Skyline and Snow Summit

Ride Name: Skyline and Snow Summit
When: Monday 5/29/17
Time: 9:00 am
Where: Tulip and Mill Creek - Bottom of Pineknot Trail - Aspen Glen Picnic Area
Ride Description or Details:
This is a combo XC and Bike Park day. We strap FF helmets to our packs and make our way up 2N10, Skyline-Plantation to Skyline again. Go East to Snow Summit. Run laps at SS. Have lunch. Do more laps. Head back west on Skyline to Pineknot, head down to car. Have a beer. Craig drives.
~~~~~ Optional Details ~~~~~
Meet Location: Mentioned above
Skill Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Ride Pace: Easy with Moments of Effort, Moderate Pace
Type of Ride: Out and Back, Loop, Lollipop
Rider Limit: what-evs
Anticipated Mileage: 18 xc, 15 Bike Park
Elevation Gain: 2400' pedal powered + 5000' chairlift
Ride Duration: 6 hours
Previous Ride Reports: Somewhere
Possible Bail-Outs: Anywhere
Facilities: RR at Aspen Glen parking area and at Snow Summit - top and bottom
Food/water suggestions: Eat Lunch at the deck at Snow Summit. Bring money for lift ticket and lunch. Drinking fountains at bottom of chairlifts.
Option to Upload: Chairlift

 

Pretty legit trailhead posting @herzalot !

 

Can I put a ride report here?

What a great day! Barely any gnats/flies (like two or three). Perfect weather in the high 60s. Slight breeze (probably helped with the gnats). My back was fairly jacked yesterday and this morning, but it held up fine.

Left the parking lot at 9:30. Up 2N10, Up Skyline, up Plantation, rejoin Skyline, ride east. Play on all the little techy things along the way. Extra credit up to Grandview Point. Slog mostly uphill on Skyline to Snow Summit. Gear up and do an exploration run on Going Green.

Both of us were impressed by Going Green. It is EXACTLY what Snow Summit needed. This is a fairly wide singletrack with almost no pedaling for about three miles. It's mostly in the woods. It has gentle bermed turns, a few little rocks here and there, grade reversals and not much else. My wife would LOVE it and it's the kind of trail that could get her back into mt. biking. Two enthusiastic thumbs up. I am guessing they will add little optional features as the year progresses.

When we got to the base area, we were stunned by the crowds. There were none. We walked right up to buy our tickets without waiting (it was about 12:30). We got on the lift with a five minute lift line - the only line we saw of the five trips. We did a few runs on Party Wave/Westridge and never had anybody barreling down on us. They were running both chairliftss and they were both nearly empty. It helps that they added bike trays to the second lift too.

Also new this year is the full length intermediate run called Turtle Trail. That run had a steady stream of riders on it all afternoon - kids, girlfriends, newbs and their "coaches." The run is very low gradient - maybe too low, with about 50 bermed turns down its length. Right now it does not look like it has any other features - no drops, jumps, rocks, wall rides, etc. But again, I suspect they will add optional features to spice it up. Hopefully it will all remain at the true intermediate level.

We only hit Miracle Mile once, because it was getting late and we still had to XC back to the car. Craig and I both like MM a little better because it has some genuine mt. biking on it such as rocks, drops and challenging little chutes.

Craig @Cougar hit the turf once, washing out on a powdery turn. Otherwise, he made great progress with some jumps, even though we only did a few runs.

Skyline from SS back to Pineknot is mostly DH, and it's fun. That's good, 'cause we were gassed. Beers at the car (for me) as planned. Craig drove.

Outstanding day! Sorry no one else here was interested. @StrandLeper had to bail because of a work obligation.

Craig on Skyline. Note FF on his back.


The two amigos at Grandview Point on Skyline.

 

This is great to hear, so it sounds like my wife's Tallboy will be totally fine on "Going Green." That is when she can ride it next year after the baby.

 

This is the 2nd Annual Dual Sport Snow Summit ride that Chris and I have done, and it continues to be one of the best days I can have on the bike. It really has a little bit of everything that one can do on a mountain bike, and it really puts some skills (and endurance) to the test. I don't have much to add to Chris' post above, he covered pretty much everything that needed to be covered. (Although Going Green is basically fire road width, not really single track)

I was super happy with my progress on the jumps this year, and even caught big air (for me) on one of the jumps. Enough to surprise me as I accidentally tail whipped (not much, but I wasn't expecting any lateral bike movement!). Outside of that, I was routinely getting 1-3" of air off the jumps and was really enjoying the increasing level of comfort in that. So much so that my next problem to solve is that I'm slightly drifting to the left as I'm gaining air, so I need to work on my preloading/launching to see if there is something I'm doing that is causing that leftwards air drift (or maybe trajectory is a better word than drift).

While Chris and I aren't sure if we are going to do another Dual Sport trip this year, we'll certainly be back to the park this season! For those of you who have any interest at all in the Dual Sport nature of this ride, don't miss the next installment. Being able to do parts of Skyline, and a bunch of SS runs in one day is really enjoyable (even if your pack is heavy )

 

^^^ I ditched my pack for the last two runs - and it was AMAZING. Just stuffed it between some ski patrol toboggans at the top, knowing that we would be launching our return trip from there. Drinking fountain right at the lift takes care of the much needed sip at the end of the DH run.

^^^^ Going Green is machine cut, so it's about Bobcat width, call it narrow fire-road or wide singletrack.

 

Nice report. Too bad it was so dead there today. Yesterday's parking lot scenery was unmatched.

 

Sorry that Strand had to bail, but love it otherwise!

 

We actually saw a couple of lovely examples today as well.

 

I hope that's a typo.

Nice work guys.

 

No? I've always squashed my jumps so that I get no air. Getting 1-3" of air routinely is a big improvement for me.

 

My bad. Thought it was feet instead of inches. You gotta start somewhere. Congrats!

 

Says the guy with 1-3m of air under his bike Don't you have a guitar that needs fondling or something?!?

 

I forgot to mention, and so did @Cougar that his dropper post took a dump on the last section of the ride (the climb at the end of Pineknot). First, it shot up, spewed its oil and racked the man, then, it stayed down. Sounds eerily human-like.

Not sure if he's gonna get it repaired or replaced. KS Lev, external actuation, I believe.

 

Ya that happened. Not sure, will take it in Saturday and talk it over with the guys/gals.

 

Thanks for the posts gents. Planning to take the family up there for a few days sometime this summer. Going green sounds nice and tame for my lil man (turns 8 soon). It also sounds like Turtle.....the intermediate was fairly tame as well?? Just wondering how much we can cover together. Stoked!! Lil man got his casts off, but still wearing braces on both wrists till Aug. We will hit Aliso together again for the first time this weekend...been a few months. New headset I installed on his Trek to boot! Will he notice? Nah......but I had fun wrenching for an hour in the garage.