Well I had vacation this week so I asked Tim if he would lead another Esmeralda Ride. He agreed and came up with a new route that added 2000ft of elevation and 8 extra miles. It wasn't until the night before as I was contemplating getting up at 0500 that maybe it was bit more than I wanted to do. Oh well, couldn't bag out now since he posted the ride at my request. It would be another great adventure.

So I was up at 5am and out the door at 6. I met Tim and a new BBTC member Geary in North Bend. We loaded up our gear and bikes and headed east. A long drive to Roslyn and then into the hinterlands past Suncadia and an assortment of new slated "Mega Resorts". We met up with Bob Bournique at a the Paris Creek trailhead and then headed farther in to the hills. Finally we arrived at our destination at the end of a long gravel road and the start of the Boulder (remember this name) trailhead. Just getting to our trailhead was a journey in itself.

We geared up and headed out around 10am in the rising heat of a hot day. Climbing up a steep trail across a barren grey wasteland topped by rocky ridgelines. The trail wound precariously along slopes that looked like they sloughed of unsuspecting riders with ease. We then headed up a drainage and an impossibly steep rocky trail with loose dry dust churned up by horses, bikes, and motos. We rode, we hike-a-biked, we rode, and hike-a-biked some more for 4 long miles to the intersection with the Redoux trail. There we saw what appeared to be a short cut. Hmmm, I'm always suspicious of guys who say things like " I think this trail will get us where we want to go" and "It will be more downhill" (o: Luckily I brought my light and emergency supplies so I was in. I could survive getting lost with the guys. By the way I was the only woman on this ride. The fearless group was made up of Tim, our leader, Bob Bournique, Geary, and myself.

So we took the short cut which, indeed, did turn out to be a great choice. It cut out some uphill jeep road and dropped us into the redoux trail. From there we coasted downhill for a couple short miles to the road that would take us to the Esmeralda trailhead. It was a gently climb up to the trailhead. The sun was really getting warm. 91 degrees on my temperature gage. Typical eastern Washington day. We arrived at the trailhead to find it packed with cars. Luckily for us we ran in to very few people on the Esmeralda trail. Then we had the long grind up a mixture of old mining road and switchback trail that lead far up a valley through forest, a few small meadows, and rocky fields. Technical, rocky, steep, and challenging were the words of the day. I tried to ride as much as I could and walked the rest. We were in for the long haul today. We climbed up numerous switchbacks, past a few hikers, across many small streams to the final switchbacks through open rocky sidehills to the saddle of Esmeralda peak. A barren flat rest area with gnarled old trees trunks, an old fire pit, and a view point. Break time. We climbed up to the viewpoint could see peaks for miles. It felt so barren up there among the sun baked rock. The wind was a welcome relief from the 96 degree heat. We refueled. My legs were feeling like rubber at this point. I forgot the chocolate covered expresso beans that would have been just the thing to give me a kick of energy I needed to finish the ride. I settled for a Cliff bar and water. We relaxed, contemplated a nap and then headed down the backside of the saddle.

The back of the saddle was open exposed rock and small alpine trees. The trail was littered with loose rock. It was pretty technical. Tight switchbacks with rock drops and loose edges that make a misstep into a surf down the scree. Good fun and challenging. Tim said that someone had referred to this downhill as a perfect waste of elevation. I guess I'll disagree. It was definitely a challenge. The downside is that it ended at the bottom of another 500 foot climb before we'd finally get our final descent. So we climbed up a gnarly old road full of none other than loose dust and lots of loose rock. A quick stop to dunk my head in a creek and we kept climbing. Luckily we were in thick shaded forest for most of the climb which kept us cooled off. The last section to Gallagher head lake was on flat jeep road which opened up into a large meadow with a lake at the base of Esmeralda peak. Absolutely a great pay off for all that hard work. We parked the bikes and went for a much needed swim in the lake. Its a shallow lake so it was pretty warm by mt. lake standards. I walked in to calf deep muddy goo. I found that I didn't want to stand in one place too long or the suction of the mud and water threatened to keep my bike shoes when I tried to take another step. After the short slog through muddy goo to where the lake was 4 feet deep I dove in shedding layers of trail dust and sweat. Just what I needed a cold clear mountain lake. Wheehooo!!! Tim and Geary went swimming. Geary just sat on a rock in the water for quite awhile cooling off. Then as he made his way back to shore shoeless through the goo we all had to laugh. He looked like a grown adult just learning to walk. We cheered him on. "You can do it. Just put one leg in front of the other". He managed to waddle back through the goo to shore sending us into a delirious fit of laughter. I'm sure at that point we were delirious from the heat and 4000ft of elevation we just finished. It was nice to just hang out in the meadow soaking up the sun and cooling off after all the hard work of getting here.

We enthusiastically left the lake. No more climbing. It was all downhill from here. Just a technical morass of loose dirt, boulder gardens, root drops, muddy meadow, and sidehill excitement back to the car. As I descended the steep loose trail I thought "We rode up this. This is some steep trail". I couldn't believe we rode up sections of this trail. Its a good thing it was the first climb we did. It was an exciting downhill. There was no time to space out, think about anything except where the next line was and making sure not to get in the dust trail of the rider in front of me. It gets a bit hairy trying to make out obstacles obscured by a cloud of fine dust. 4 screaming miles and one stop to rest the breaking muscles and we were back at the car. Hot, tired, and feeling great from such a challenging ride.

We piled in the car and drove Bob back to his truck. He was very late getting back to camp. No hot dinner for him tonight (o: Then we made a beeline down to the Brick Tavern for food. Well earned after today. In the brick we had our choice of wooden benches in the main part of the bar or padded booths in the section off to the side. Not a hard decision. Padded booth seats to sink our tired bodies in to while we pigged out on greasy bar food. A good end of a great day!

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