The Doug Ryder Reports

Chapter 12: Being A (More-Or-Less) Compleat Account Of Our Extraordinary Journey Up Gilmore Trail In Search of Auriferous Bearing Strata (Or: How I Learned To Love My Fat Chance)

This week we did the Gilmore Trail/Cleary Summit ride. We gathered up at the Pipeline viewpoint on the Steese. While we waited for everyone else to show up and/or get ready, Tom and myself did some engineering studies on the feasability of towing a large hunk of metal, rubber, various plastics, and other assorted materials (collectively known as his truck) by bike. This was in preparation for our participation in the Golden Days Parade. More about that later. Anyway, our experiment worked. I will have a separate report on our parade activities later.

We got going at around 7:30. There were about ten of us all told. We had a couple of women show up for this ride (both of whom comported themselves quite well on this ride!). We took off out the Steese and started climbing Goldmine Trail. I led the group on up Goldmine (not really my choice, I just ended up setting the pace) and one of the women (Kelly Hill) stayed right with me up to the first rest stop. Matter of fact, I had to work to keep up with her. Us big guys have to expend that much more energy to keep up with smaller and/or stronger riders, which both women were. They and the young Native lad (Tad was his name, I believe) were the real pace setters on that ride.

We got up to the level part of Goldmine, regrouped and regathered, then took off up the hill. My handlebar started coming loose as we started the climb. I had to really work to keep up with Kelly, Yates, and Dave James. On the way up, I told Kelly about the ride and what to expect, as she’d never been on any of these rides before (neither had Kim and I think Tad’s been on a couple so far this summer). Finally, after about forty minutes from the start, we got up to Gilmore Trail.

From there, it was a boring two-mile grind up to the end of the pavement and out to the connector trail. Kelly and Kim traded career notes, bird stories, life stories, etc. while Yours Truly gamely tried to keep up with them and Messrs. James, Yates, et al. We regrouped at the connector trail and waited for the rest to catch up. As we waited, I told the two ladies and young Mr. Tad about the trail yet to come.

That trail was a bit on the muddy side for the first mile or so, but once we got up to the big hill, things got a little better. We regrouped there and Tom decided to take the right fork. The rest of us took up the usual route. It was a great measure of both my Fat Chance and my riding skills that I was able to keep up with those riders with suspensions, like Kelly, Tom Moyer, et al. Coming down that little hill before getting to the radio tower was fun. Then we climbed the hill up to the tower road and waited. Once there, I made some offhand comment/joke about the miners having been here in search of "auriferous-bearing strata" and Dave James ran with that for most of the rest of the ride.

Anyway, we got down the powerline and up to the last fork in the trail. I wanted to go off to the left to see the mine. Burnside and the rest went up the hill following the powerline and I said I’d meet them over the top. The mine was bigger than last I’d seen it (1998) and when I got up to the mine road, Kim and Dave James tagged along. We weren’t sure where the powerline came out, so we went on up the road.

After a little while, we decided to keep on going. Basically, we took off like greased pigs. As a measure of how fast we were going, fifteen minutes after I left the rest of the group, the three of us passed the Pedro Monument on our way over to the NOAA road. Coming down Cleary Summit was a treat this time on my Fat Chance. I didn’t touch the brakes even once coming down Cleary Summit, a feat I had never undertaken hitherto this ride.

We got down to the NOAA road, waited for the rest of the group for about twenty minutes, then decided to head back to the cars. We set up our own little pace line and once we got going, we never stopped until we got back to the cars. Once there, we had to wait about ten or fifteen minutes for the rest to show up. Total time: around three and a half hours. Total distance: just over 30 miles. Worst hill: Goldmine Trail. Best descent: Cleary Summit. Amount of time spent pushing/porting the bikes: maybe a hundred feet or so. Percentage of time spent having fun: greater than 99.

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

Liam Wescott

a/k/a The Doug Ryder

FCC Historian