Saving Sergei’s Summer

Sergei’s life has been too busy to get any serious MTB riding this summer. So, we decide to take a day trip out to Leavenworth to ride the legendary Xanadu and Rosey Boa trails.

We arrived at the pull out parking for Xanadu after 3 miles of gravel road just after 10am, upon which time we discover Sergei’s old Maxxis tire has blistered. It would fail on the downhill part of the trail.  Hmm… What to do… Fortunately, Das Rad Haus is open in Leavenworth (10 miles away).  Sergei pays the most he has ever paid for a replacement tire (and it’s not even a Maxxis).  The shop has a handy outdoor bike workstand, complete with compressed air to inflate the tubeless tire…. 

We did look at the Evergreen trail map in the shop, but it was missing trails like Xanadu and Rosey Boa, and we were told there’s a brand new trail to be cut in today linking the ski hill (easy ride from town) with the old Freund Canyon trail.  There are so many trails around Leavenworth, an updated version of such an overview map would be required to select the rides you’d want in a weekend at Leavenworth.

Sergei’s new house (with a garage) let him quickly load his bike box and bike to the car with long-sought-after-convenience.  Unfortunately, he discovers he forgot his backpack, and water.  No matter, I had just installed a bottle cage last night, and could carry water for both of us.  Time to buy some bars and gels at Das Rad Haus.

Anyway, an hour later we’re riding up the forest road for Xanadu.  It’s blue skies, but the sun hasn’t raised the temperature to 80, yet.  Half way up, Sergei’s new tubeless is slowly leaking.  Grrr!  We try to push on.  About ½ a mile from the top of Xanadu, we have to try to use one of my CO2 cartridges.  I figured we should use all of it, and hope it finishes seating the new tubeless ready tire.  But, my 10 yr old CO2 adapter fails.  It’s an identical model to the one I had used 2 weeks ago to inflate an abandoned girl’s flat tire at Tiger Mtn (529 team to the rescue!), and identical to Sergei’s (which was in his aforementioned backpack).  Total failure.  Unscrewing the canister releases the air.  What the hell: Try the 2^nd and last CO2 cartridge.  Total failure.  What's trying to stop us from riding? Surely not karma? Sigh.  Sergei decides he better coast down the forest road with my 650b tube back to his car (which had a floor pump).  I decide to continue up alone and ride down carefully to scope out Xanadu, and we’d go back up Xanadu together after he fixed the flat.  Yeah, I was selfish after that long climb.

Fortunately, Sergei quickly runs into 3 riders on the way down, who have a proper hand pump, that lets Sergei ride to the top with them.  I’m still busy taking 360 panos at the top (http://360.io/6yKRuM hmm... works better in Chrome or Safari or IOS with gyros!).  These riders save Sergei’s day!  The local, Rex, gives Sergei a tube (which he uses at the car), but the handpump tops off his tubeless tire enough to get Sergei all the way down (perhaps because he stopped taking the bigger drops on his lame tire).

The Canadians that saved Sergei's day

Rex was going to lead his 2 friends (visiting from BC) down Xanadu, and doesn’t mind us tagging along.  Yes!  We are guided down this amazing ridge ride by a local!  He keeps us from flying off the few big drops, and inspires us to "feel out" the massive, steep rock roller.  The ridge trail starts softly like a "sound of music" hilltop (very round but less green), but then sharpens to a jagged knife edge.  There’s probably lots of traction on those tilted spiky flakes of strata, but the high penalty encourages the wise to walk over a few parts.  It’s over in just 2.2 miles, but it was as glorious as advertised in that delicious Pinkbike article. 

It's hard to get lost on the ridgeline.



The start overlooks the ridge that you descend.
Imagine it with spring wildflowers...
No, wait. Just look at the PinkBike article...

I'm too lazy to get the closer and better angle on Sergei's descent off that rock ridge

I think we discovered the Easter Island of the Cascades.
There were several of these weird rocks along the route.
[Beta: easy 5.8 mantle with the tree]

I think this is a distant view of the massive rock roller on the peak.
Not that scary, right?

