2008 Tuesday Night Ride - July 1, 2008 -- Clifden to Moose

By Tom Clark

Thirteen riders showed up for this journey, which took us from Ivory Jacks out to the fire station on Goldstream, up the ridge on the old "Pack Trail" to the pipeline, then west on Old Murphy Dome to our parting of the ways.

Road riding on a mountain bike is dull, and unfortunately, this ride has a bunch of it. The first five miles or so were on pavement, but it passes pretty quickly when you are fresh. Everybody arrived at the firehouse at about the same time. We then headed up the concreted drainage, and up the trail to the overgrown gravel pit. Two riders made it up the steep climb on the other side of the gravel pit, less than usual.

We followed the trail east to Clifden or Molly or whatever it is called. We followed that until it abruptly turned downhill, becoming Waterford. At that turn, we went straight, into the woods, following the old "Pack Trail", the lower part of which had been ruined by the subdivision roads that we'd just been riding on. I'd like to believe that had that development taken place today, the trail would have been rerouted, rather than just destroyed. How much more fun would the ride be if we didn't have to ride those subdivision roads? Quite a bit: the Pack Trail is a very good trail, and I'm sorry to have lost a part of it.
The puddles were mostly pretty shallow and the erosion seems to have filled in, so the trail was in good shape, though some folks did get wet feet when a hidden, underwater rut would suddenly change their course for them.

After what, two and and a half miles?, we connected with the pipeline corridor. We went left, going north, connecting with Old Murphy Dome Road (OMDR) and heading left (west). Sigh. Another road. Maybe we should try the Fort Knox powerline that parallels the road -- at least it would be a four-wheeler trail. As it stands, there's six to seven miles of dirt road riding. This is great for visiting and chatting it up, but there was time for that on the other roads. Good thing I had a mutiny planned.

Finally, we arrived at the parting-of-ways. I explained that the ride as scheduled would have people ride up the old "E Battery" road to the left, then follow the powerline to Moose Mountain, and descend on the trail next to the road. There was an option, however, of adding some distance and doing some single-track. We'd go right, down the road a few miles further, then take the rooty "rabbit hole" trail, all the way down to the bottom of Moose Mountain road. At first, I thought nobody else was interested, but then Hooray, Jeff Gimbel raised his hand. As soon as he did, two others did. And so, we were four.

After making sure that at least one person knew the way back (good ol' Jim Vogt saved the day -- he knew what the route was), we parted company. The four of us (myself, Jeff Gimbel, Geoff Orth and Todd Redinius) headed down OMDR, enjoying a long, gradual descent. The descent ultimately ended in a series of large mud puddles, but I don't think that anyone got wet. After a short climb, we arrived at the unmarked Rabbit Hole trailhead. I went first, followed by Jeff G. I took it as fast as I could, but the wet roots and logs made things dicey. More than anything though, it's the grass and equisetum (sp?), rose bushes and other low brush that make the descent a hard one. You can't see anything until you are on top of it, giving you fractions of a second to decide how to handle that off-camber turn featuring radial wet roots, or the polished (and wet) log runing about 30 degrees through the trail. In short, FUN! I selected a big chain ring combo, and mashed it, nearly going over the handlebars a couple times when my front wheel hit something a little bigger than I'd anticipated.

Finally, after what seemed like a long time but was only about a mile, we hooked back up with the Fort Knox powerline where we regrouped. Each of us had some "tale of the trail" to relate from the last mile. Reminiscing over with, we continued on down the trail, following the four-wheeler track. There was a couple wet spots, and three muddy spots (only one of which I could ride through), and then it was roller coasters all the way back down to Moose Mountain Road. Jeff G. and I arrived first, Geoff and Todd showing up no more than two minutes later. Figuring that it was getting late enough, we elected to ride out to Spinach Creek and return via the roads. At the bottom of Spinach Creek Road, we took the little four-wheeler trail that parallels the road. At Moose Creek, we noticed that someone had placed a rusty, somewhat flattened, piece of 10" pipe (the kind used in gold mining operations in days of yore) across the creek. It was mostly submerged and of unknown stability, so of course I went for it.

It turned out to be a good idea, though with my weight on it, it sank enough that I was in about seven or eight inches of water. It was only after the last rider cleared it that I remembered about my camera. Too bad, it would have been a cool shot. That was the last of our trail, and from there on, it was pavement. We rode out Murphy Dome Road to Goldstream, where we went left, and rode back to Ivory Jacks. The other group of riders had just gotten there themselves, as one of theirs had a flat to deal with.

So, we were reunited there in the parking lot, and everyone did enjoy sodas and munchies and it was good. (Except that I had to pick the M&M's out of my trail mix.) Ultimately, good fun. It'd be better without so much road riding, but if you wanna do this ride, that's the way it goes. Who knows, maybe we'll go back to going up O'Connor Creek instead of up the Pack Trail. That would eliminate many miles of road riding, but it would be a mud fest. That's not such a bad thing though...