Bernard Peak... I've been hearing for a very long time that this trail is
one of the finest in N Idaho. Mr. Adventure and the boys are off on the
Lochsa catching the whitewater season, so I'm on my own, for biking
naturally. I plan this outing with one of my new club friends and off we
go.
Armed with xerox's from the Falcon guide, we head off to find the trail
head. This turns out to be a somewhat elusive project. The maps from the
book are next to useless, and he routes you on 12 miles of road to the
summit to pick up the singletrack down, and we want to go out and back.
Cell phones do prove useful: I call my friend back here in town who looks up
the number of the local to the trailhead bike shop, where helpful LBS guy
kindly walks us though which gated fireroad to take, to stay right, but stay
on the main road, go up two sandy climbs and the trail will turn off to the
left.
Ok, sounds good. We were warned they had been logging in here, and sure
enough the main looking branch of the road goes right.....
bzzt.
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2672sm.jpg
Fricking road is obliterated. There are three skid road options, we trash
around muttering looking for anything that looks like a road or a trail...
and pull out the cell phone... "are you sure about that staying right
thing?" He lets us know that he is a total singletrack snob and it will be
worth getting there. Well, stay on the main road....
We back track, take the NEXT branch of the road, skip the left branch....
ok, here's a sandy climb... wow, what a mo-fo of a climb but they said the
trail head was at the top. I keep checking the odometer but we never found
anything. It's a fantastic day out, so by the time we hit 3.5 miles ( the
trail head is supposed to be 2.5) we said the heck with it, let's just see
where this goes. It's a nice old abandoned doubletrack, complete with fresh
bear scat. Being that it is an outstanding day, and that we NEVER have sun
on Memorial Day weekend, we decide to just take this doubletrack up and
forget the trail. A few miles up, there's a great view:
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2677sm.jpg
and we keep on going. .... Finally, the double starts to peter out
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2674sm.jpg
and a little farther on it just dies. Stops. Clark even hikes down the elk
trail heading off in the forest, but it's not bike able. We are almost at
the summit, but there's nothing to be done. So we head down, wheeeeeee down
the double track. Down a few miles, we decide it's early yet, let's try and
find the trailhead, since we are already here. We choose the most left fork
in the road, that's all that's left. It's beautiful as the fire road winds
through the open the forest. Hey, a sandy short climb! Bike tracks! And
another sandy climb! And some slash piles.... could it be...?
Of course, we can't just look at it. We decide to go up aways now that we
are here.
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2678sm.jpg
Ohh, la la! This is fine. Very fine.
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2679sm.jpg
This is real singletrack. Perfect conditions, pine needle carpet, spin up
the side of the mountain. Folks are spinning down the mountain too. We
(almost) run into some kids, "hey guys, it's considered courteous to let the
uphill riders go, down hill riders yield to them" I say in most mom-like
voice. We find evidence of their passing up the trail:
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2680sm.jpg
RIP.
We stop at a little creek for a snack.
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2681sm.jpg
and keep on climbing. It's five miles up to the summit, so we decide to
give it a go. So what if we already did a different five mile climb almost
to the summit on the other side of the hill.
The summit is not to be. We get to the lookout, and both of us are pretty
much out of steam. It's not like we didn't do a whole bunch of riding. ;-)
So we take a little break, enjoy the view
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/images/berpk/IMG_2683sm.jpg
(Lake Pend Oreille) and then hit the singletrack allllll the way back down.
woo-hoo. Good ride, and now we know there the trail head is for next time.
~Penny