6/28/06 - Kachess mess + RatPac attack...

Well, ChLong called me and put the Kachess bug in me last Wednesday near noon time. I said, "definitely, I've never done that ride".
Some time that afternoon, we packed up the DareLT and Nomad out to there and began climbing the singletrack up to the top. Yeah, I know, nearly 9" of travel is overkill but also fun
It was a tough climb up the loose rocky trail for the first coupla miles. The steepness was tough and I managed to clean all the switchbacks but I undoubtedly had to push my bike up 3-4 10-20ft sections where the trail was simply too much for me to battle rocks and traction.
Then, we reached the less steep wooded section and started to cruise comfortably until we came up on the first creek crossing. Here, we had to get creative and drag some logs in order to build a bridge for crossing the freezing water, that while battling for our lives with the hordes of mosquitoes which entered our mouth or nose with every breath. We should have turned around at that point even before crossing the creek, but as we all know, creek crossings are cool, and we were not to let that deter us from continuing. So we did, and soon the pockets of snow on the ground began to thicken and become more prevalent. We rode and pushed a bit longer thinking that if we moved, the mosquitoes would leave us. Unfortunately, that did not happen, and at that point, our shoes were wet from stubbornly pushing and riding bikes in the snow. After a short while of this nonsense, I blurt out to ChLong, "hey dude, I just thought, given the fact that we'll have to trek through this sh!t also on the way down, it doesn't make sense to continue getting raped by these miserable insects. Instead, we need to get down PRONTO and do a RatPac attack".
Faster than I could blink, our bikes were already pointing downhill and making our way back to the car.
The opinions on trail conditions are: DON"T TRY IT YET ! ... the trailhead is at ~2,200ft; the snow level is at ~3,700; the crest of the trail is at ~4,900ft == you do the math...

After stopping in at the CleElum Safeway for a quick drink, we jetted out to RatPac and found the gate near the highway was open. But then just before getting to the bottom of the trail, we saw a couple of signs that said something like, "You are about to enter private property... blah, blah... trespassers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law... blah, blah, blah"...
So, we parked just just before "entering" beyond the signs and began to climb the road some time between 7:30 and 8pm. We reached the top and once immediately on the trail, we noticed moto tracks ripping the upper section for a while. Then, the tracks disappeared but the stunts looked horribly abandoned from the hands of the local builders. ChLong was the smarter one and decided to pass on the sketchy and disposable-like stunts made with old dried up twigs nailed perfectly, so as to split said twigs, and therefore, add true "KORE" factor to the phrase "stunt riding". Hey, it's not how big or far you go here, the "flava" lies in whether or not the doggamned thing is gonna hold while you pass... well, here just like in Monopoly, if you "Pass GO" you betta make sure you collect them $200 cos you'll need that to help cover the Doc bill when the sh!t collapses on ya. Disrespecting the trailbuilders is definitely not the intent here, but c'mon guys, it could be good with just a little more effort. After having a few good laughs (too bad we didn't take detailed photos of the "structures") we continued down and lost the trail now covered by a road. We walked for a while, and almost took the road down, which would have put us on the trail. But instead, we made a quick call to get directions from Borneo and began our descent under the dying sun. We railed the smooth dirt corners and manualed over dirt humps until we arrived at the gravity pit at about 10pm, where we quickly stopped to take pics of me launching off the lip with the dark blue and orange sky in the background. Soon, the light was almost gone and railing fast turns and gapping jumps in between trees while already dark gave us the last cheap shots of adrenaline we needed to redeem this day.

Sorry 'bout the bad pics... ChLong admits they are horrible but yet beating a day at the office any day...