Craig and I finally got out for our first ice adventure this winter.
On Wednesday night we decided to head up to Thorpe, skin up the gorge and climb the gully we climbed last winter for the first time.
The gully is about two miles from the parking lot at the end of the Lehigh Gorge trail in Thorpe, and took roughly 45 minutes to “skin” in on our split boards. We used our split boards (snowboards that split into two separate skis) thinking we’d get more glide and get in faster than just walking. According to Google Maps that wasn’t the case.
Looking at the climb from the bottom and across the tracks it was quite intimidating. I seriously considering turning back. Being the first climb of the season, that wasn’t surprising.
But once I sank my tools into the ice and had my crampon toe points fully engaged, there was no stopping us. At least not until the 3rd bulge seen here. I had gone first and waited below it for Craig. In that time I spent too much time looking down, then looking up at the 10′ vertical face and decided it wasn’t in me at the moment. As I went around Craig proved he was game until his headlamp slipped off his helmet and I had to light the way for him to get over the top edge. I was able to scramble back down and get his light before we met up again and continued onwards to the top.
The head wall was thin and sketchy. In general the farther up we went the thinner the ice got. We scrambled around a bit looking for a way to circumvent the ice to get over top and setup a top rope, but were thwarted by dense rhododendron growth. By this time it was 9 pm and we still had to get down, then skin the 45 minutes back out, so it was time to leave.
All in all not a bad trip for the first time out. I could complain and bitch that we’d done so much more last year by this time, but this is a different year – different seasonal characteristics. It is what it is.
Hoping to get somewhere north and cold soon.
– b
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Since the storm hit over the weekend, we mostly had Monday off.
What to do with so much snow?
Ski!
Abigail leading the way.
Lauren getting the hang of it.
I really like this shot.
They found the top of the bench sticking out of the snow at the playground.
Then decided to build a snow cave/cubby under it to get out of the wind.
In the sun, but out of the wind.
Time to head back. Somehow Mom ended up with Lauren’s sunglasses and she with mine.
– b
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We were totally prepared for the storm.
Snow tires – check
Generator – check
Gas for the generator – check
Snowblower – check
Gas for the snowblower – check
Pellets for the stove – check
And now it’s over.
Never lost power.
Got out and played.
Can’t tell how much we got because of the drifting, but it’s somewhere between 12 and 24″.
Got this cool table top fireplace for Jen for her birthday. Was really nice while the storm was raging.
The girls wanted blue berry covered snow for desert last night.
– b
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Taking the snow tires to get mounted.
Maybe it was all the snow I saw in Minnesota this past week, but I still believe it’s coming here.
Though today was 60° and sunny, albeit a little wet.
But that’s best for mudpies.
And bike rides through the mud.
– b
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Sorry. Most of the pictures are of loading, unloading, hauling. I haven’t quite figured out how to get a camera out in the woods without breaking it. There’s usually lots of crashing and I need some way to protect a camera when not taking pictures and crashing.
Got out for three different rides in December.
The first was on the 13th. Unfortunately my new (to me) KTM was still in the shop, so I had to take the 35 year old MX 100 out again.
I went up with Rick, Craig, his son (jr.), and we met Huber (Thorpe local friend/guide) up there. Despite not having enough suspension, brakes and under powered, I had another great time on that little bike. We rode a lot of the trails we rode the previous month and I found myself in a higher gear because of the familiarity. Also found myself riding closer to Rick on his new 4 stroke 350 and Huber on his new (to him) 4 stroke 310 – both getting familiar with their new rides. It was a warm day and I think everyone with a bike, quad or side by side within an hour was there.
A week later on the 20th we went back up. This time we went with Keith and his new (to him) YZ 125 and I had my KTM finally.
It was an awesome ride. My bike handled flawlessly. The work I had done at the shop (mostly suspension tuning) made the bike way more ride-able than it had been a month ago when I bought it in 7 Springs.
It completely soaked up the bumps like they weren’t even there. No longer was I being pin-balled down the trail. With the new handling and way more motor than the MX, I was finally able to make my way to the front and ride with Craig.
Passing Rick through the biggest rock garden of the day was fun too, though the most fun was watching Keith. Keith grew up riding bikes, so he really knows what he’s doing. The rest of us are just hanging on.
My favorite was watching him launch from the top of a downhill and landing near the bottom on the transition.
The day was cold and mostly dry. The bikes look muddy, but the rocks were dry and there wasn’t any slipping.
