Nice work Jason! I feel like I was there! Your side of the continent looks absolutely primordial compared to the Mid-Atlantic! Paul Germain Midlothian, Va.
On Saturday, November 28, 2020 at 11:50:58 PM UTC-5 Jason Fuller wrote: > I had a particular route in mind when I bought this frameset from Joe, and > today I rode it (well, one version of it). It's just outside of town here > in Vancouver BC, and its quite special. We have an immense wealth of trails > on our north shore, though most are technical mountain bike or hiking > trails. I love those trails, but this route features the only extended > stretch of gravel that is fully closed to motorized traffic as well as the > only paved parkway that extends into the wilderness in this region. > > I can ride it from my doorstep; it's about 11km to get to this paved > parkway - popular in summer, but pretty quiet nowadays. > > [image: IMG_2849rs.JPG] > > This path carves through the rainforest for about 5km, leaving cell > service behind, until a pretty hard-to-miss singletrack turnoff takes you > down a steep embankment to this grand clearing, known as The Spot among > friends here. Despite its established looks, it's both well hidden and hard > to access, and therefore goes unknown to many who ride this region. > > [image: IMG_2851rs.JPG] > > From here, my route follows a steep downhill stretch of singletrack to a > marsh, where a gravel access road begins and will take me a further 7km > into the valley and away from the city. > > [image: PXL_20201128_222541680.jpg] > > This access road, called Spur 4, used to be charming double-track with > grass up the middle but it was graded this year with fresh gravel. > Unfortunate. Bears and cougars inhabit this area and humans are few and far > between - combine this with the lack of cell service and the fact you're > now over 10km into the woods, it can be pretty humbling to ride alone. > > [image: IMG_2861.JPG] > > A connector trail brings you back to the main parkway, where most people > are. It was a little wet today, but that's fine by me. I can't imagine life > without full-coverage fenders! > > [image: IMG_2863rs.JPG] > > Above is the view of the lake, which is as far as you can go. It was only > about 2:30 but already the sun was falling behind the tall peaks to the > west; I'm far enough north that it's getting dark shortly after 4pm now. > > [image: PXL_20201128_230524452.jpg] > > The first leg of the return route is called the Hatchery Trail, and it's > the highlight of the whole route for me. It's a non-technical trail that > winds through the moss-rich forest, including placards with information on > local wildlife. It's beautifully maintained and quite wonderous, > considering the nearest vehicle parking is 10km away! > > [image: IMG_2871rs.JPG] > > This puts you back on the paved parkway, which I followed for the full > 10km back out of the forest. At the parking lot, I followed a steep > downhill connector trail to the trail network to the east. > > [image: IMG_2877rs.JPG] > > As I dropped in elevation I entered a pre-sunset fog. Combined with the > beginnings of a sunset, it really made for a cool effect with the moss and > lichen covered trees. > > [image: PXL_20201129_000243149.jpg] > > The full route from my door falls a bit short of 60km, which is a nice > length for me - big enough to be rather epic, but can be done in about 4 > hours and leaves me with a bit of gas in the tank so I'm not a wreck for > the rest of the evening! > > Thanks for following along with my ride report / coming to my TED Talk! > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/ea6277a5-54d8-442d-b204-03cb7cddd0b4n%40googlegroups.com.