At the cars, Sergei insists on paying Rex for the tube.  Rex fetches their bike shuttle truck, and they leave [with our profuse thanks] for the next trail on Rex’s tour, while Sergei and I prepare to ride Xanadu AGAIN!  The temperature reaches 86, but the ride up feels shorter when your tire isn’t deflating, you have jettisoned useless tools, and your water supply is just enough for the known ride length.  At two times, I meet riders with black and orange Bronsons!  That pinkbike article did say a 6” bike was perfect for Xanadu.

This time we catch up with 3 other riders at the top of the massive rock roller.  One of the ladies, H, asks how I’m liking my Bronson.  My reply is curt, as my pride has shrunk to the boredom of that common question.  We’re confident, having ridden this slickrock just earlier, but we want to watch how they take it.  After two gingerly find their way down, H decides we better go first. OK.  When we get to the bottom, H isn’t too keen on any of our beta.  I ask her friends if Sergei and I should leave, to relieve pressure on H.  But then, H shouts out for us to video tape her descent!  I capture her in this 360 panorama.  http://360.io/ZSb743

Then H introduces Sergei and me to her friends.  Hmm! I don’t remember giving her my name at the top – maybe Sergei mentioned it.  I ask her if she has an email address I can send the picture to, and she says well, yeah, Heather@KirklandBike.  Headslap!  She sold me my Bronson.  J  Hey, she was wearing a full face helmet!   We really picked the right place today!

After the second epic ride down Xanadu, Sergei and I head back into Leavenworth for a late lunch of some house-made sausage and not-beer (because we wanted to do a sunset ride of Rosey Boa!).  After much Google terrain map analysis with the scattered trail websites, we find there are 3 possible routes to the top. Two are probably boring forest roads.  The third may not get us all the way there (in hindsight it would have lead us to the bottom of the Leavenworth XC race route).  We refill my backpack and a single bike bottle for water, and drive up to scout the base of the mountains to find that new trail that would lead us to Rosey Boa.  We park at the base of Ski Hill (where they are playing Sound of Music in the outdoor amphitheatre; Leavenworth's consistent bavarian flavor). We find one of the forest roads, and a phone call to Das Rad Haus confirms to us that the new trail may not be what we want (it’s brand new; no one’s ridden it and can’t advise).    OK, boring “Ranger” forest road it is. 

Ranger Rd proves to be much steeper than the Xanadu grind.  At least it is in the cool shade of the mountain.  After 25 minutes, I felt like I do at the end of the East Tiger Mtn fireroad climb (my knees were starting to complain).  Sergei had to tune his misbehaving rear derailleur; his bike didn’t like to be neglected for a summer. Then a big black truck pulls up to us! 

Rex: Want a ride?

Larry: How far are we from the top?
Rex: About halfway…
Sergei and Larry:  Yes Please!

Rex: I thought you might.

Rex (yes, the same one) shuttles us up in the back of his 4x4.  It's my first time ever being shuttled up a sketchy forest road (multiple sharp uphill hairpin turns, very narrow roads, with edges to exposed cliffs).  Thrilling, and the easiest way to the top.  I’d do it again!

Also with Rex and his Canadians (sorry, I’m forgetting the couple’s names), is a Steven’s Pass bike park trailbuilder who should be working on the new advanced DH trail (PBR!), or riding with us, but had crashed hard in a manmade rock garden a few days ago.  So, today he would be driving the truck back down. [Hey, he looks a lot like Tim Wesley in that PinkBike article.] 

 

Rex had decided to lead his visitors down Rosey Boa.  We scored a local guide for another trail!  Rosey Boa was not the downhill part of the Leavenworth XC race (as Sergei had once feared).  It is this advanced ridgeline trail with glorious Cascade views, wild flowers, brown pow singletrack, and grey dust powder skiing.  You have to try it!

Rex hucked the ramp over that log.
The rest of us walked under it without crouching.

Over Sergei's right shoulder is "The Spine".
My only opportunity to stop and snap a real ridgeline trail.

Rosey Boa ends at the intersection of a brand new double-wide trail that Evergreen just cut to connect Freund Canyon with Ski Hill.  So we took the new trail to get us back to the car parked at Ski Hill.  Because his bike sensed the end of the ride was near, Sergei’s chain decides to break slowly (it did after 15 more minutes).  It was almost all downhill from here, so rather than test my chainlink tool and masterlink compatibility.  Sergei coasted the rest of the way.  Our new friends kept guiding us down the confusing fireroad switchbacks, by waiting (we told them to go ahead; we could see the town in the valley below), or drawing arrows in the dirt.  When we got to the car, there was no sign of Rex+.  I was disappointed we couldn’t properly thank Sergei’s Saviors.  We will have to just keep paying it forward.

