I've had a tradition of putting some sort of ride together the weekend of my
birthday. I'm usually up on Mt Spokane any way for the ski patrol refresher,
but after a whole Saturday of helping to update registrations and a database
of 140 people, Sunday is for fun.
Previous years we've done shuttle runs, but this year some of the gang
really wanted to do an easy XC ride out to the Mystic Rocks overlook. Sure
why not
I'm up for anything, the more XC the better. The day started chilly with a
fog blanket hugging the ridge, and golden sun filtering through. By the
time Tuffgrrl, Eric and Steve show up it's looking just lovely out. Tuffgrrl
is moving a little slow due to a cold, but we get rolling... about 4.5 miles
through the cross country ski area, which is mainly double track and some
roads, climbing up to the Quartz Mountain Lookout. It's uphill all the way,
of course. The road has been worked on since last year they tell me, last
year it was a classic rocky nasty rutted jeep road, this year to everyone's
surprise it's a
freeway. The look out is at the top, just out of the pic.
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/images/quartzweb/Photo--87w.jpg
they moved and rebuilt the old fire lookout, but the stairs were closed off.
Looking south:
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/images/quartzweb/Photo--88w.jpg
Looking east across the Idaho Panhandle
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/images/quartzweb/quartz6.jpg
Right below the lookout, the single track cuts off to the east, yay
singletrack!! We have a rooty descent through a multicolor forest. It is
slippery from the previous days rain, and I'm the only one that manages an
slo-mo endo dropping off a 4" log. "Wet log" they say. Then we come out
into a slight trail across the
ridge.
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/images/quartzweb/quartz3.jpg
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/images/quartzweb/Photo--94w.jpg
The destination is Horseshoe Rocks, aka Mystic Rocks aka Spirit Rocks, what
a great lunch spot. We are lucky that the chill wind has quit, too. Nothing
like rock scrambling in cleats, LOL.
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/images/quartzweb/quartz7.jpg
Then it's downhill all the way back. Steve knows some slightly overgrown
single track that parallels the road, it's like a jungle run avoiding the
vegetation. I guess it's left over from the NORBA races 5 or so years ago.
Once we get back to the ski area, we alter the rest of the days plan. We'd
kicked around the idea of maybe doing a down hill run afterwards, but the
time thing wasn't going to work out to add onto the day. So, to finish
thing off, we mess around at the parking lot. Yes, I did learn how to jump
this year. Little jumps, but I feel like a kid when I can do this. Slacker,
and Mike Dart, this one's for you:
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/images/quartzweb/Photo--99w.jpg
heh, happy birthday to me.
Penny