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