Epic Weekend. Day 1

Finally getting around to another blog entry.  Kind of got bored with it.

 Spring is springing, and with the weather guys calling for sunny and 80 on Friday, there was no way I was going to miss out.  I was really itchin' to get out to the mountains for some good riding and the first camp out of the year.  After hitting everyone up, Joel G., my can-do man, was up for some fun.  Not particularly being morning go-getters, we were heading west out of town only slightly later than we wanted, and arrived early afternoon at our awesome free campsite in the National forest not far from Douthat SP.

  This campsite is located on an old mill site on Wilson Creek.  It is in sort of a canyon with rock faces along the creek and a cascading waterfall.  One of the best campsites I have ever seen. 
  After quickly making camp, we mapped out a nice loop to ride catching the best of the Douthat trails and some national forest trails to get us back to camp.  We rolled some fire road and pavement back to the park and climbed Beards Mountain on Ross Camp trail.  Continuing on Mountainside Trail, we noticed that someone, perhaps park folks, had been doing some re-bench cutting.  Mountainside had gotten really narrow and I liked it that way.  They have widened it out to 3 feet in places.  It is all still fresh and soft and spoiled the ride a little.  I only hope it will repack and return to how it was with time.  They really should check with me before they decide to do this stuff. 

  We were relieved to find Brushy Hollow Trail untouched.  It was as awesome as usual.  Definitely one of the best trails in the state, perhaps the universe.

  We stopped to clear a couple of downed trees.

Swinging bridge over Wilson Creek.

There was a good amount of water flow in the creeks and we had fun splashing through Stoney Run as we started climbing Middle Mountain.  We took a break at Stoney Run falls before tackling the long climb up to the ridge.

  We made our way up the 9 switchbacks and over to the cabin at Tuscarora overlook.  The views were sweet as always.

  The sun was starting to set, so we made our way on up to Middle Mountain Ridge trail and enjoyed 5-6 miles of fast, rugged single track followed by the steepest descent with the tightest switchbacks I have ever seen that happens to dump us out right at camp.    After Rib-eyes and IPAs, we contemplated a night ride to enjoy the moonrise, but clouds and eventually rain drops sent us to bed.  Joel hit the tent, and I opted to hang the hammock in the van.  My entire sleeping set-up took 15 seconds.  I fell asleep to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof and the sound of the waterfall on the creek, wondering what to ride the next day.