We’ve had a good deal of snow in the past couple weeks and it’s been cold, so not much melting going on. And it’s not like the snow is confined to the higher elevations, we’ve had 4-6″ of frozen, rock hard snow on the ground here at a couple hundred feet of elevation. Luckily, we had a couple days of temps in the high forties that melted just about all the snow. Bad news is that as soon as the snow melted, the temperature dropped below freezing and has stayed there day and night for the past four or five days. The sun is out, even though it’s freezing, we can’t let dry winter days go by, so out on the trails we go.
Don and I decided to check out Gorge Trail 400, a large trail network south of the Columbia River around Cascade Locks, Oregon. We drive past this area all the time but this was the first time we’ve been out here. There’s a lot of singletrack winding through the foothills as well as paved bike paths that connect a lot of it together
There’s a lot to see on a bike ride on the Trail 400 system, this the Cascade Fish Hatchery
This is Ruckel Creek, next to one of the paved bike paths
Heading up the Trail 400 singletrack, you get a great view of the Bonneville Dam from one of the switchbacks
As I mentioned, the sun was out, but it was not warm by any means, matter of fact, it was probably below freezing all day, making for some treacherous riding in spots. Here’s Don crossing the Eagle Creek bridge, this bridge was coated with ice, very slippery and dangerous.
The recent heavy snow storms and ice left a lot of blown down trees across the trail
One of these huge trees disintegrated when it hit the ground, leaving rotten wood across the trail
Despite all the recent snow and melt off, the trails were in pretty good shape, even if the wet rocks and roots were a bit treacherous
Plenty of up and down, lots of switchbacks
Despite the cold weather, it was great to get out of the house and on the trail for the first ride of 2013.