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 08-11-12 - Mad Lake

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n16ht5

n16ht5


Posts : 550
Join date : 2009-08-20
Age : 38
Bike : 13 FE250, 14 FE501 Snowbike

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Empty
PostSubject: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime8/19/2012, 11:55 am

This weekend my friend Tom and I went back up to the mountains to go riding and camping.
Friday evening when after we set up camp we went out for a ride... and planned to get back around dusk.





08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2178

Tom
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2182

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2188

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Went playing on Cougar Rocks.. I thought you could get to the top from here...
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2200

But I think you need a trials bike.. and some big kahunas
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2211

So I headed back down
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2214

Looking back up where I came from
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2215

So then I got the great idea of taking the Jimmy Creek trail down as a short cut to the camp.. It is not on the map, but I had it penciled in on a old trail map I had found in the closet.. Probably years since I last rode it... and there was a big black diamond penciled in next to it...

This was at about 10:00PM and after about the 25th tree we had to jump/pull/cut/bushwack around or over.. and we had a long ways to go yet. Got back around 11:30PM.. We were so happy to have made it back. Cooked some manwiches up and hit the sack.
08-11-12 - Mad Lake IMG_2217

So the next day I got an even better idea to ride across the mountain range to the north mountain trail system... and take another shortcut that I had penciled in years ago :lol3
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2218

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2220

08-11-12 - Mad Lake GOPR2579

08-11-12 - Mad Lake GOPR2580

...


Last edited by n16ht5 on 8/19/2012, 12:00 pm; edited 1 time in total
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n16ht5

n16ht5


Posts : 550
Join date : 2009-08-20
Age : 38
Bike : 13 FE250, 14 FE501 Snowbike

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Empty
PostSubject: Re: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime8/19/2012, 11:57 am

Day two.



The trail we went down was another black diamond trail (according to my pencil years ago).. turning around after we met the first set of trees was not something we wanted to do... getting back up even without the trees was much more fit for a trials bike from the rutted out drops and switches with such a steep incline.

Well we finally made the campground at the bottom of the next valley and we were hot and hungry. We had just dropped about 3,000+ft in elevation on one short trail with over 15 trees across it and no chainsaw (next time I am bringing a top handle with extra gas)
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2222

Time to cool off
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2224

Skivvie dipping in the glacial-fed creek... felt so nice!
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2232

And lunch
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2242
Now on to the next (unmarked black diamond) trail
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2244

Thankfully it was cleared just a few weeks ago! We didn't see a single tire track, however. Not even a hint.
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2245

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2249

..Double diamond unmarked trail?
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2263

It was difficult to keep the tires from sliding off
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2264

08-11-12 - Mad Lake GOPR2589

08-11-12 - Mad Lake GOPR2592

08-11-12 - Mad Lake GOPR2593

08-11-12 - Mad Lake GOPR2596

Coming out of one of the switchbacks.. We were getting very tired and worn out from last night's night trail spectacular and today's downhill tree jumping frenzy.

Tom said "I am done" about here and slumped down next to his bike to take a nap in the shade.
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2271

Having come this far I pushed on, as some of you would expect me to
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2279

...


Last edited by n16ht5 on 8/19/2012, 12:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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n16ht5

n16ht5


Posts : 550
Join date : 2009-08-20
Age : 38
Bike : 13 FE250, 14 FE501 Snowbike

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Empty
PostSubject: Re: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime8/19/2012, 11:59 am



The views were getting to be incredible.. You can just make out Glacier Peak in the background. You can see we were getting higher than some of the glaciers too
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2285

And the flowers were out as usual
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2286

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2289

And then I made the summit.. I didn't take a picture of it, but I smashed my rear brake disk guard off on a big rock climbing to the summit. Luckily the brake rotor was spared at the expense of the guard.
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2333

7,820ft... the highest point in elevation that you can ride to in the state
08-11-12 - Mad Lake Untitled_Panorama1

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Untitled_Panorama2

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2339

You can just make out Glacier Peak
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2343

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2373

Looking over the edge of the ridge while coming back down.. While riding down I noticed my front tire felt very sloppy. I didn't bother to look at it though as I was more concerned with getting down the mountain...
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2400

Looking at the trail going back up
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2403

Having a Rekluse while going downhill on steep switchbacks combined with a bunch of gas and water strapped to your fender is a bad combination. I had a close call while coming down a switchback where I could not get my rear end to swing around because of the extra junk on back, and yet I couldn't get my foot to swing over the rear for the same reason. And then on top of that, with a Rekluse there is nothing to hold your bike back when it is in gear.. it is basically as free rolling as neutral. Luckily there were some trees that held me back on the edge from flying to oblivion.
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2405

So that sloppy front tire turned out to be a flat front tire :huh
One that was too big for Slime to stop...

