Our destination is what I'll call the Roaring River plateau, an area of mostly 4000-5000' elevation. It includes a number of small subalpine meadows and lakes, connected by a network of bike-legal trails. It's a pretty lightly used area considering that it's only a 75 mile drive from Portland, and to be honest I'd never noticed it on the map even though I spend a lot of time looking at maps.
Our starting point Hideaway Lake campground, an aptly named campground that's nearly empty on this Saturday morning. The campground is at 4000', so we avoid a nasty 3000' climb that I've heard of other bikers making in order to access this area. Despite an ugly weather forecast that calls for cold weather and heavy rain, our ride starts out sunny. My riding partner, Eric, and I head down road 4830 and are treated to a decent view encompassing "Mr. Jefferson" and even the Three Sisters:
We hop off the gravel onto Rimrock trail #704, a somewhat overgrown and fairly technical track that climbs 700 feet over Mt. Mitchell in its first half mile or so. Needless to say, we walk most of this, speculating on how much fun it would be as a downhill and wondering if we should have done our loop the other direction. It would be great to be here in huckleberry season, although the climb would take 3 times as long. Anyway, we soon top out and hit a 2-mile downhill at a near-perfect perfect grade though lovely forest. The lightly-used tread shown here is typical:
After another short stretch of gravel road, we enter a large area of interconnected meadows. Here's one:
A couple minutes later Richie discovered this little forest inhabitant, about 1" long. Fortunately he did not eat it:
The next mile or so follows a very rocky streambed to Cache Meadow. It was barely rideable, but would be easier in the other direction due to the slight uphill grade. The sign marking Cache Meadow has been there a long time:
We head over Frazier Mountain The weather has gone from sunny to cloudy to foggy. We've overdressed, expecting rain, so we don't mind. Well, except it would be nice to take in the view from here to Shellrock Lake 600' below. We'll see this talus slope from the bottom later:
We cruise through Frazier Turnaround and Frazier Fork campgrounds, not full but with some definite hunter activity going on. We head down trail #510 to do an out-and-back towards Shining Lake. The name of the lake, the weather and the fact that it's October make us start thinking about Jack Nicholson, but he doesn't make an appearance. It turns out to be an old logging road and not a trail, but it's a nice cruise. On some other day, it would have a nice view over the Roaring River 2000' below:
We decide not to make the final steep descent to Shining Lake, since we don't feel like climbing back up it and we're already looking at a pretty long day. It's a lovely trail though, lined with rhododendrons. Would be nice to be here in June:
Backtracking to the Frazier campgrounds, we resume our loop with a very technical (barely rideable, even downhill) descent on Shellrock Lake trail #700. It's tough but fun. Here's one of the easier sections:
That talus slope we traversed earlier drops right into Shellrock Lake. Richie's been slowing down the last few miles, but he's instant high-energy dog again - just add water! - when we get to the lake. Too lovely not to indulge in some fetch time:
One interesting aspect of this ride is that it featured more mushrooms than I've ever seen anywhere. Every conceivable variety - including chanterelles - was represented, and they were everywhere. Here's one of the weirder ones, growing on this dead snag:
From here, we had a 1.5 mile downhill that was simply too perfect and flowy to stop and interrupt for photo-ops. Sorry, you'll have to go and ride it yourself to see it.
Eric and I both had high expectations for this area after close inspection of the maps, and those expectations were exceeded. I wouldn't miss the trails I explored 2 weeks ago if they were incorporated into Wilderness. I would miss these. I sure hope I get another chance to ride them, and maybe explore trails 512 and 517 out towards Serene Lake and Grouse Point. Not only were these great trails (mostly intermediate, with some advanced sections that some intermediate riders would have to walk), but they were quiet. We only encountered 5 people (3 hunters and 2 hikers) in 23 miles of riding. Definitely get out and ride these if you get the chance.
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