Creek loop. Any thoughts on these?

Bring your climging legs if you're riding some of those. (Nason and Devil's in particular)
If you have a guide, two days on Galbraith might be too much. If you don't have a guide or a good map, two days might be what it takes for you to go in and find your way out. There's other great trails in Bham. Most everyone from SEA just goes to Galby tho'.
Great trails but if you cut out one day at Galbraith and the Silver mountain day, you could spend two days at Whistler pretty easily. One day in the park, one day in the valley. From Bham, it's only about 2.5-3 hours if you get thru the border quickly. (bring passports!)

Skookum · Aug 22, 2006

Yah i'm pretty busy, but i can dial you into all the Kettle info. i'd recommend doing Cutthroat Pass on your way over from Winthrop as well.

i'm working a crap load so i'll help you guys out more in a few days...

Skookum · Aug 25, 2006

BullitGrrl said:
Possible timeline:
Aug 27 (Sun) - Gallbraith mtn
Aug 28 (Mon) - Gllbraith mtn

i think you're spot on to ride Galby. Make sure you check out the Ridge Trail, the new trail Oly, and Whoopsie Whoodle for fun XC. Don't miss checking out all the freeridish stuff, it's real good up there so much variety. A good idea is to do a trail ride one day with mostly XC stuff then go up and session a bunch of stuff for a Freeridish day the next.

BullitGrrl said:
Aug 29 (Tues) - Travel to Leavenworth, ride Leavenworth
Aug 30 (Wed) - Leavenworth, Wenatchee, Lake Chelan
Aug 31 (Thur) - Leavenworth, Wenatchee, Lake Chelan
Sep 1 (Fri) - Leavenworth, Wenatchee, Lake Chelan

i'd agree that Devils Gulch/Mission Ridge would be a great run. It's a nice easier spin to get to the top, and the trails are pretty nice. If you read the ride report i did with Nate (Trigger) from Ithaca when there are a few tips that can make the mountain riding alot less painful. When you hit a pace up elevations try a high cadence spin and only power like you guy normally do as intervals for making it up little crests or technical spots. Otherwise it's better to save the gas not only to prevent bonking, but you want energy for the descent. It's very common for trails to have high exposure, and while Devils Gulch isn't a very technical trail if you do ride off the trail you'll go for quite a tumble in some places.
Be prepared too, having stuff in your camelback like first aid, compass, knife, tools, plenty of water/extra food etc etc helps out alot. And try to start these big rides early to beat the heat, crowds, and to leave plenty of time to get out of the woods in case something goes awry.

http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/scr/of_detail.cfm?category=Biking&rt=41314

http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/scr/of_detail.cfm?category=Biking&rt=41315

Since Devils Gulch and Mission Ridge criss cross it's pretty easy to tailor a loop that works for you. Zilly has you climbing the road for both trails and completing the trail on it's own, i've always climbed the gravel road to access the trails or shuttled, but i've heard that it's actually about the same effort in climbing Devils Gulch to the top.
So probably a good route for you guys would be to climb up Devils Gulch to the upper parking lot, then ride the road up to the top of Mission Ridge. Ride Mission Ridge down to where the trails intersect then take a left and ride Devils Gulch the rest of the way down. The first half of Devils Gulch and Mission Ridge is alot of run to descend. But the upper part of Mission is better and has much better views. The lower half of Mission rides the spine of the ridge so there's alot of up down up down up down, whereas Devils Gulch is 99.5 downhill the rest of the way back down.
i haven't done as much riding in that area as i should have, this year i tackled Icicle Ridge right above Leavenworth, but i wouldn't recommend trying that unless you have someone to show you. It's pretty hard core with the biggest gnarliest downhill i've ever ridden. But it's a big big tiring ride to get to the top, you gotta bring your A game for climbing, hiking, and descending. This is hard core and doable but you gotta be feeling up for big time adventure.
Also i did a more tame ride where the most hard core aspect is just getting the car to the trailhead. It would be a ride up a moto trail past some lakes then up to Klone Peak that has a pretty awesome view point. Then a fun fast descent down the Mad River. i would recommend this one more than Icicle because it's way more sane.
Lemme know if you want more detailed info on these.

Kettle Crest....

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/colville/forest/recreation/trails/trails.html

The way we did it was really nice by camping at Jungle Hill Trailhead so you can start and end at the bottom of any ride.

The loop i would recommend would be climbing Sherman Trail up to Kettle Crest North. At a Y take a sharp right and scuttle up to the top of Columbia Mountain and do the loop. Must do it clockwise then go back down and keep heading up Kettle Crest. You'll descend down some switchbacks and at the bottom ignore the trail to your left and continue on Kettle to the right. At the top of the climb you'll shoot out into a meadow, and you'll see a clearing under some trees, look for Jungle Hill trail to your right. That's a great loop.

Maybe for a short fun spin you can park at the top at the Pass Summit and ride in for a quick Sherman Peak loop. Kettle Crest South is right across the highway, ride up to the T and take a left. Ride the loop clockwise here as well. Super fun small little trail ride, if you have more energy just keep heading south on Kettle Crest. More technical rocky terrain and cool views. You can stop at the Snow Peak shelter or you can continue on all the way to Barnaby Buttes Lookout (which i never have made it to).

And finally Cutthroat Pass, which i haven't done myself, but i've read the reports on it. It looks like a great trail ride just for a nice slow day to enjoy view and enjoy a quick ride. i anticipate you guys will be pretty tired by this point so this short ride would be a great idea.

Good luck you guys, have fun while you're here and feel free to pm me if you need any more info.

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Vacation in WA

huckqueen

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