Sunday, August 16, 2015

Upper Priest Lake Ride

I wasn't not entirely sure where I rode yesterday so I looked up all the trails for this post. John was coming over for the weekend so he brought his 29er. We parked at the trail head for Lakeshore Trail (east of Nordman) and rode north alongside Priest Lake until we ran out of lake. Then we got on Navigation Trail and followed that to its northern terminus, I think, and then took some old forest service roads eastward where we hooked up with the Upper Priest Lake Trail. Then we headed south and followed the east bank of Upper Priest Lake until we got to the second beach along the trail. Everybody brought at least one beer so there was enough to go around.

The trails were beautiful. There were some awesome flowing trails that were a joy to ride on. And there were some climbs where I had to push the bike. Fortunately, there weren't many of them. I crashed three times but only sustained flesh wounds on my legs. The first was an endo I did going into some tree roots. I think it was a slow motion one because I landed on my feet. The second crash happened on a sharp right turn up and over some wood. I did not have enough speed, lost my balance and fell over. On the way back from the beach we were crossing some wooden bridges. One had a very large step so we picked our bikes up over the step to ride on. Instead of dismounting, I stopped next to the log on the side of the bridge to put my left foot on and lift my front wheel over the step. The log was very wet. It was as if I stepped on ice. My foot slipped right off and I fell over the edge. Fortunately, it was at the end of the bridge so there wasn't much distance to fall down. The rest of the ride was uneventful as far as crashing goes but the trails were a blast.

I didn't do a Strava session because I couldn't figure out how to start one. If only a teen had been on the ride to help me.


Looking fresh and well nourished at the start.

Some falls at a bridge where I think we crossed Upper Priest River.

 Having a well deserved beer at our destination...

 ...a beach.

 Someone else's Strava map of the ride that I pilfered.

 Yeah, we were a little tired.

2 comments:

Brian J said...

I was once told by a German I met at seven summits that I didn't endo, I just left my bike behind! Nothing like a brother ride, I rode breckenridge with my brothers last week during the us pro challenge, it made the summer that much sweeter!

Hank Greer said...

You got that right, Brian.