2500FT Ascension

Today, I left my home with the 3000FT trip in mind. I left at 8:30, and arrive at Wallace Lake at 10:30. On the way up, I surprised a bird on the trail:


I was told this is a wild turkey.
Once at the lake, I looked for the forest road highlighted in my previous post, and found it easily. The road though, was very steep, no way I could ride the bike, so I walked up for about an hour until I got stuck by this:


I tried to walk in the snow while pushing the bike, but the slope made it too hard, so I turned back at that point. Before starting the descent, I used my topographic map and the compass to find where I was:


2650FT, that's almost 2500FT ascension from my house. Not too bad! I was 900FT above Wallace Lake, but the forest prevented me to see it.
It was 11:30.
I then started the descent, with the intent of taking pictures of what I saw climbing up, but was too focused on my effort to stop for a pic.

Beginning of the descent. The trees help figuring the steepness of the slope.

I crossed many small water falls feeding Wallace lake or North Fork Wallace River, and took a picture of each of them. One of them is visible from my house. It is a very long and thin waterfall, that only flows when it rains, and for a few days after. I hope after the trail switchbacks (area I couldn't reach today), I will have a better view and identify this waterfall. It's fun to identify landmarks I can see from my house.

Waterfall 1:

Waterfall2:

What looked insignificant at this point, will later become a major problem for this forest road:


A few 100s FT down:


Big erosion:


This hole was several feet deep:


Water dug the road in 2 areas on that section:


Eventually, the water ran out of the road, making a big hole on the side in the process:




Majestic Mount index and Mount Persis.


Waterfall 3:

Waterfall 4:

Last picture, showing the snow level compared to the valley floor, that is how much I climbed today:


I was home at ~ 12:45. This was another awesome ride. Coming home, my bike was making unfriendly noises, that seemed to be coming from the crank bearings. I'll have to send it to the shop for its 100miles free checkup (I put about 60 miles on it).
I will have to wait a few more weeks to reach 3000FT.