It's not a job, it's an adventure

The day began OK-ish at best, and went downhill from there.


Hit Silver Creek to begin, dabbing over & over, one time barely saving my ass from going over the cliff when my bar tagged a tree. Enjoyed SC despite the non-existent skills, then rolled down Silver City Rd & worked my way toward Empire.

Jeep road

Those must be some big frogs

Rainbow Rancho Fish Hatchery?

 Started climbing Bard Creek Rd & passed the quick way back to G-town, instead heading up & up on my way towards Silver Gulch. 


Wrong choice! After I turned onto 778.1, it shot up, and continued up for what seemed like days on end. I put my new HaB shoes to the test today! As I stopped for another breather nearing the top, I noticed that I had trashed yet another sidewall. 

778.1 never let up

Not this shit again!

Chill time

Sat atop Democrat Mt & Macguyvered my rear tire with everything I had with me, hoping I had patched it well enough to allow me to limp down to town: either chancing it in Silver Gulch, or u-turning it back down the long, steep & rocky jeep road to Empire Pass. I rolled the dice & gambled, keeping with the original plan.

Queen City?

The best conditions I saw going down, and it sucked

Waterfall at Sceptre?

Sceptre?

Moline?

Wrong choice again.  After descending a steep several hundred feet, the trail pretty much disappeared, washed away over the years. I had no intention of hiking it back up to roll back down the jeep road, so I scrambled up/down/over/across rocks, finding my way across the contour & keeping an eye below for any sign of ride-able trail (this never happened). 


While inching my way down, I was reminded of our time trying to follow Bard Creek Trail on the West Empire Death March a few years ago - only remnants of a former trail existed in most places, then you'd see something for 100 yds, then back to almost nothing again. 


Got below the washed-out sections & saw a trail (or was it an animal trail) & followed this down as much as possible. A bit more rock scrambling, and a lot of HaB & finally popped out at the car.
I was able to get a few pedal strokes on occasion, but overall today was a big hike w/a big bike.






Damn, that was ruff stuff!
Oh yeah, my tire boot survived. I was pleased.