Oh well, I have Tubliss.. who needs air with that, right?... ?

Not to mention that I have about 10mi of road and gravel plus 25+mi of mountain range to go on singletrack left before we get to camp...
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2414


I figured I could throw my spare front tube in if I need to later on...

Well...

Until this
08-11-12 - Mad Lake GOPR2639

...
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n16ht5

n16ht5


Posts : 550
Join date : 2009-08-20
Age : 38
Bike : 13 FE250, 14 FE501 Snowbike

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Empty
PostSubject: Re: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime8/19/2012, 12:02 pm

So it was getting late.. and dark. And we hadn't even passed Klone Peak yet.. still a few hours from camp at normal riding speeds...
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2416

And of course I didn't forget those pesky tires...
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2420

Or maybe I did
What the heck, one more summit for the road eh?
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2419

This is Klone Peak, 6,820ft of mountain... yes it was not a part of the route back, but it was close by :1drink
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2422

Hmm.. it's getting awful dark. Dang these bugs are big. Man am I tired...
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2423

Downed my last gatorade and headed for camp.. and didn't stop until we got there. Rode flat front and rear through the dark at speeds I probably shouldn't have gone.
But we made it. Yeah, I didn't take any pictures when we got back that night. We were done. 85 miles of riding that day and who knows how many trees in the past two had done their job to wear us out.
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2430

And the Tubliss held up like a champ. Without Tubliss in there I woud have probably been completely hosed.. we only had one spare front tube between the two of us.. and prying a trials tire off with two tiny little 5" tire irons in the dark with man-eating bugs on top of a mountain is not fun or easy. The Tubliss kept the beads of the tires on the rim, and made a cusion of 100PSI buffer to protect the rims from total annihilation while slamming over rocks and creekbeds at 25+MPH.

Now I know what is TOO low of pressure to run while riding rocky trails.
When we first got back I touched the back tire and it was burning hot from running so far so fast. I am amazed that the tire did not disintegrate!
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2431

The carcass is pretty stiff on the Dunlop MX front tires... thankfully. Neither tire was pluggable as the gouge was too big in the front and the rear was gouged in the soft trial tire sidewall.
The tire still took a lot of damage from running flat all day.. side lugs are chunking off and most of the other lugs are rounded off now
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2432

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2439

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08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2437

the rocks took their toll on his tires too, although he was running much higher PSI than I was and did not get any flats (he also did not ride the super rocky section at the top earlier that day).
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2438

Let's get out of here.. Sunday morning
08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2444

08-11-12 - Mad Lake _MG_2450
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YAMAHAULER

YAMAHAULER


Posts : 252
Join date : 2010-05-25
Bike : '81 XT500H, 2005 XR650L, 83 Big Red

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Empty
PostSubject: Re: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime8/19/2012, 9:26 pm

As usual nice shots and good ride report!
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DouggieBoy




Posts : 2
Join date : 2012-04-05

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Empty
PostSubject: Re: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime8/25/2012, 2:47 pm

Jeez. You are a monster!!! Mad Lakes. Amazing. We did a fun loop from Swakane to Entiat Summit to Tillicum and Indian Creek and back to my house on Entiat River Road this morning. Nice to start at 5:30 am. Of course I want to go out again tonight, but time to play dad again.

After riding a little bit of single-track, I have decided there is no way I'm trying to ride Upper Mad River Trail or Upper Tommy Creek on the 650! What does your WR450 weigh nh16? You throw that baby around like I pedal my mountain bike up Alder Creek.
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DouggieBoy




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Join date : 2012-04-05

08-11-12 - Mad Lake Empty
PostSubject: Re: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime8/25/2012, 2:51 pm

I can't believe the Tubliss did not cause your tire to come off the bead. That's twice now that you have let us know that you got lucky. You are a machine. Gonna order new tires today as the Desert Tires are finally cupping and wobbly on pavement.
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PostSubject: Re: 08-11-12 - Mad Lake   08-11-12 - Mad Lake Icon_minitime

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