[AmosIv]

After riding up to the single track, we didnt make it halfway to the top before we turned around. Where it wasnt icy it was muddy. We were abusing the trail trying to ride up it.
Had an eventful ride back down to the Old Fort park, We decided to take the dirt road to Graphite / Mill Creek and by the Geyser to get a few more miles in and make up a little bit for missing out on the sweet down hill. There was a solid sheet of ice on most of the dirt road to Graphite. Sketchy. The Geyser is sweet in the winter!

 

[AppMTB]

Trees across trail

I rode Kitsuma Christmas Eve. The trail up the 14 switchbacks to the top of Kitsuma is a muddy mess, but it usually is during the winter. Once you have reached the top, the ride down towards the Old Fort picnic grounds has almost no mud. There is some snow and ice on the trail on the north facing slopes, but it is in peddle sized pieces and thus not too slick.

The last ½ mile of the trail has a lot of trees across the path. The foothills got a lot more ice than the mountains did, and Old Fort is in the foothills. For the Kitsuma regulars, the first tree is across the lower/right fork of the trail. This is just past the log ride. There are 2 trees down. This is a bad spot because of the speed you can be carrying form the drop at the start of the right fork. If you take the top/left fork the trees have taken the far right part of the trail with them and left 2 large holes. The last steep downhill section with the jump at the top has trees down. These trees are down in another dangerous spot. If you are carrying enough speed to make the jump, you will not be able to stop before you hit the trees. Downed trees block the entrance from the trail into the picnic area. You can ride around these trees by going to the right of the downed trees.

There are around a ½ dozen trees down across the gated road. The downed trees are near the bottom of the road, within the first mile. The icy patch just below Lookout Point is extended from the curve for at least 200 yards down the road and is very slick.

 

[AmosIv]

I'm glad the ice on the switchbacks has melted.

The switch back trail up was icy on the 22nd and really muddy where there wasnt ice. I would have pushed up if it were muddy and not icy. That is too sweet of a trail to trash riding up in the mud.
We didnt find the trees down on old 70 to be much of an issue. Most could be ridden around on the left or jumped.

 

[gtdrew]

I rode out there last week and the trail had been cleared. Wet and slippery with downed leaves everywhere but still a blast. The road back up had some downed trees but only had to dismount twice I think.