It was a glorious day full of new trails with alpine views, bike mechanical problems, new and old friends.  An epic way to Save Sergei’s Summer.

Jenna made it to finals

in this weekends divisional comp. she did it by flashing all four qualifying routes today. Lets see how it goes tomorrow.....

--
Sent from Gmail Mobile

They are following our lead!

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/celebrity-homes/2011/ellen-degeneres-and-portia-de-rossi-beverly-hills-home-slideshow_slideshow_item2_3#slide=3

Though, I don't think they really play that often at night, there isn't
enough light!

-Larry

If you want a hard test for your color vision

Here's an interesting color vision test you can take

http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?pageid=77&lang=en

It takes a while (for me) to differentiate these similar colors, but I
scored an 8.
It tells me where I made my consistent mistakes (in the red/pale rose zone).

If you take the test, let me know what you score! I'll believe my
vision is color deficient if someone else really does score better than me.

-Larry

BBC E-mail: Boulder on show at LA art museum

I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.

This is what happens if parents let a little girl build her rock collection.


** Boulder on show at LA art museum **
A 340-ton (308,443 kg) rock that appears to float in mid-air goes on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18577668 >


** BBC Daily E-mail **
Choose the news and sport headlines you want - when you want them, all in one daily e-mail
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/email >


** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.


Sent from my iPod

Jackson and me

http://www.bikeparkphotos.com/Trail-Side-Photos/2012/0620HeartDarkness/23689209_b8RjXw#!i=1918092512&k=qSn3jDT

http://www.bikeparkphotos.com/Trail-Side-Photos/2012/0620HeartDarkness/23689209_b8RjXw#!i=1918095762&k=KHRJDBG

-Larry
[Sent from my iPad]

Memorial Day Trip to Smith Rock State Park

Jenna and I joined several VW climbing team families at Smith Rock for the weekend. 

The Ruanas have tried to get us out there ever since Jenna joined the team, and we finally felt ready to tackle some serious routes outdoors.  How did that happen?  Didn’t I always say that I’d rather just stay indoors on nice short 25’ tall walls?  Well, I figured Jenna’s climbing competitiveness needs the challenge that outdoor routes present.  Far be it for my fear of heights to get in her way.  So, the Saturday before Memorial weekend, I went climbing outdoors for the first time.  I told Jenna and Ronya that we had to go with the Ruanas to Little Si.  I never hiked Little Si before.  In fact, I didn’t even notice there was a Little Si next to it’s big brother Mt. Si, until that day we hiked to this popular local climbing area.  The granite at Little Si made for great climbing, some say it’s the best in the region.  Too bad I wasn’t warned that the scariest routes were not on rope.  The narrow ledge, on and from which we camp and belay, presented the greatest risk of the day.  To get to this ledge, we needed to scramble over exposed sections with our heavy packs. If we fell off this ledge, it would be a 40’-50’ drop (I don’t really know as I refused to look).  Well, I was following Drew and the other kids, and he did it….    To be fair, Drew did point out the seriousness of the ledge before we got there, saying Jono almost fell off once.  “There’s no horsing around on the ledge,” he repeats.

The climbing was challenging enough for me without scaring me.  The views and heights just added to the rush of sending a route.  That short trip was exciting and painless.  So, when Rudy invited us to their Smith Rock Memorial Day expedition the very next weekend, I was stoked to go!

Then I remembered it’s a six hour drive.  Sigh.  That discouraged Susan from joining us this time.  “Go and report back” she says.  It turned out that travel on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend really isn’t too bad when you head east into the Washington and Oregon desert.  There wasn’t much traffic at all an hour or so away from Seattle.  So, it was actually a beautiful drive in the daytime.

[Photos are captioned by mouse tips that appear when you hover over them.  The photos are hosted in a SkyDrive.  These thumbnails click thru to the photo album with all of these photos and a few more in much larger sizes for both slideshow, and 5mb sizes.  If you want originals of your kids, let me know.  May I suggest reading through the blog then click through the pictures in slideshow mode?]

