The Doug Ryder Reports

Chapter 1: The Back Door Trail Ride That Wasn’t

We gathered at the Ester Community Park on Tuesday, May 1st, 2001 for the first Doug Ride of the 2001 riding season. There were seven of us all told (the More-Or-Less Magnificent Seven): me, Tom Clark, Doug Burnside, Doug Yates, David James, and a couple of gentlemen named Chris and Jim whose last names were never offered up. It was cold, cloudy, and unpromising at the start; your typical Doug Ride beginning.

We took off around 7:30 or so, in the usual Doug Ride fashion. Yates and I thought the Back Door Trail would still be snowed in, so the group decided to go up to the top of Henderson, then down Ester Dome Road and back over St. Patrick’s to the Parks and then to the cars. However, on the way up Henderson, we decided to check out the trails that go from the power line up to the mine and beyond. So we took off down the powerline to the last trail right before the loess cliff. Said trail was still muddy, wet, and had more than a little snow on it from that snow we got last weekend. Another Doug Ride bike push, in other words.

We slogged our way up through the mud, trees, and snow until we got to the mine. Burnside neglected to reset his altimeter (or so he said) at the beginning of the ride, so he was getting really weird readings all during the ride (e.g., up at the top of Henderson, his altimeter said we were 700+ higher than we actually were; Tom’s GPS was a lot more accurate in that regard although it did fluctuate some) I gave an impromptu geology lesson whilst we were resting up at the top of the mine before we headed on to Henderson. We had stopped above the main cut you can see from Henderson as you pass the mine and I explained about ore bodies, plutons, fault zones, and the like to the rapt attention of my captive audience. I won’t do it again, I promise.

We got to Henderson and chugged up through the two inches of fresh snow up to Ester Dome Road. Burnside’s gears froze up and I managed to pass him getting to the intersection. Once there, after some soul-searching and agonizing, we decided not to continue on up to the top of Ester Dome but instead go on down to Sheep Creek and then out the Parks back to the cars. We put the jackets, mittens, and other accouterments of winter riding back on and sailed on down Ester Dome Road. My max speed coming down was almost 40 miles per hour.

I got down to St. Pat’s first and joked around with the guys who live right by the intersection as they played hacky-sack while I waited for everyone else to get there. Once we were all assembled, Burnside asked the hacky players what the condition of St. Pat’s was. We were told it was bad ‘in a couple of places’ and based on that, the group decided to go down St. Pat’s to Henderson to Goldhill and then the Parks because that way is considerably shorter than going out Sheep Creek.

St. Pat’s had more than a ‘couple bad spots’ but was ridable. Me, Burnside, and Jim rode point and Doug managed to get to the Henderson intersection before I did (not quite a first, but annoying nonetheless!) I took off my jacket and gloves when I got there and regretted doing so on the way down Henderson. Suffice it to say, it was COLD all the way back to the cars.

We got back to the cars at around 10 or so. Total ride distance: just under 13 miles. Total ride time: 2.5 hours. Percentage of time spent discussing, figuring out different routes, waiting for other riders to catch up, etc.: 25. Percentage of time spent pushing/carrying/lugging bikes: too much. Percentage of time spent having fun: around 50. Worst climb on entire ride: the hill going up to the mine.

That’s my report for this week. See ya next week!

Liam Wescott

a/k/a The Doug Ryder

FCC Historian