The Doug Ryder Reports

Chapter 8: The Journey Through the Ride Of Death

We did the Death Ride this week and managed to survive the experience unscathed (more or less). This is the ride wherein we do the Death Ride race course and lay out the course markers for the race on the 24th of June.

We formed up at the Steele Creek/CHSR intersection and departed at the usual Doug Ride time. There were eleven of us all told. Tom and myself and a few other people rode out along the trail that parallels Chena Hot Springs Road as we rode over to Smallwood Trail. Once there we ascended to the top (not quite a mile of granny-gear climbing) and then went down into the swamp. Just before we started down, some idiot in a station wagon honked his horn at us and muscled his way past the group as he ripped on down Smallwood toward the swamp. The hill going down was bumpy but smoother than previous years (Caterpillars had been up and down it recently)’.

So, we got to the swamp and slogged our way through same. The swamp was essentially the same as it has always been. However there was still a little ice in the creek by the mine. We straggled out of the swamp, with a little less blood and a little more mud weighing us down. The first group of us to get out of the swamp took off up the hill and got strung out on the way up. Two of the guys who were ahead of me fell over at they were trying to ride up the hill (they were riding real close together and one of them lost his balance). I passed them as I was trying to catch up to Malcom and the two teens up at the front of the ride (I was also trying to escape my mosquito fan club)

I got up to the top and took off down Gilmore, vainly trying to escape the mosquitoes. I wiped out coming down one of the little hills up at the top of the ridge. I hit a rut and did an endo right into the road. I scratched my knee pretty bad and was wounded for the rest of the ride. Anyway, I finally caught up with Malcom at the last hill before the pavement starts on Gilmore Trail. We rode up to the top of Mount Lulu Fairbanks and waited for a bit to see if the others would catch up. They never did so we took off. Malcom said that the two teens left him behind at the top of the hill out of the swamp. I never saw them again until the end of the ride.

We got to the turnoff for Hubernite and I told Malcom I didn’t want to ride through the woods anymore with my wounded knee nor did I want to stress the bike frame on that bumpy subdivision road. So we parted company, he went down the Rabbit Hole and I went down Gilmore Trail over to Steele Creek and then back to the start.

I got back a little after 10pm, about two and a half hours after we started. The kids were there and they left as soon as I got back. A few minutes later, Malcom showed up and we waited for the rest to straggle in. They got there about a half an hour later. It was fun, such as it was. Total distance: around twenty miles. Worst hill: coming out of the swamp. Best descent: Gilmore Trail.

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

Liam Wescott

a/k/a The Doug Ryder

FCC Historian