Another trip report here.I tried this one last week, and it turned out to be kind of a disaster. I told someone about if after and she said, Oh yeah, everyone tries riding the Treadwell Ditch Trail once.
The problem is, the trail sounds sweet. It follows a ditch (an inglorious name for a pretty neat piece of engineering) that was cut into the mountains and brought water from various streams from one end of Douglas Island to the other for mining operations 100 years ago. It's basically a dozen miles of downhill singletrack.
I started at the beginning, which you can access by slogging through some mud off the road to Eaglecrest. The forest is rich and green and wild, even if you can still hear cars on the road. I saw a bear climb into the woods about 40 yards away, and three porcupines over the course of the day. The trail was gently downhill, as I expected, but was not very rideable. I probably dismounted 75 times or so, and crashed about a dozen times, at one point grabbing hold of a sapling as I flipped over the handlebars and into a patch of devils club. (I still have the needles in my hand.)
The number and diversity of obstacles was almost laughable -- roots, rocks, wash-outs, avalanches, downed trees, a landslide, log bridges, collapsed bridges, foot-numbing streams, snow, and mud. I think that's it. I rode for about six hours and gave up above the town of Douglas when I reached Paris Creek without a bridge and no visible route up the other bank.
I'd like to say there are nice sections worth riding, but the trail pretty much stunk, at least for biking.
3 comments:
Still beats lying on the couch!
Ha! Yeah. Everyone tries to ride the Treadwell once. I'm one of those suckers. Didn't make it more than three miles on the Eaglecrest side before I turned around. The Douglas side is better; I ride my Pugsley, which combats most the mud and roots, but you still have all those broken bridges and washed-out sections of trail to deal with. Have to admit, though, it's a fun adventure.
Thanks for the info on the Roberts trail. I've been itching to go up the mountains, but will probably just wait for more snow to melt. I don't have the skill set or gear of a backcountry skier, so I'll probably just have to settle for summer hiking conditions to come back.
Gotta try it again in fall of 2010 when all the renovations are completed. It's gonna be worthy... and so will Eaglecrest in 011. They're going to open up the mountain to bikes and have three downhill courses. Be on the lookout!
Check out my trip report/trail at mbpost.com under 'junodirtrider'. It'll bring back some memories, as did yours.
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