How far can you get a bike up Ed's Trail (Silver Star) in winter when drunk?

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Chip Down
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Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

How far can you get a bike up Ed's Trail (Silver Star) in winter when drunk?

Post by Chip Down » December 28th, 2020, 9:06 pm

This wasn't even my plan for the day, but my Plan A ended with a "private drive" sign. Looked for something else to do. Silver Star looked a bit snowy, but didn't look really deep. I noticed it's only something like 2.5 miles up road 4109 from the junction with L1100. Okay then, let's do it. Even in summer, I wouldn't try to get my Element up that road, but it was absolutely out of the question in winter.

Parked at the 4109/L1100 junction and started peddling up. It got icy where tires have slushed it up, so that was a hassle (and even worse coming down). The trailhead was empty at 10:30. Yeah, that's right, I overslept and got a nelsen start (lower case because adjective). Getting up the trail was tough, as slippery as the road to the TH. At the bottom of Ed's Trail, I poked around a bit, picked a random route, somewhat still on road, but bailed when the road went through a long shaded traverse. If it got too icy, I would have no easy way to bail. So I stayed east/left. Around 4000' I threw in the towel. There are spots on Ed's Trail that would be really tricky, so I settled for a little saddle on the ridgecrest. I would have persisted, except that it was more crowded than I prefer (on a weekday in late December!), and I've been on Silver Star countless times, in all conditions.

Weather was amazing. Below freezing and breezy when I started, but warm and calm up higher. That wasn't expected. I've seen it much colder in June! Even sedentary, I was wearing the lightest possible tee shirt and the lightest possible shell, with just a summer sun hat (which I almost didn't bother bringing, but glad I tossed it in case it got warm).

I've never done anything like this. It was damn hard! Although no big deal for those with the appropriate skills, I'm sure. Tremendous fun though. I suppose this was like the first day of skiing: harder than expected, but fun anyway. By the way, yes, I did a lot of pushing. :D
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But officer, I swear I only had two beers on my hike! I know you hear that all the time, but I took a picture, see?
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I want to haul this to the top as a prank.
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SS has some fun easy scrambles that look harder than they are. Great way to impress people on the trail below.
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Bosterson
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Re: How far can you get a bike up Ed's Trail (Silver Star) in winter when drunk?

Post by Bosterson » December 29th, 2020, 1:12 am

Chip Down wrote:
December 28th, 2020, 9:06 pm
Image
I like Anchor Christmas as much as the next person (this year's was very straightforward "porter" vs previous more "spiced" versions), but I hope you just brought an empty magnum for show. My stomach feels full just thinking about consuming nearly a half gallon of that... :?
#pnw #bestlife #bitingflies #favoriteyellowcap #neverdispleased

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Chip Down
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Re: How far can you get a bike up Ed's Trail (Silver Star) in winter when drunk?

Post by Chip Down » December 29th, 2020, 7:36 am

I was thinking of Bosterson when I posted that! :lol:
In fact, I actually considered using this caption: "Anticipating Bosterson's question: No, I didn't drink it all". You probably remember I did drink a whole 50.7 oz bottle a couple winters ago, and then stumbled into the Rhodendron Dairy Queen when I was on the road-walk part of my loop hike. So yeah, I know I could do another 12oz on top of that, but not yesterday. Considering how nice the weather was, it would have been a fun day to just linger and mosey about, and falling would have been fine (unless I fell on a rock or on an icy portion). But no, I carried a great deal of it back down. Christmas leftovers!

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Beer Town Bill
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Re: How far can you get a bike up Ed's Trail (Silver Star) in winter when drunk?

Post by Beer Town Bill » January 3rd, 2021, 10:53 am

Anchor Steam has become a holiday tradition with my kids for several years now - mainly as a joke, no one likes it. But alas, I didn't get to John's Market in time this year, and they didn't seem all that upset. Where did you procure yours?

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Chip Down
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Re: How far can you get a bike up Ed's Trail (Silver Star) in winter when drunk?

Post by Chip Down » January 5th, 2021, 2:22 pm

Beer Town Bill wrote:
January 3rd, 2021, 10:53 am
Anchor Steam has become a holiday tradition with my kids for several years now - mainly as a joke, no one likes it. But alas, I didn't get to John's Market in time this year, and they didn't seem all that upset. Where did you procure yours?
Beermongers.
I was a little surprised at the dearth of Christmas beers this year.
Not terribly disappointed, as I really haven't been drinking this season as much as usual

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