Post by Philip on Mar 14, 2009 13:01:25 GMT -9
But overall a super day. The conditions on the road are horrible on the way out. The shoulders are rock hard and narrow. We skate skied and it was tough to get enough room to skate on the uphills, and find room to snow-plow on the downhills. Yuck. Once we got to the rifle range and entered the woods, things did not improve a lot. The trail is badly post-holed by critters and people, and the surface was similarly rock hard. Double poling with careful skating worked for the most part. Once we hit the river things looked up a lot though. The whole surface is very firm and fast with positive poling and edge hold. It was pretty smooth too. With a NW wind blowing we had a bit of a head wind going up the valley which got stronger as we approached the canyon. We worked our way up the canyon to near the waterfalls but it required a few dicey crossings of the creek and plowing through the brush once or twice.
After we turned around the cruise out was a kick in the pants. Lightning fast conditions combined with a tail wind made for good times. The river bed has extremely good coverage and you never hit a rock unless you went off a drift edge without looking first. The speed was epic. Beautiful sun and reasonable temperatures made for a great return down the river. The forest was still the same but the road going out seemed a bit easier than the way in.
If you have keys to the gate and have a decent clearance truck, you can suffer through the woods and have a lot of fun on the river. I would be hesitant to recommend the route for most folks just because of the road conditions going in. If you have a bicycle with studded tires, that would be an easy way to make the road go by fast.
Happy B-Day, Patrick!
After we turned around the cruise out was a kick in the pants. Lightning fast conditions combined with a tail wind made for good times. The river bed has extremely good coverage and you never hit a rock unless you went off a drift edge without looking first. The speed was epic. Beautiful sun and reasonable temperatures made for a great return down the river. The forest was still the same but the road going out seemed a bit easier than the way in.
If you have keys to the gate and have a decent clearance truck, you can suffer through the woods and have a lot of fun on the river. I would be hesitant to recommend the route for most folks just because of the road conditions going in. If you have a bicycle with studded tires, that would be an easy way to make the road go by fast.
Happy B-Day, Patrick!
