The drive down was long and uneventful. We arrived at Horse Creek Lodge in the evening and found it to be perfect: a full kitchen and bath, large deck, two single beds, and within one mile from the bottom of the trail.
We planned on starting early on Saturday morning, but without toddlers and alarms to wake us up, we were surprised to find we slept until 8:30am without even budging. It was great to sleep in and enjoy some coffee without being needed by anyone. We hit the trail a bit later than expected but settled in for a full day's ride.
[Much of the trail was like this, right next to the river.]
Our goal was to ride to Trailbridge, approximately 14 miles up-river, and then back down again. Upon arriving at Trailbridge, we felt pretty fresh and decided to add some more mileage on. We rode to just one mile short of Blue Pool (17 miles), where the trail became mostly big, volcanic rocks, unrideable for us. We turned around here and rode back down. It wasn't super fast and did involve a fair amount of pedaling, but it was more downhill than we realized. After 6+ hours in the saddle and almost 35 miles, we were happy to arrive back at the lodge. Even better, we walked into the aroma of pork that had roasted all day in the crock pot. We ate dinner and turned in fairly early, tired from a full physical day.
On Sunday, we drove to the walking trail to Koosah Falls and began riding there.
[Koosah or Sahalie Falls...can't remember which!]
The waterfalls were lovely, of course, and then we followed the trail further to Clear Lake and beyond to trail's end. There was another interesting volcanic rock section at Clear Lake that was unrideable for us, but we were fine walking our bikes through it as it wasn't long (1/2 mile?).
[Clear Lake, Holly riding around it]
[on the first bridge near the top/start of the trail]
The trail was much more technical on day 2 (from the falls up), but still not overly challenging. After turning around at trail's end and riding past the waterfalls again, we continued down the trail to Blue Pool, our turn-around point the day before. The pool really is an unbelievable blue color, hard to catch on the camera.
[Sahalie Falls -I think- from the other side]
[Blue Pool]
I can cross a life dream off my list, now that we have ridden the Mackenzie River trail. I enjoyed the scenery and some of the riding was good fun. I will withhold the "#1 mountain bike trail in America" award however, as I prefer mountain bike rides in the actual mountains, it turns out. My preference is to work really hard for 2-3 hours, with significant elevation gain, enjoy some lovely mountain views at 'the top', and then free flow all the way down single track, the reward for your hard work up. This trail, while lovely, felt like work the whole time. It wasn't ridiculously hard work but it was unrelenting. Even the downhill wasn't steep or sustained enough to just let go and ride; after 10-20 feet or so, it was time to pedal again.
So, after completing the ride, we got back in the car and drove through I-5 traffic until we were home. Once home, I snuck into K's room to peek on him sweetly sleeping. The trip was good but I missed those guys too! Turns out the boys and daddys hung out a good bit, having a 'Dude's weekend', which involved pizza, ice cream, hiking, staying up late, and TV. Sounds pretty awesome.
