Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Tag: Palisades

Ranger Creek/Palisade

Plan A was to ride on the Olympic  Peninsula today but that whole area looked socked with clouds.   Plan B was to head east for the big ride I had planned for the following weekend.   A return to the Ranger Creek and Palisades Trails.

Time for some significant climbing!

I first rode out in August of 2010 and it was fantastic.   This time was still fantastic and slightly different.

Chicken Soup for the MTB Soul

 

The elevation gain be deceptive to the eyes in the forest. You legs and lung will tell you the truth after a while.

As I climbed further up the trail, I could see that some fire damage had occurred in 2017 up near the ridge tops.

Little Ranger Peak

I would guess during the last mile up to where the Ranger Shelter would be, started going through some fire damage along the trail.  The trail was in pretty descent shape

The shelter that was at the junction of the Ranger Creek and Palisade Trails burned during a forest fire. This I pretty much all that remains
When I stopped at the location of the old shelter, I had to deal with some horseflies and gnats. Luckily I was prepared with bug goop!
Mt Rainier in the not so distance

Once I got rolling on the Palisades Trail, the views did not disappoint!

If this looks like it would be awesome to ride, you would most certainly be correct!

What also did not disappoint was the riding on Palisades as well.   Fast, tight and technical root bits made for a banging good time shedding off the elevation gained on Ranger Creek Trail.  One thing is for certain, it did not suck to be me today!

Good Times on the Palisade Trail. Last photo taken before ripping down the trail!

Ranger Creek and Palisades Loop (WA)

So I finally got around to getting a page put together for the Ranger Creek – Palisades Trail Loop near Mount Rainer in Washington State.    I did this ride a couple of times in August and it is a fantastic mix of awesome trail, views and and some lung busting climbs.  The route described on the page included an out-and-back to Noble Knob which resulted in even more awesome views and brought the ride up to around 21 miles with about 4,000 feet of climb and a day full of smiles.

While it is covered in at least a few of snow this time of year, if you should find yourself in Washington in the summer months, it is well worth your time to check out this loop.

Here is all the rest of the information on the Ranger Creek and Palisades Trail Loop.

The Opening Week in Washington

Last week was really busy.     While work was plenty busy, I did have enough time to get out and about on some trails.     After starting the week out by finding out with my bike being stolen, I was able to get my hands on a rental hardtail on Tuesday.    Wednesday after work I hit up Banner Forest.   I had hiked a small slice of this area in December of 2008 but this was the first time on the bike.   This places is a lot of fun.  Lots of the twists and turns and quick up and downs on nearly all singletrack.   Quite the fun XC playground.

Wednesday was supposed to be a quick afternoon ride at Green Mountain near Bremerton.     The trail was billed as well marked out-up and back-down.    Just a few miles into the climb I spied and sweet looking narrow singletrack heading off to the west and someone had made a wooden arrow on the ground pointing to it.   For those that know me, know what happened next.   Yes I took the sweet looking singletrack that was not on my map.   This was indeed a really awesome singletrack saw much less traffic the the one I started on.  This trail lead to another and another and the next thing I know I was much futher out than I had planned on being.   I had to dust off  some orienteering skills that I had not had to use so thoroughly in quite sometime.  When all said an done my 12-14 miles afternoon spin ended being a stout 21 miler that ended in the waning moments of the day.

 

 Saturday it was raining the Seattle-Tacoma area so I headed inland to the east of Mt Rainer to ride the Ranger Creek and Palisades trail.   The 20 miles of pure singletrack did not disappoint.   I am going to get back here when the sun is out.

Sunday I headed out to the Olympic Pennisula for a ride that is considered a Washington Classic/Epic.   The Lower Dungeness to Gold Creek Trail loop. For much of the ride I was in the clouds which made the fantastic singletracks take on a primordial rainforest feel. The cloud ride in thick old growth woods was sometimes spooky and I often found myself whistling so as not to surpise any critters further up the foodchain.

I’ll get some proper ride reports put together when I get some downtime, but for now it will just be the samplers.