Pan Day 6-The Long Long Day

We were out over 12 hours today. We rode 52 miles and 5000 ft of elevation, and we still didn’t get where we planned. But we ended up camping in a great spot. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. 

We got our earliest start at 7:11 this morning. It was a good thing too, because we needed all the time we could get! The first few miles were pleasant along Garnet Creek (apparently, there are garnets). Then we started the first climb. It was 4 1/2 miles.. The main redeeming quality was the road surface was good. We came down the other side, then had a few miles before starting the climb up Bald Mountain. Again, it was just mostly in the trees with no views. 

The only “wild” life we saw today. 

Good gravel road. 

It was 12:30 once I reached the top of the climb. Everyone else was already there, and had been for awhile. I ate some lunch, then we headed down. There was a few ups and downs in the “moon dust” road. 

Moon dust. I had to walk up part of this one. 

A bit of a view. 

Ginny had taken off ahead of us. When we got to the Moon Dust, there were no tire tracks. Uh oh, Ginny went the wrong way. Well, we kept going figuring she would find a way (she did). We popped out to the highway, and ride the 6ish miles into Emida. Our goal was the Drifter Bar and Grill. We were hungry! Maybe a minute after we pulled in, Ginny arrived too!

After the best burgers, we still had about 22 miles planned. Little did we know how hard it was going to get. We left the bar and grill at 3:15. 

The next section, navigation wise would prove quite tricky. The first bit was just gravel…no biggie. Then things got interesting. 

Okay…double track…not too bad. 

Pretty meadow. 

Steph and yes, this is the route. We were having to push the bikes through overgrowth, and over a few downed trees. The hardest part was that it was also uphill. We finally got to a brief spot where we could ride again. Then we came to a very steep downhill singletrack. It was actually a double track, but only one side was ride…I mean…walkable. 

It was getting pretty late. The hike-a-bike had taken a chunk of time. 

We finally came to a decent enough road. As we came down to a bridge, it was after 7:30. We called it a day, and made ourselves camp. Jana found easy access to Alder Creek. We all stripped down and washed off. Amazingly, there weren’t many mosquitoes. We ate dinner, and retreated to the tents. The day was finally over!