May 2, 2011

Designer Ride

Always in search of the perfect trail, Steve used his Topo! program to come up with a 25 miler (or thereabouts) on Little Mountain. 
We started out from a BLM meadow planted in crested wheat grass, and followed various two-tracks over the sagebrush covered hills.
On the way uphill, the trail was clear and dry, but we hit snow at about 8200 feet.  Our destination was the communications tower.  The ground around the tower had at least 6 inches of snow cover.
The day was windy and cold at the summit, 8500 feet.   Thick clouds over the surrounding mountains appeared to be dropping more snow.
We hurried downhill.  When we had descended 1000 feet, the sun found us again. 
The ride ended up being 28 miles and 5200 feet of elevation gain and loss.  A good day!

11 comments:

  1. Nice long ride! The clouds always make for dramatic photos. Glad you found the sun though!

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  2. Quite worrying to be heading into snow with the possibility of a snow storm. No wonder you were pleased to ride into sunshine again.

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  3. I'm glad you can get out and ride now. I may have misguessed on the elevation at the summit of Huntington Canyon. It said on the website it was 8,000 to 10,000 feet and since we weren't on the top peaks I settled on the lower elevation. But there is still so much snow up there. I'd guess 5 feet or so up on top. The Huntington Reservoir had no sign of thawing, but the Cleveland showed a little softness around the shoreline.

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  4. What views!! It looks cold. Did Daisy make this ride?

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  5. That was a lonnnnng ride. You two are so adventurous!

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  6. Beautiful country as always, but a bit cold for me. Are the horses a bit tired after 25 miles? Just don't know much about horses. I've got a horse you might appreciate on today's post in my blog.

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  7. What incredible blue skies and what a magnificent ride.

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  8. I can't imagine going on a 28-mile ride. That must something!

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  9. Hi Janie, everytime I come back from a trip out of the valley, I find you've been on another wonderful trail. Amazing how you dodge the snow. Glad the sun found you again. Blessings Jo

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  10. Seems a shame to get to climb so far only to have the view obscured by clouds. But I like being at the same level as the clouds and still have a view.

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