Monday, October 15, 2007

Hungry for Some Downhill?

Yesterday we rode Starvation Ridge. Looking up from the trailhead parking lot, it hardly seems plausible that a trail could snake down the rocky, steep, sheer walled gorge--but somehow, it does.


Piling the bikes high on Ryan's bike rack, we drove to the top. After rebuilding Justin's bike at the trailhead, we hopped on the trail and crested the ridge, through some techinical sections on an ATV path.


Our trail took off near the top of the ridge. After some nice fast singletrack through the trees, we had to ride through some super gnarly scree. I opted to walk, totally watering it down, as it was steep through solid boulders. The trail pretty much dove off from there, with very steep, rocky sections that were semi-ridable, and a few unridable ones that had us all hike-a-biking (had to keep it real).
It was, at the very least, a butt waaaaayyy back behind the seat kind of a trail. But it also required a slow, technical finesse that I haven't totally mastered yet. More than once, I was mid-stream down some long hill before I realized I was going way too fast!
Many sections were very exposed, making the thought of crashing enough to make you walk unless you were feeling ultra-confidant. The trail drops down fast, following skinny ridge tops, into tight, tight, tight hairpin turns.

Aside from the top-notch trail--which, simply put, utterly spanked me--the views from the ridge and upper rim of the steeply-walled Columbia River Gorge were amazing.














Date: Sunday, October 14, 2007
Riders: Ryan, Val, Bart, Justin, Brian, Tucker, Lassie, Luna
Area: Oregon Cascades
Trail: Starvation
Miles: 5
Highlights: Rock gardens, Ryan crashing; argumentative anti-Biking hiker who said the trail wasn't meant for bikes.



1 comment:

Justin said...

Nicely described Val!! Place is narly!!