We arrived in Terrebonne, the town just outside Smith Rock, just before dinner.  We bought an annual Oregon State Park pass, the definitive guide to climbing at Smith Rock, and a chalk bag belt from Redpoint Climbing Supply – nice folks!  A good thing we got the pass there, I didn’t see a ranger or a manned park building in the actual state park; just machines selling day passes. We checked into our clean-but-1-star HUB motel, and grabbed dinner.  Afterwards, we found our friends had only finished climbing for the day at 8pm!  We visited them at their house in Redmond, OR, the base of operations for the weekend.  We made plans to join them the next morning.

Jenna and I had big breakfasts at the Original Pancake House in Redmond for the next two mornings.  She ordered her usual; chocolate chip pancakes.  She pretty much skipped lunch on those days. I tried their apple pancake soufflé on the second day – I think it could have been enough to fill me for two days.

We make a late start (11am) for Smith Rock knowing that there are going to be crowds on the Memorial Day weekend.  When we get there we see lines of people on the hiking paths, and around the bases of all the classic climbing routes.  We end up in overflow parking (very usual for the Ruanas), but we’re excited about climbing and are eager to try out the backside of Smith Rock, to which the Ruanas have never been!  We hope that means we’ll avoid the crowds of climbers. But that means that even Rudy, who used to live at Smith Rock when he was a climbing bum, needs the guidebook to find the path through the canyon to Adit Rock – our chosen destination.

Chris apologizes many times for this long hiking expedition on our introduction to her climbing mecca.  The climbing is too easy for the advanced climbers of our group, but just perfect for me – nice and short 5.7 – 5.9 slab.  Our best climbers lead climb and leave routes for us to top rope.  They go down the hill to Juniper Spire to project a more challenging route, “The Product” 5.13a.

It’s a beautiful day with sunshine and a cool wind.  We rarely see any other climbers, just day hikers going around Smith.  Before we know it, it’s 3pm and time to clean the routes and move on.

Matt Robertson on Adit Rock’s “Here and Never Found”

We head back down to the more popular part of Smith Rock Climbing, the Dihedrals.  The rock surfaces look featureless from a distance, but it’s a similar type of rock as our Adit Rock, but with arêtes and cracks on steeper walls.  Sean tells me later it’s a type of solidified mud.  Sometimes, it looks like granite gravel is mixed in to provide a knob, or a toehold. Sometimes, it appears an air bubble in the rock created the pockets of various sizes we use as handholds or finger holds.  Sometimes, there’s cracks in otherwise sheer faces that make for nice deep pockets or jugs (I like those!).

The crowds have gone home, as the chill sets in and we do use our winter layers that we were warned to bring.  Drew deliberately takes a huge huck off the top runout of Heinous Cling 5.12c (a 4 star classic).  Other kids climb surrounding routes in the corner to get a closeup view.  Jenna is goaded into climbing to the first anchor of Heinous Cling (start = 5.12a), but refuses to answer if her last climb was her best climb of the day.

The sunset is gorgeous, and we’d probably climb even more, but the rain comes down enough to soak us as we make the laborious hike up the canyon wall to the parking lot.  To cap it off, there’s a double rainbow as we reach the cars.  Too bad my camera battery died right after Adit Rock. 

We figure Sunday is the worse day for crowds, so we get up late the next morning.  Rudy has brought two rifles, that the kids are excited to shoot.  We drive to a public field used for this purpose, and fire off several boxes of ammo.  Jenna and I got to try out the M4 replica. The AK47 replica with the scope and muzzle legs proves more accurate, but jams during the extended shooting session. 

Others less excited by boys and and their guns discover a bone graveyard, where there’s a complete coyote vertebrae.  There’s also a small cow ribcage set around a tree.

We drove past a large gathering of cannon enthusiasts who have setup targets along a hillside for their mortars, civil war cannons, and tank.  Even when firing, those arms were more quiet than the hillbillies that shot at some sort of dynamite sticks at the gun range next to us.  Sigh.