Overall it was a great day. I felt really strong and confident with the bike.
We came back on the 27th, but the strength and confidence was completely gone. It was warmer than the 20th, but it had rained for a few days prior and everything was wet. We came up with a big group again – Craig, Rick, Keith, Jr, and two of his pro motocross friends Zack and Cole.
Zack is 20 something – living and driving his box truck all over the US and Canada racing in the pro arena cross circuit. Cole is 17 and hoping to turn pro any day. Both were super talented, but super cool. Huber (our local friend/guide) couldn’t make it, so Craig and I decided to try some harder trails that Huber won’t normally ride. Yeah. Let’s try harder trails on the slickest day we’ve ridden so far. That’s a genius idea.
Right off the bat we started on a very technical trail (narrow, rocky, slippery, log overs, creek crossings, etc.), which didn’t work for me at all. My bike wasn’t warmed up and some changes I made to my cockpit weren’t working out for me. I had narrowed my bars and moved my controls, but in a way that wasn’t working for this trail. The bike kept stalling and I was killing my wrist trying to reach the clutch. Finally through that trail (after dropping the bike in the creek and having to kick start it I don’t know how many times), I was able to quickly change my clutch so I could reach it again. Unfortunately the damage was done. Only 1 trail into the ride, my wrist was toast and I was exhausted from all the kick starts.
Serves me right as I had previously made a lot of fun of Huber for not being able to ride because of a dead battery. Though mine kick starts without a battery at all and did so quite easily the previous week in the dry, it was killing me failing to start easily in the wet of this day. I was seriously wishing for an electric start.
With that trail done, we zipped around some double track, did a fun hill climb, then headed for our next impossible objective. By this time our goggles were useless. It was just too humid and wet to wear them and not have them fog up. The trail started out ok. It was technical in a sense that it was really rocky with wet log overs and creek crossings. It wasn’t narrow, but the rocks were pretty big. I was actually doing ok to start, but as we went I quickly ran out of steam, started dropping the bike and stalling again. Then came the kick starting – kicking and kicking, but no starting.
Luckily everyone else was feeling it, and we decided to get off the trail and look for more ride able terrain.
The trail was hard, but not impossible. I’m definitely interested in going back in the dry and lower water levels to try again – especially when I get the electric start back on my bike.
At the top there’s a fire road we knew would take us back to the trails we were used to. If it’s going to wet and slippery, we better ride trails we know. Having your bike go three different directions at once (rear slipping left as the front slips right, while motoring forward) on trails you don’t know just isn’t fun after a while.
But at the top we discovered Craig’s clutch plates were toast and Cole had a flat. We were able to adjust Craig’s clutch enough for him to keep riding for the day, but Cole needed to fix his flat.
We rode back across the top of the mountain and down to the trucks, though not without completely soaking each other ripping through all the puddles and splashing each other.
At the bottom and Cole’s flat fixed, we headed to an abandoned dam to do some more hill climbs. The dam was pretty cool. It was about 100′ high and we rode through a hole in the bottom. Unfortunately we were also pretty tired by now and only rode a few climbs before heading back.
Despite the difficult day, it was a good day. No one got hurt and we figured out a lot of the area realizing where the fire roads were and intersected with each other. Having some knowledgeable boundaries now will allow us to more confidently explore and learn the individual trails.
Though I was completely prepared for a cold and snowy winter for skiing and climbing, definitely having a good time with these warmer days and the dirt bike.
– b
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Before Christmas we took the girls to their first sushi restaurant.
They’ve had sushi before, but we’ve never taken them out to get it.
Abigail enjoying her octopus.
Definitely something we’ll be doing more routinely.
– b
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Came home after riding one day to find the girls making yummy cookies.
Nothing like riding all day, getting hungry and coming home to tasty treats.
Lauren was doing her best to guard them.
She said they did all the work. No freebies for me.
– b
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Have been sick since the middle of November. Just yesterday I spent most of my time in and out of bed.
It comes, it goes – sort of, mostly it stays.
Pretty sure it’s stress and too much work that keeps it around.
Taking off this week should help, but going to Minnesota next week will likely revert any gains.
Such is life – currently.
– b
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Decided to try the big bird feeder again.
I can’t remember when we tried this last, but I’m pretty sure it was before Abigail was born.
The Starlings made it impossible to maintain, so we took it down.
We’ll see how it goes this year.
– b
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