Thursday, 02 August 2007
Clear, 20-29C, light breeze
The morning was clear and cool – perfect weather for a good long ride. That’s definitely what we would get today. We rode over to the golf course and got on the Valley Trail Northbound. Crossing the railroad tracks, we skirted around the right of Emerald Forest and headed North. We crossed over Highway 99 and picked up the bike path on the other side and followed it out to the terminus past Green Lake. Continuing along 99, we passed a pair of RCMP officers dealing with a pair of kids who drove their Southbound Hyundai off the road into a gully. A little ways on, we could see the trailhead before a concrete barrier at a right turn in the highway.
Kill Me, Thrill Me started as a winding singletrack through the open understory of a pine forest. The trail wound in and out along the hillside, roughly paralleling the highway, rising and falling through grueling switchbacks, flowing traverses, and technical descents. Among the climbs was a long granite roll-in under the trees and a good wood stunt and boulder descent to a stunt garden. Climbing up above the treeline, the trail came out into the open on an escarpment overlooking the highway and Green River below. The trail maintained the taxing sinusoidal ascents and descents, dropping down over grippy granite knobs under the powerlines, and climbing back up through the blueberry bushes and ferns on momentum-sucking loose sandy climbs. Descending to the edge of the escarpment, the trail became a steady descent along the cliffside, passing below the treeline. The last section was an old logging road that offered a smooth transition back to the highway. In general, this trail was long and physically demanding, but only moderately technical. Except for the switchback climbs, there was a good flow.
Returning Southbound along the highway, we crossed over at the Wedgemont Parking Lot Access Road. Crossing the railroad tracks and traversing a bridge over the Green River, we took a right at the junction (left goes up to the Comfortably Numb trailhead). We climbed over a rise and descended back to the riverside and followed a gravel road alongside the railroad tracks to the Green Lake Loop trailheads. KMTM hadn’t completely burned us out, and the topo didn’t show a lot of relief along the Green Lake Loop, so we figured it would be a good option to taking the highway back to the village. There were two courses – one, the regular trail, that climbed along the open scrub below the powerlines, and another, the Parkhurst Trail, that went along the tracks to the ruins of the old Parkhurst town then rejoined the main trail. The hot, exposed climb looked unappealing, so we took the Parkhurst Trail. In retrospect, this was probably a mistake.
The trail rose and fell, following the railroad tracks in the shade of the forest. We reached an obvious junction. The left was a singletrack leading into the mossy understory. The right descended to the railroad track siding. My initial guess was the singletrack continued along above the tracks, so I led us down the path of disappointment and torment. The trail began innocently enough, then turned uphill and then contoured along a hillside. The going was a little rough and narrow, but the trail was well defined and obviously used. The trail began to get a little indistinct under the trees, and there were some fallen logs to climb over, but at a long push-up, the trail became distinct again. At the top, the trail came out into a clearing atop a granite outcropping. Here the trail went cold. We looked uphill and downhill, but there seemed to be no continuation. Not wanting to get lost in the woods in the dark, we backtracked in frustration and took the other fork to the rail siding.
Following along the tracks, we came out at the lakeside ruins of the abandoned town of Parkhurst. There were a few wooden structures still partially standing, but most of the town had deteriorated to sections of lumber and metal hardware. According to local lore, the abandoned logging town had become a homeless community but had been recently been cleared out. The road out of town was obvious and rose steadily up along a ridgeline. The dirt road was heavily eroded in the middle, and there were hoofprints and horse scat from equestrians. After all the climbing on KMTM and the misguided foray into the mystery singletrack, the climb up out of Parkhurst was especially painful.
Reaching a saddle, there was a moment of relief. The trail descended briefly, but then wickedly turned back uphill and the heinous climb continued. The course was along an old logging road, but it was hardly smooth. Erosion had weathered the surface, removing the packed smaller gravel and sand, leaving a cobbled, energy-sapping surface. Coming out into the open in the low scrub below the powerlines, we junctioned with the other branch of the Green Lake Loop trail. It was difficult to tell which way would have been better, but the other trail looked shorter and more direct, but looser and less sheltered. The trail climbed to a head, then descended along the hillside to the back of a valley, but then climbed back out of it on the opposite valley wall.
Lather, rinse, repeat. The cycle of descents and ascents in and out of the valleys and around the finger ridges slowly wore away at whatever reserves of muscle energy I had left, even as each cycle put us steadily closer to the village. At a rest break at a granite head, I could see below a pair of powerlines merging at one pole, a landmark visible on the trail map. We were almost back. From here, the trail was mostly downhill, but became much more loose and rocky. I couldn’t imagine doing this in reverse, but as I thought that, a XC hardtail tighty-shorts dude went climbing past in the opposite direction. Almost suddenly, the trail came out onto the Lost Lake Siwash Trail. I took my last draw from the now-empty hydration reservoir. Following the Siwash Trail toward the village, we connected to Tommy Moore and crossed the Elephant Bridge onto Donkey Puncher. We were all pretty much tapped out, so we bypassed the White Gold Traverse and continued down Donkey Puncher to Dinah Moe Humm and Peaches en Regalia to the village. The hot-tub soak was especially welcome and relaxing.
Dinner was at Earl’s. Our server was the same “how come we got a dude” dude that Chris experienced several trips ago. That particular day was actually his first. This day was uncannily his last. He was moving to a managerial job in the Caribbean. He recognized Jeff and Sara and told us the story. He hooked us up with some free drinks, which was cool of him. We started with the requisite wings ($10 CAD) and dry ribs ($10 CAD). The wings were great – probably the best in town, but the ribs were not as good as the ones that Brewhouse used to serve many seasons ago. I had the 9oz. Top Sirloin with garlic mash and salad on the side for $25 CAD. Very good, as is to be expected of an Earl’s steak.
D = 21.95-miles, Vavr = 6.3 mph, Vmax = 23.9 mph, T = 3-hours, 28-minutes
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