Cascade

Unfortunately, my hopes of converting my Raleigh Professional into a gnarly cyclocross rig were dashed yesterday when I discovered that the rear forks don’t allow for much more than the current 25mm tires. Knobbed tires usually don’t get any smaller than 30mm. There are a few 28s out there on the internet, but its too close of a call to put my money down. Ah well, nothing truly worth while comes cheap, I suppose.

This afternoon I laced up the trail shoes and took off on the Raleigh for Turkey Mountain. The plan was do a little uphill training to get the legs ready for our trip out to Colorado next month. Instead of riding on up Elwood to the parking lot, I turned off onto the utility road. The road dips down to the river, crosses the railroad tracks and turns South. Hmmm... is this the beginning of an adventure?

Alas, it was not to be. The road ends in a gravel lot just past the overpass. I turned around and made my way to the river trail at the base of the hill. If you look hard, a path begins around here that goes straight up the steep South side of Turkey. It has to be to toughest climb you can find around here. I tied up my bike and hiked a few repeats.

The trail ends here at the top.

Heading back down again.

I eventually made it over to the West side of the mountain. There were many signs of  this morning's TATUR Snake run. Three or six hours of running three mile loops. (Edit: apparently this race occured the following day, Saturday. When your on vacation its easy to get he days mixed up.)

Eventually, I grew bored hiking the usual trails and began bushwacking, with ever an eye out for the more rugged terrain. At some point I stumbled upon this little cascade that remains dry for most of the year.

I was pretty worked by the time I retuned to the bike. Channel six was there looking for hikers and bikers and yours truly was interviewed about the nice weather and the park. Hey, whatever it takes to spread awareness of this beautiful treasure.