One of these past days I took a killer ride with a recently local a.m-ber:
Mt Mooney - simple middle ring USFS service road warmup
Chilao section of Silver Moccasin Trail - short section of buff singletrack
to get up and over a hill separating the Chilao picnic area from the
campgrounds, done in reverse on the way back down from Mt Hillyer. JD on a
stream crossing on Silver Moccasin:
http://homepage.mac.com/getosx/chilao/crossing.jpg
USFS road 3N14 - a couple of miles of mellow middle ring cruising on USFS
service road
Mt Hillyer trails - steep section up to the top, hike-a-biked today,
probably in the foreseeable future for me, then some cool twisting through
the boulders with some sweet chutes and granite rollers:
http://homepage.mac.com/getosx/chilao/jump.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/getosx/chilao/drop1.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/getosx/chilao/drop2.jpg
Silver Moccasin from Horse Flats to Chilao - starts out smooth and buff and
soon turns into a cobble filled section full of switchbacks and ledgy water
bars. No pics from me here because my back and neck were getting to sore to
whip out the camera. Back to the aforementioned Chilao part of Silver
Moccasin only done in reverse. This descent on the way back was very fast
and I forgot about one ravine crossing on the way down. Panic braked and
ended up doing a perfect two wheel drift into the corner to line up for the
crossing.
I was burning out quickly and since I wanted to do the Vetter Mtn climb and
descent at the end of the ride I suggested that we skip a section of Silver
Moccasin to save what little was left in my legs. We rode Hwy 2 for the
couple of miles back to Charlton Picnic area, trippily enough we didn't
encounter a single car during our time on the hwy.
Vetter Mtn Fire Lookout access road - even though the first part was mellow
and paved I struggled to get up to the dirt turn off and struggled even more
on this steeper section. Finally I made it to the top, and JD and I hungout
talking with the volunteers and checking out the sights for quite a few
minutes.
Vetter Mtn Trail - 2 miles of extremely varied downhill singletrack.
Starts with several smooth switchbacks and then disintegrates into a one 2
ft deep, 6 inch wide rut for several hundred yards. After the trail drops
into the creekbed it gets much better, faster, twisty, and a blast. You
descend a bit more and then catch a couple of trails that crisscross the
Charlton/Vetter area and end up contouring around the mountain to get back
to Hwy 2. A little bit of fast stuff towards the end to finish the day with
some easy pedaling.
http://homepage.mac.com/getosx/chilao/finish.jpg