Tag: mountain biking

Yellowstone Safari

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Darlene and I enjoyed an extended road trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks this summer.  While in Yellowstone, we spent most of our time in safari mode, scouting the prime bear and wolf habitats (Lamar and Hayden Valleys) in the mornings and evenings.  Our perseverance paid off with many sightings: black bears, grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes, fox, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, beavers, marmots, rabbits, geese, cranes, storks and various other birds and rodents.

   

We did some day hiking but only on busy, populated trails (like the Canyon trail) since there was only the two of us (a minimum of three are recommended for backcountry trails to avoid bear encounters) and we rode our mountain bikes up the north side of Mount Washburn.  After enjoying many days in the north half of the park (Canyon, Hayden Valley, Tower-Roosevelt, Lamar Valley, Norris and Mammoth), I was pretty shocked when we approached the Old Faithful area.  It’s so busy and built-up with parking lots and lodges that it felt like going to a theme park, not a national park.  The geysers and geothermal pools were wonderful and beautiful to see but we were both anxious to escape back to the quieter areas.  If you’re not going to be camping or backpacking, I strongly recommend staying in the Canyon lodge area instead!

A video montage of our time in Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

Click through for the full gallery of pictures and video:

   

Road Trip: Through Idaho

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Highlights from the Idaho portion of our summer road trip to Yellowstone:

   

We stayed several days in Boise: biking through town and up on some of the trails above the city, floated the Boise River through town, successfully solved (and escaped) the house in Boise Escape and made a side trip to historic Idaho City. After Boise, we visited the World Center for Birds of Prey, stopped off at Three Island Crossing (Oregon Trail crossing of the Snake River) and camped overnight at Craters of the Moon National Monument.  After exploring the lava formations we continued on to Idaho Falls, stopping off for a tour of the world’s first nuclear power plant, Experimental Breeder Reactor #1.  Our final leg included the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway and camping near West Yellowstone.

Beginner’s Ride?

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Glenn and Michele came down from Portland this past weekend to try “iFly” with me and Darlene, but on Saturday they joined us for their first taste of mountain biking.  They rented some nice, new demo Trek Fuel EX bikes and we set out from the Epicenter bike shop in Santa Cruz to take them on a nice beginner’s course around the middle half of Wilder Ranch.

They took to it so quickly, picking up each new handling skill easily and conquering all the climbing and maneuvering, and always up for more.  So much so that we ended up climbing to the top of Wilder and on over to do some UCSC back campus trails before coming back by way of my favorite descent in Wilder.  So much for sticking to the beginner’s route!  But I think they enjoyed their first time out!

  

And… bonus!! A video of all of us belly-dancing (sort of) the night before at Menara’s, a Moroccan restaurant in San Jose:

 

Epic Santa Cruz Ride

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It was just one day’s ride… but it turned out to be something of an epic ride: from the bottom of Pogonip in Santa Cruz, up the Emma McCrary trail and the U-Con trail to the UCSC campus trails winding this way and that and up and back around, then all the way down through Wilder Ranch and over via Old Cabin trail, round Enchanted, a short stop for lunch on the bluffs and then down and around Zane Gray’s Cutoff before starting the climb back up Twin Oaks, past the eucalyptus grove, back around behind campus and all the way back down Pogonip.

Mostly single-track but thirty-two miles in all!  Whew!  Who’s idea was this again?? (I had in mind a full day with lunch along the way like doing Hole in the Ground up in Tahoe… but I see that’s *only* 16 miles!  Though, at altitude of course.)  Anyway, we all survived to ride another day!

I put together a little video montage from the ride:

 

Also, check out our attempt to create a new sport: Disk Golf Biking!

Click through below for the full gallery from the day, mostly courtesy of Rick – thanks, Rick!

  

 

Riding Lake Tahoe Trails

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Darlene and I went up to Lake Tahoe for a couple days of mountain biking midweek last week.  We did a bit of Sawtooth Ridge near Truckee after driving up on Wednesday – these are some nice wandering trails overlooking the Truckee River and highway 89 – and chipmunks everywhere!

On Thursday we went for a full day’s ride centered around the awesome views of the Tahoe Flume Trail, overlooking Lake Tahoe.  Here’s a two-minute video montage from the ride:

Tahoe Rim and Flume Trails

Richard fell sick and wasn’t able to join us so we caught the shuttle up to Tahoe Meadows (near Mt. Rose).  Our route started with the Tahoe Rim Trail heading south, then catching the Red House Flume Trail running clockwise, then back up the Sunflower Hill Trail, round Marlette Lake until finally getting to enjoy the Flume Trail proper.  Sweet and long 25-mile day with lots of breaks to enjoy the views and even snag a geocache along the way.

Click through for the full gallery:

  

Mud and Poppies in Wilder Ranch

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Here’s some pictures from another Saturday ride with MBoSC (Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz) in Wilder Ranch.  It was just a couple of us since most everyone else was at the Santa Cruz Bike Festival this weekend.  Lots of poppies in bloom above the Zane Grey Cutoff trail.  Even with the recent and welcome rain, most of Wilder Ranch tends to dry up pretty quickly but I was still able to find a few leftover mud puddles here and there! ;-)

Click through for the full gallery: