Rock'n Horse Trail - Now with less rock!

Yep, we finally got out and did the Rock'n Horse ride. I have been meaning to do it for years. I am very glad it all worked out, but I wish I had another week to prepare.

I didn't have time to make t-shirts. I was really hoping for that. I also didn't have time to plan a playlist for the ride. As it turns out, that wasn't a big deal since I forgot the batteries for the stereo, so the ride had significantly less rocking that I was hoping for. Also, I wanted to spend some time getting all the food ready, instead it was a last minute run.

But on the good side, we did it. There were nine riders and all of them finished. The Most Accomplished award goes to Mark. He had not been on a bike in a decade, this was only his second time on a bike with gears, and I got him a bike that was way too small. (Sorry man, I didn't even think about it.) But he made it the whole twenty miles along. Only a few complaints thrown in there. The Iron Butt award goes to Jonn-E for taking his road bike with cyclocross tires.

The last two miles were pretty bad though. There is a winding trail to the campsite that is marked "bicycles permitted". I assumed a bikable trail. It turns out this is just a hiking trail or an advance mountain bike downhill. Not so good for people who don't ride, or have a road bike with nobbies, or have a set of fully loaded panniers. I don't think anyone rode more that half of it. No one was injured, but I think we put a few wheels out of true.

The camping was great though. It was the first time in a while I have put my tent up during daylight. We got food and drinks for people. New rule of thumb though, get twice as many hotdogs as you have people. We stayed up late into the night talking and being noisy. I was glad the campsite was secluded and none of our neighbors complained.

Got a slow start in the morning. Went through oatmeal, eggs and bacon. We also had been losing people. So we only had five people to set out for the ride. Stopped at Franklin Falls for a quick hike before setting out on bikes. Instead of heading back up the route from the previous evening, we went up to Hyak. Someone had met a couple of other bikers who had gone through the tunnel the day before. So we decided to do that.

The Snoqualmie tunnel is closed, but someone had already cut a hole in the chain link fence. So we snuck into it as well. That tunnel is still one of the best parts of the trail. Two miles of darkness with the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Actually, it wasn't that dark. Jonn-E had an amazing headlamp. It really illuminated everything in there.

Once on the other side the guys spent a little time exploring the west end of the tunnel. We were able to use a couple of different sets of metal rungs to climb to the top, Prince of Persia style. It was pretty cool up there. But we could see the creek that runs over the entrance is really doing a number on the structure. The last flood had left a couple of logs on top. We decided to continue the work by pushing them off into the rocks below. This was about the time the girls decided to leave us.

The guys caught up as they were crossng a washout a mile and a half down the trail. Flooding this last spring must have been amazing because there was a thirty foot hole in the trail. You could see what was left of the concret cultvert. Crossing a log with a heavy bike is a bit interesting.

From there it was a fast downhill. I love my new 46t chainring. Sara and I were crusing along at about 20mph for the next 7 miles. We stopped to wait for the rest at about the half way point. Mathius showed up about 5 minutes later. He and Sara took off ten minutes after that. I waited for quite a while, but Jonn-E and Becky never showed up. It turns out that Jonn-E had a bad flat, and the patches wouldn't hold. I rode back up to see if I could help, but that tire just wouldn't hold air. They ended up walking out at the next trail. I went off by myself back to Rattlesnake Lake. It only took about 40 minutes to go the 12 miles.

Once everyone was back at the trailhead we said our goodbyes. To all the people who came out, a big thanks. I had a great time and I hope you did too. I am hoping that it will happen again next year, even if I am not here. I am also going to miss you guys when I am gone. Good luck and keep stomping those pedals.

-Dravis