Part 1 of Day 4-A Right Proper Gravel Ride!

Yesterday, Janet said she wanted to ride to Wallace Falls. We would leave our stuff in camp, and ride unloaded. Just like a regular gravel ride! I looked at the map of the park and added up the mileage. It would be about 8.25 miles riding, plus a short hike to the Upper Falls Viewpoint. That meant a round trip of 16.5 miles. Fortunately, we only had a 20 mile day today since we couldn’t camp where Bob had planned. 

We took off for Wallace Falls just before 8:00. It was a great ride on the Railroad Grade…a nice wide gravel path. 

One of the switchbacks. 

We got to an intersection that said “Wallace Lake via DNR road” to the left. We looked at the map. It looked like we could ride the railroad grade to the right for a much shorter route. So, we went right. Only…it was wrong. The Railroad grade ended at a hiking path that bikes were not allowed on (and you wouldn’t want to go on it anyway). We turned around and went back to the intersection. 

Bob letting air out of his tires because the way to the DNR toad was this…

I had already let some air out of MC’s tires. 

The singletrack had moments of steepness, and some pretty chunky rocks. I walked one section that was just a bit too much for my skills. 

I popped out onto the DNR road, and waited for Bob and Janet. 

The DNR continued up. 

A bit of a view from the DNR road. 

Pretty soon, Janet made it. Bob had gone back as he was a bit nervous on the singletrack, and was not keen on crashing. 

Here comes Janet!

Janet and I continued on the road. We had quite a bit more climbing, but the road surface was good. The signage was also good, and we made all the right turns to get us to the upper falls. 

Hwy 2 way down there. 

Some mountains behind me. 

We got to where the Woody Trail came out, and parked the bikes for the hike to the Falls. 

It was probably less than a quarter mile to the view point, but it was not the easiest trail. It didn’t help that I had my bike shoes on, and my bike glasses (which are harder for me to see depth), but I managed. 

Upper Wallace Falls



Janet and the Falls

A little friend. 

We didn’t spend too much time at the Falls. It had taken us 3 hours to get there, and we still had to go back, pack up our tents, and ride another 20 miles. Lucky for us, we only had about 250 feet of climbing before it was then downhill all the way back. It took less than an hour to get back. The downhill was very very fun! The singletrack portion was a wee bit scary, but I just self-talked my way through it. 

Bob was waiting for us at camp. Janet and I packed up our stuff, and we started Part 2 of the day.