2008 Tuesday Ride Report - May 27, 2008 -- Tri-Con Mine Road

By Tom Clark

Fifteen riders showed up for this one, then Jim Gower caught up with us, making us sixteen. Jim is known for tracking down the group...

We assembled at Ester Community park, and Dave James gave the pre-ride lecture. He then planted the seed for a longer ride, describing how we may not come down the Alder Chute after all, and might do something involving the trails on the west side of Henderson. There were murmurs of both approval and dissension, so no firm plans were made yet.

Rode out the valley to the base of the Tri-Con road, and climbed on up. It was a little worse than usual, due to the cool weather, which means a late dry-up, which means mud. After making the turn at the bowl and starting the steep climb, there were some spots that were quicksand-like and threatened to eat the bikes. I was able to ride through them, but the cost was high: I was wheezing with the effort for the rest of the night.

The group re-grouped at the "usual" spot, where the Tri-Con road meets the Equinox Marathon "out and back". Due to the cool weather, there's few mosquitos, which means happy people lounging in the tundra, lying in the sun. Eventually, when everybody got there, we continued up the hill. After going past the first group of antennas, we rode up to the second group and took the trail around the north side of the knob (also part of the Marathon course). I thought that just the lead riders would go that way, but everyone ended up going that way. Cool.

Past the saddle, we stopped at the top, in that "parking area" looking thing. (Don't park there, it is private property and you'll catch hell if you try it.) After regrouping, we split up. Part of the folks wanted to do the ride as advertised, and went down the Alder Chute, then take the Marathon trail, then jump on the Ester Village trail (sometimes called the Back Door Trail) to Ester. All the cool people continued on down the road. Holy crap holy crap holy crap. Seriously cold descent down to Henderson. Wow. All eight of us were profoundly chilled by the experience. (It got below freezing that night.)

We took the Marathon trail opposite of Henderson, which is a wickedly fun descent. If you haven't done it, do it. You'll like it. After coming back out on Ester Dome Road again, we made our way to St. Patricks via some funny route then took the trail that follows the ridge behind Bartholomew mine. It's a great trail and referred to elsewhere as the St. Pats Bypass trail. This put us out on Henderson again, at that intersection with the wooden gates. We crossed Henderson and hooked up with the Marathon trail again, all the way to where it finally dumps out on Henderson, just above the mine.

Because we still hadn't had enough, we dropped just below the mine, then re-entered the woods on the right. I led folks through trails hither and yon, just like Dave wanted. We did singletrack, double track, uphill and downhill. When we got to the unclimbable hill, nobody could climb it. I got close, about eight feet from the top, but I don't know if it is possible to really clean it or not. Finally, we ended up on the Intertie powerline.

Lacking proper judgement, we rode west, to where the powerline dives down the steep hill. I rode down the hill (which is really asking for a mouthful of dirt), then about four others rode down in style. I think that descending that hill is easier than I was thinking it was. Then we followed Geoff Orth on some circuitous route back to the Ester Park that I'd be hard pressed to describe, though I could probably find it again.

Final judgement: awesome ride. Hard to say what the best part was. Any heartpounding climb followed by a great descent is great, and we had a few on this ride.