It's been fun training for Worlds ... been able to check out some new trails and do some looonnngg rides. Here are some of the highlights:
Cle Elm (8 hour ride). We woke up to a cool rainy day and Seattle and decided that we were sick of the rain and wanted to ride in some dryer conditions. So ... we hopped in the truck and started driving East. Fraser had scoped out a place to ride for just such an ocassion. It was called Cle Elm. We drove through the mountains and out to the dryer part of Washington - about an hour and 15 minutes from our home in Seattle. The skys were clear and the course was dry and sandy - what a nice change from all the wet rides we'd had lately!
The loop that Frase had planned started with a 5 mile (~1 hour) climb varying between 15 and 30%. At the top we headed into the single-track and were rewarded with yet more climbing ... some of it too steep to ride. After about an hour and 15 minutes of climbing we were rewarded with a super fun descent. The trail was made by dirt-bikers and the berms were fun and fast. What a blast! All in all the trail was about 15 miles long and had 2900 ft of climbing.
Tolt MacDonald (4 hour ride). Tiger mountain (our favorite haunt) was closed and we didn't feel like driving the 75 minutes to Cle Elm so we opted to try a different venue. We hadn't ridden at Tolt MacDonald before and had heard it was fun.
It was! It is pretty much all single track and is a huge maze of trails - much like KLakes wrt the twisty turns but not as technical. We found a goo 75 minute loop and rode it a few times ... each loop started with a big 800 ft climb and ended with a fun descent.
