The Doug Ryder Reports

Chapter 19: In Which We Reach The End (Or Perhaps the Beginning?) of The 2001 Doug Ride Season And Find Out What It Was All About.

The final Doug Ride of the 2001 season got going at Ester Community Park at 7:30 on September 4, 2001. There were 11 of us all told for this last ride of the season, about par for the course this summer. After some discussion, we decided to go up Henderson via the mine and then come down the Marathon Trail over to St. Pats, up same back to Henderson and the Back Door Trail, and then down that back to Ester.

As far as the actual ride goes, that was about it. We went out the Parks and Yates took us on up a trail off of Eva Creek Road that went on up through the mine. We stopped and looked at the old retort building and a settling pond. Then he took us across Henderson down a really cool downhill that comes out on Saint Patrick’s Road. From there we climbed back up Henderson to Ester Dome Road. We crossed over to the head of the Marathon Trail and descended down that really cool technical descent.

I had not eaten enough today and was edging toward bonkage territory by then. Once we got down to the bottom, I decided to head on over Henderson rather than wimp out and get my car (parked at Dave’s house) because Tom said he’d give me a ride back over to Dave’s house. So we chugged along up to Henderson. I basically bonked out and once we got over to Henderson, dropped out of the rest of the ride. Everyone else went up past the mine to the Back Door Trail and I rode back to the cars.

[Editor’s note: The final section of trail was particularly fun. We rode back up Henderson, with some of the territory looking very familiar now (covering it for the third time), and rode the Marathon Trail just above Ryan Lode Mine all the way to the four-way intersection. By this time, it was very dark, but most riders had headlights. We took off down the hill (the Back Door Trail), riding as fast as we dared to go. Ordinarily, this section of trail is fun, but when you really can’t see where you are going and you leave it all up to faith, it’s a blast! Surprisingly, nobody tanked and we all made it to the bottom and back to the start area without incident – until Tom crashed in the parking lot again…]

It was around 9:45 when I got back and maybe twenty minutes later the first of the other riders got back to the park. Ten minutes after that, the rest straggled in. Total distance: 14 miles or so, someone said (around 18 for me, because I’d ridden over with Dave). Worst hill: at the beginning. Best descent: the Marathon Trail coming down parallel to Ester Dome Road. Percentage of time spent pushing the bikes: less than 1.

So that was that as far as the 2001 Doug Ride season is concerned. If you rode on every ride this summer, you racked up over 300 miles (around 320 or so, more if you rode to any of the rides) over the course of all 19 rides. Looking back on in, my favorite ride all summer was the Gilmore Trail/Steese ride on July 17th, because of the number of people who came along and for the amount of fun we had. The worst experience for me was wiping out on the Death Ride of June 19th up along the ridge on Gilmore Trail. The best riding experience I had was coming down Old Murphy Dome Road last week, riding along through the ruts and such on the second-to-last ride of the season.

I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed reading these ride reports as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. My goal was to give you a different perspective on the Doug Rides, warts and all, and hopefully show you the parts that Doug sort of glosses over. I also wanted to chronicle a season of Doug Rides for posterity. At any rate, I rode every ride (except the Colorado Creek ride) and enjoyed all of them. That’s my report for the 2001 season and I hope to see you out on the trail this winter and/or next summer for another season of Doug Rides.

By the way, it’s all about having fun on two wheels and staying within the bounds of the law. Get out and ride!

Liam Wescott

a/k/a The Doug Ryder

FCC Historian