We regroup at the Ruana house, prep some lunch, and head to Smith Rock at around 2pm to start our climbing day.  Jenna tries to help with the equipment transport by carrying a heavy rope bag along with her backpack.  Unfortunately, Jenna has a spill on the loose gravel of the canyon wall path.  She scrapes up her knee and shin.  There aren’t any sanitary facilities to clean her up, so I just let it bleed to sanitize.  That kinda ruins her mood for climbing for the rest of the day. One of her first climbs after a warm up is Panic Attack 5.12a.  She’s unable to start.

We meet up with the Bagnolis who were eagerly climbing routes despite the crowds, as this is their first day of climbing on the weekend.  They have already setup rope on Ancylostoma 5.9, so a bunch of us jump on that.  Others lead and leave top rope on Double Trouble 5.10b, Chain Reaction 5.12c, Barbeque the Pope 5.10b, and few others I’ve lost track of.

These faces look a lot more exciting than Adit Rock, but it was a good thing I had a warm up on Adit Rock yesterday.  I really enjoy Ancylostoma, Double Trouble, and Barbeque the Pope.  The routes are stupidly high, and over the Crooked River of Smith, they feel even higher.  I even got to practice cleaning the route on Double Trouble under the tutelage of Matt Robertson.  There’s a nice shelf for my feet and a table (to hug) at the top with the anchor chains.  That’s a thrill to be so high, and off rope (clipped in one bolt) after depending on a rope for so long.  Maybe a feeling similar to taking the training wheels off?

Jenna’s favorite route of the day is Latin Lover 5.12a.  Another route that Gavin cajoled her into attempting long after she wanted to quit for the day. [I have very few pics of her in this trip, as I was belaying or climbing almost all the time.  Latin Lover is the face opposite “Take a Pow” in Tino’s picture above.]

Drew works on his project route, Chemical Ali 5.14a.  It isn’t obvious to me how one >5.12 route is so much harder than another; I’m too much a noob to recognize the difficulty without the guidebook, but I see numerous strangers watch and comment on his climbing.  Some are jealous of his “power/weight” ratio.  He falls once on it today, but it’s not at the crux, and he finishes the route again.  He sends it perfectly tomorrow (his second 5.14)! We were on the road home by then.

Sean works on his project, Scarface 5.14a, while I’m climbing Double Trouble, which is inside a cave at least two rock faces away.  Still, I can hear the crowd cheering him on.  This is unusual, I don’t hear much climber chatter with the rock faces directing sound out over the canyon, I certainly didn’t hear any crowd cheering for any other climber while I’m at Smith. But when the crowd erupts as he sends that iconic classic, we all know that it could only be him, on that route, causing such a uproar.  Later, Chris tells me that it’s really rare for someone to send a classic 5.14; Scarface may only be sent 5-6 times a year.  It’s Sean’s first 5.14. He may be the first 16 yr old to send it.  I’ll have to watch it when Chris puts video up on Youtube.

Jenna and I had to head home the next day, but we squeezed in a few more routes on Memorial day with Sean’s help.  Sean lead climbs and sets up Nine Gallon Buckets 5.10c on the Morning Glory Wall.  Boy was it a glorious morning light that crossed the face of that wall!  We got there at 9am, just before a line of folks asked us to climb next.  That one climb made my day.  What a view!  Too bad I left the camera in the car.

Sean and Jenna then climbed Overboard 5.11c which put a huge smile on Jenna’s face.  It was rather cool sharing the wall with so many folks this early in the morning.  The air temperature was great, and getting warmer (which means we didn’t need to carry any more clothes than we needed to wear from the car), and there were no lines at 9am.  By 10:30, the routes were getting full, but we just moved Sean onto his project, which was a "warm up” on Churning 5.13a, a traverse to the middle of Vicious Fish 5.13c, and then top roping lower Vicious Fish.  Yeah, no one was waiting for those tough routes.  I must say, I was happy he didn’t take a fall while I was lead belaying him. I really do need to get lead certified at the gym. That could have been embarrassing, as all the local and Seattle-based climbers were congratulating Sean about his Scarface send.  He was quite a celebrity!

We leave the park just before noon, and run into Memorial Day traffic immediately on the highway out of Terrebonne.  We take the beautiful drive north to I-90, which has very civilized stop-and-go traffic, but somehow manage to get home by 7pm.

Here’s a overview picture with most of the routes we climbed marked.