Stevens Canyon to the Gap and Back

What a great ride! Russ and Mark met me at my house and from there we headed out towards the Gap. A last minute change in plans headed us out toward Stevens Canyon. I have always wanted to ride UP to the Gap rather than starting it from the top. I so much prefer a ride that ends on a downhill as opposed to a seemingly endless climb. Well, this was the time! We found parking off of Stevens Canyon Road and headed in...

We had to ride for about a mile or two to get to the trailhead. From there we headed in and immediately hit the singletrack. After another mile or two we ended up at a familiar place--the bottom of the Gap. How excellent! After a couple of stream crossings we headed up the one-way trail all the way to the top. This climb is so much easier and better when it is done in the beginning of a ride. After some doing, we made it all the way up to Skyline. This is a gain of almost 2000 feet, but in a very short distance--about 6.5 miles of winding, rooty single track and some very steep fire road.

From the top we headed across the mountain and all the while we were enclosed inside a cloud. It was so misty that I could not see anything and had to remove my shades. Soon we started heading down through the forest again, and at times the air was so moist that the trees rained down drops of cool water on us and the trail. It was all quite perfect. We cut through quickly to the bottom of the hill, hit another stream crossing and began the climb out.

Soon we were back at the original trail that brought us in to the Gap and we headed out. This trail is a lot of fun because of all of the burms and jumps. I saw them coming up the trail and was paitiently awaiting the descent so I could try a few. This part of the trail is very fast and requires control so one does not launch himself out of control. We headed down pretty quickly and were soon back at the car only slightly behind schedule.

In the end we covered only about 17 miles, but we climbed over 3000 feet.

Regarding my Garmin--the thing does not work well on rides in tree-covered canyons. My total ascent measured over 6000 feet, and I know that is not even close to being accurate. Oh well. Maybe an altimiter that worked off of barometric pressure rather than satellites is a better choice. But it is dissappointing to buy the Garmin and to expect too much from it. I love having post-ride data to look at and I would like to be able to assume that it is accurate, more or less. Apparently less!

Some great things about the ride were:

Mark came out after a long absence. The dude seems to never loose any of his strength, even after not riding for some time. He also did the whole thing on a hard tail with 1.9 inch wide tires!

Russ pushed on in spite of exhaustion and an auto-shifting drivetrain.

I had a blast! And I could really feel how riding the singlespeed 29er has really improved my strength at pedalling. I have been trying to climb in harder gears and it pays off with increased momentum and speed to get over obstacles and up steep sections.

The trails were in excellent shape and the weather was perfect. I can't wait to get back out there and add some more distance to this ride! Anyone up for it next weekend?