Day 1 - Friday
Dawn broke gray and white. Many spodefestians had arrived late the night before, battling slippery roads over the high passes. After taking a DreamSickle excursion up the road to the Dinner Station campground, we made an executive decision to wait until noon to ride. By mid-morning the clouds had broken and the snow was melting. We started up the Gunnison Spur Trail at noon with temperatures in the upper 40s and mostly clear skies. The Spur Trail was taken to the first road, where we turned off and rode to the Star Trail.
Many people will claim that the Star Trail is one of the most challenging trails in Taylor Park. When I first rode the trail three years ago it had been recently renovated. I was on an XR600 at the time and rode the trail in what was considered the most difficult direction. With the recent moisture I had decided that we would ride the trail in the easier direction.
We got off to a bad start when Don stalled his bike in a deep water crossing just past the trailhead. I think he'll be installing a T-vent in his carb vent line in the near future. After pushing his bike out of the water he stopped to drain the water from his boots and wring out his socks.
At this point an apology is in order. A couple of the folks in our group of nine had quite a bit of trouble on parts of the Star Trail. The major obstacles were wet tree roots on steep uphills. I rode sweep for about half the route before Gene agreed to take over. My timing couldn't have been better. Gene ended up riding three bikes up all the tough sections for the next three miles. I waited nearly an hour past the really nasty downhill switchbacks and used the FRS radio to talk to folks on either side of me for status updates. I would like to have helped Gene, but there was no way to ride back up the switchbacks. While I was waiting, a group of about six riders came by in the opposite direction. Witnesses report that it took 3-4 riders to push, pull, and drag each bike up the switchbacks. Some guys really know how to have all the fun.
After the Star Trail we rode to the frigid top of American Flag Mountain at 12.7k feet. This is where we all shared in a MikeW moment. Perched on the edge of a 900 foot drop with a stiff breeze we all hammed for the camera. Here's a picture from my ride in '98.
We did an incredible loop on the Flag Creek Trail. By this time the trails were getting pretty dusty. We took the "Rock Pile" down from Reno Divide. We then followed Italian Creek down to the Lilly Pond Trail. At this point Derek's friend decided to take the road back to camp. I think he was smart. About halfway through the Lilly Pond Trail our group got separated and we rode an unmapped trail back to the exact spot on the Star Trail where I waited for our group a few hours earlier. At this point we had about an hour of daylight left and the temperature was dropping. We finally (and correctly) ascertained that the first two riders in our group hadn't taken this trail and were probably back at camp by now. We took the trail back to Lilly Pond and buzzed back to our cabin for a total of 65 miles on day 1. This was much better than I had expected from looking at the weather that morning.
-Jeffrey Deeney-