Roslyn Mountain Bike Adventure

Lisa's RR Version:

Well, the gods have been conspiring against me the last two weeks. I got that awful cold that has been going around, recovered from that and then the rain brought out the worst in people on Saturday night and I spent all night taking care of south king county residents. The end result was a very tired mt. biker. I had brought Merlin with me to work so that he could come on the ride. He waited around for 24 hours eating treats, and gnawing on bones while I worked. In the morning I would have preferred to go home and sleep but I knew that Merlin would not be happy. So I mustered up some energy after a few cups of coffee and hit the road for Cooper river near Roslyn.

I made good time and arrived at the trail head to find two other riders already contemplating the state of the trail. Snow. Heavy wet white stuff covering the ground. Not the light white fluffy stuff that you can still ride in. This was typical northwest snow — wet, heavy, and slippery. Tim and the rest of the group arrived and we contemplated an alternate plan. Finally we decided to bag the snow ride and head back to Roslyn to the local bike shop and get info on the local trails outside of town. A long drive back to Roslyn made this one of the longest pre-ride start times I've ever been on. I arrived first and popped in to the bike shop. I explained to John (the owner) and two locals that I was with a group of BBTC'ers who had planned on riding Cooper river but due to the snow we wanted to find out about trails on the snow free hills around Roslyn. My luck changed and they offered to be our tour guides for the day and take us riding. They were glad for some company to ride with and we were excited to have someone who knew the trails. Of course I had to bribe then with post ride pitchers of beer at the Brick Tavern (o:

The rest of the group arrived and we got ready to ride. Many went inside and started buying booties and other assorted cold weather gear. Merlin waited with anticipation for his people to get it together and get on the trail. He is so impatient since all he has to do is put on his collar with bells and he is ready to roll.

So after getting ourselves together we left from the bike shop and rode up a quiet street to a back alley behind some houses with a few barking dogs and old discarded vehicles. Then it started, the unrelenting climb up and up out of Roslyn. I didn't even have time to get to the comfortably numb phase where I was too tired to feel anything. Just pain and peddling. Oh well, the view and subsequent downhill were worth it.

After climbing about 1000 feet we started riding sidehill around the hillsides rolling up and down with more downhill than up. Then the highlight of the day. Roslyn's new 3 day old trail. They have officially garnered the "Primitive Trail, No Warning Signs" distinction. During the first section of trail Gabrielle kept asking where the trail is. I, being an connoisseur of barely discernible trails, just said "Follow me. I can see the trail". At the end of this section I asked Tim if this trail felt familiar. He said, "Yep, its a lot like the Green River Gorge trails". My thoughts exactly (side note, I've actually purchased a brush cutter so they are less primitive now). I love this type of riding and enjoyed every vague turn in this brand new trail network.

We flew downhill on more trail, some old and some new, until we arrived back where we started behind the houses. I'll have to say one of the highlights of this ride was watching our tour guide's rolley Polley beagle give Merlin a run for his money. This short legged, 10 year old dog had no trouble keeping up with us. I finished my ride with Merlin on his leash and the Beagle running along side me down the paved street. He eventually turned off to investigate a local yard and we continued on. Being a country dog she knew how to take care of herself.

We all arrived back at the bike shop just as the rain started to fall. We managed to backtrack back to Roslyn, take a long time getting ready, and ride for about two hours in partly sunny weather and beat the rain.

Then it was off to the Brick to buy our tour guide the beer I promised and get something to eat. We were all ready for a good meal after a long day. Not only did we beat the rain but we finished up just as a Baby Shower was starting next to our table. Timing is everything.

Thanks Tim for getting us out for another great ride.

Thanks to John and our local tour guides for the great day of riding. After we left to go riding John got on line and joined BBTC. I can't wait for those new trails and maps of this great local riding destination. All the new trails are on public land so they won't be going away anytime soon. Get the word out and help establish this great trail network.

Also they rent skiis and snowshoes so the same trails you mt. bike on you can enjoy in the winter when the snow starts to fall.

