A sense of adventure is in the Kona rider's blood. For me, that sense of adventure is applied over a wide range - from disciplined winter training regimens and traveling the globe to race in a coordinated spandex outfit, to scheming up awesome adventures with my best friends over a cold beer...
While my teammates are off riding across the Gobi Desert in the
Mongolia Bike Challenge, I caught a little adventure bug of my own. Needing a mental re-charge after a long cross country race campaign, it was time to set aside the interval training for something a bit more novel, perhaps something that had not ever been done before. As if I hadn't had enough "goal-seeking" this year...I needed to pull off a big one, albeit one that could be pulled off over the course of a single day...
The plan:
- Ride mountain bikes from Trout Lake to the Bird Creek Meadows trailhead, carrying climbing and ski gear on back
- Climb Mt. Adams
- Ski down
- Ride home
Again...perhaps it was first completed long ago by a gristly mountain-man on 3-speed clunker and wooden skis, but having grown up in Trout Lake, I've never heard of such an account.
In all, a 47-odd mile journey, nearly 12,000' of climbing, fit with a dusty 17-mile climb with 40 lbs on our backs, clouds of blood-thirsty mosquitoes, roving troupes of mountain goats, glistening snowfields, and lots of sunny blue sky.
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| Prepping the gear at my folk's place in Trout Lake |
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| Some intricate packing to stay light, yet prepared enough for a big-commitment day |
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| Realization setting in... |
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| Trip Participants (l-r): Spencer Paxson, Sarah Butsch, Fred Paxson - making fun of ourselves for what we had lined out for the next day... |
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| Ready with the gadgets to document the trip...indeed, I couldn't resist bringing the Garmin to capture a little data. I'll be the first to admit I have the cyclist's "data bug". For all you other dorks out there, I recorded HR for the moving time of the trip. If you've ever been wondering what the hrTSS score is for a long day riding, climbing, and skiing a big mountain, mine was about 430. For reference, that is roughly equivalent to 1 (only 1??!) really hard day in the Tour de France. |
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| Sarah ready to go at 5:00AM |
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| The journey begins...off at daybreak! |
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| The half-way point looming in the distance, a mere ~23 miles off... |
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| Approaching the end of Phase 1 - Bird Creek Meadows trailhead after 17 miles and 3,500' of climbing. The mosquitoes became worse and worse, requiring that we ride at a solid tempo pace just to keep our blood! |
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| Transition to foot-travel at Bird Creek Meadows |
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| Instant gratification - Hellroaring Canyon Overlook within 20min |
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| Ready to hit the snow, our climb route obscured by the tree in the background...next stop Sunrise and the base of the Mazama Glacier |
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| Sarah rocking the chains across the snow to Sunrise Camp |
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| Still climbing...Cresting the top of the Mazama Glacier |
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| Just below Piker's Peak (False Summit), a BLM survey marker delineating the Yakama Nation Boundary |
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| And just after 7:00hrs of moving time, ~10hrs total trip time, we reach the summit. Mt. Adams, ~12,300' |
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| beginning the journey back down |
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| Dad showing us how it's done on the way down from the summit. The snow was atrocious for the first 1,000' vert on a direct southern aspect, but it improved to fast, rippled corn on a more easterly aspect by about 11,000' |
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| Rolling back over the Mazama - be mindful of large bergschrunds and crevasses! |
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| Down towards the traverse below Suksdorf Ridge |
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| Every last drop!...got a little low on water by the end of the day |
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| back to Terra firma |
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| ...the summit quickly shrinking in the distance during the fast cruise back to Trout Lake Valley |
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| and back home before sunset, cold beer and lots of calories waiting |
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| Certainly...a day well spent |
Nice work Spencer!
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