Little Bald Mountain - Turning a Frown Upsidedown

Little Bald Mountain, 25 miles East of Chinook Pass, has been on my radar screen for about a year. Mike and I had heard good reports about the ride, and the scenery was supposed to be stellar. People call it an 'epic' ride; as climbers who have had a few epics between us, we were braced for a memorable day.

I picked Mike up at 0515, in North Bend, and we headed out. Mike mentioned he was not feeling well, but we both hoped that it would pass and we could complete our objective. The twists and turns on 410 took their toll, and we took a "medical rest stop." Thankfully, after vomitting about seven times, Mike felt better. We were back on the road. The day was dawning crisp and clear, and Mt. Rainier was out in force. We continued over Chinook Pass, and started looking for the starting point for the ride. In preparing for this ride, we had found little in the way of good, concise information. We had a map from one source, a trip report from another, and a guidebook description - none of them fully jived. We missed the turn, found the turn, and drove around confused by too much information. We finally made a decision based on instinct, and the surrounding terrain, and went for it.

The 3,500' elevation gain is absorbed over a 15-17 mile ride on a very well-graded Forest Service Road. We both jacked in to our iPods, put our heads down, and made time. We took a few breaks and kept moving in the cool morning air. It was the first weekend of elk season, for archery hunters, and we saw a lot of rigs on the road. We made it to the start of the trail in about 2 hrs 30 minutes. We took time to eat and get Mike's new helmet-cam setup rigged for action. With out gear sussed, and a plan in place, we took off.

I took the lead and Mike followed with the camera. I dropped into the trail and found it loose, rocky, and dusty; quite different conditions than we found on Kachess. after the first 200-m, we took a left hairpin turn and started a sidehill descent towards a talus field. I was carrying a lot of speed, since Mike was behind me, and this proved to be my undoing. I bounced through a few rocks, and then got bounced into the uphill side of the trail. The brief airborne experience, which followed, included neither beverage service nor a complimentary magazine. I got tossed over the bars and landed on my shoulder. I got composed, checked for major damage, and started off again. We soon started pushing our bikes across a big talus field.

In a short rideable section of this talus field, Mike's derailleur got bashed by a rock, trashing his rear dropout. His derailleur was now smashed against his rear wheel. One half mile into a 12-mile descent, and we had a wreck and a major mechanical. The sun was shining, but not on us. We worked for about 15 minutes, and turned Mike's bike into a singlespeed. Mike chose a descending gear, not a climbing gear, so we pushed our bikes on the uphill sections we encountered. This negatively affected our impressions of the "flowability" of the ride. It also made us realize that, hiking is overrated.

After some nice twisty sections, we broke out onto the edge of the plateau for which this ride is known. Bumpy and dusty, we trucked along hoping for more exciting terrain ahead. We found it. The trail pitched down, and we entered a continuous series of flowing, banked turns. After that, we pushed for a bit, and found cougar tracks heading up the trail, very clear in the deep floury dust of the trail. We started dropping the remaining 900' of elevation in short order. Conditions warranted a bit of caution due to the rocky nature of the trail.

As if to exact one final toll on us, before spitting us back into the civilized world, Little Bald Mountain's whip cracked one last time. Dropping down final slope, onto the forest road, I heard Mike yell something. I looked ahead and decided to start braking. Not soon enough. My tires didn't bite well enough in the soft dirt, and I knew I was about to go down. I popped out of my pedals, and tried to land in the safest spot: right in-between a stump and a boulder. What's one or two more scrapes among friends? In all, we had a good time, despite the misinformation and misadventures.

On to the next objective.