The new bike shop in Roslyn is:

Rosyln Cyclery (Owner John Deuble)

105 North 2nd Street, Roslyn Wa. 98941

509.649.2863

Tim, our ride leader's, excellent RR report:

Waiting at the North Bend Safeway for Kevin, Amy, EvilBob, and Gabrielle i came to the conclusion that i hate SRAM quick links. i have some incredible
strengths and maintenance is not one of them, but honestly if could meet the guy who invented SRAM quick links i'd like to kick him in the nuts. Anyways Doug, and Ken and Tharyn were a good audience for my bumbling endeavor in all of this. But soon we were off. A relatively quick jaunt over the pass and into Roslyn. As we approached our destination it was hard to not notice the collection of snow accumulation on the side of the road. As if in a bad dream it just kept increasing as we got closer to the trail.

Now get this, the bottom of the trail is at 2500 feet elevation.... Snoqualmie Pass at over 3000' is practically bone dry... And we got 4" of skroggy melting snow at the trailhead. If Cooper River Trail had nuts i would have certainly kicked them...

At any rate after driving slowly and safely into the trailhead parking lot i was greeted by the rest of the group. i quickly met my "inside" man Keith. He lives in Cle Elum and was scouting the trail for me prior to the event. Well after the group dispersed my illogical notions of possibly riding thru the snow we all decided to meet up at the new shop in Roslyn. There we met Dan and others who were kind enough to take us up on some local trails above town. A final tally of 21 BBTCers and locals we set off from town. A forest road climb in unusually warm conditions. Then onto some singletrack. All the trails are right above town. There are 5 or 6 main trails that run straight up the ridge, it's the locals vision to tie all these together with newly built XC singletrack meandering across the ridge. With time it should really develop into something special. Our group was there to pack down a couple absolutely new fresh stretches of singletrack. i personally like primitive backcountry riding, and i was delighting in the reactions of the other riders in our group as we all navigate thru rough undefinded trail. i do have to admit though, they really need to be introduced to a polaski, or at least a shovel, haha. So a little raw in the initial stages, and just a little unimaginative where the product so far is much like a game trail, but i'm sure by next year with a little more work there will be even more fun stretches of new singletrack tied in with the existing moto trails. Nearly halfway down we ran into a snag. A count revealed we were a few riders shy in the group. i really wasn't the ride leader by this point, but i was responsible for our group. Backtracking I ran into EvilBob who shared my concern for the others. i assumed that with time the main group may depart or wait, either way i needed to collect our lost bikey brethren. So me and EvilBob hike a biked up back up in search of Kevin, Amy, and Martin. Climbing up a ways a local rider was attempting to join the search. He mistook us for the missing party which was kind of funny. We yelled down to him to just return back to the group and tell them to continue on without us. Not too further on we saw Martin riding aimlessly on a trail above ours. It wasn't too long after that we had the rest of our missing party collected. Justifiably frustrated by the group not waiting at intersections, we all had a good gripe fest to get all of our emotions out on the trail. There i gave the option of just heading back down the road into town or for me to track the group and finish our ride. We chose the latter and i think all of us were glad we did. For really the final stretch was the best section of singletrack. You would think that 15 riders would leave a pretty obvious trail in fairly moist conditions. But really it was quite difficult in most spots to see, as we all mostly know us damaging trails is anti-biker hype, we're pretty light on trails. But a few skid and tread marks did help show the way along intersections with stained wet pine needles to confirm the path of the group. Actually the real truth to be told, i just followed the smell of Dougs carbon bike...

So the clouds were just rolling in and we finished in a light rain. Perfect timing. The Brick Tavern and yummy bacon burgers await. As a rather large group of us got together to relish in our salvaged ride, and tell tall tales of adventures in our past and future...

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Contemplating Wet Snow	Cooper River Trailhead	Tim Banning
Now There is a Bike	Merlin Anticipating a Great Run	Roslyn's Premier Bike Shop
John, The Bike Shop Owner	Climbing Right From the Start	Evil Bob
Puddle Break	The Group	Glamour Shot of Mike Utterback
Looking Down on Roslyn	Quick Stop	Evil Bob in Fall Colors
Primitive Trail	Traffic Jam	This Dog Rocks!
Short Climb	PB050114.JPG	Merlin on the Run
Trail	Where is the Trail?	PB050121.JPG
John, Local	Gabrielle	PB050124.JPG
Primitive Trail No Warning Signs	PB050127.JPG	Gabrielle