Oct 08 2008
First Accounts:Mountain Biking–Tiger Mountain Part I
After a long month working at a summer camp, I had to get out and do some extreme mountain biking. A good friend of mine and I decided that the best thing to do would be to go on a day off up to a place called Tiger Mountain, located just off hwy 18 in Washington state. So Wednesday morning found us sitting in a car with our food and provisions for the day eagerly awaiting the adventures lying in store for us. Needless to say, almost two hours of “waiting” definitely lacked the dazzle that you would think it would bring.
Upon arriving at the parking lot, we pulled off our bikes for a 4 mile warm up session on a small trail to the southwest of the main trail. After the warm up, we headed 3 miles up the gravel road to trail head 1500 feet above us. The views were spectacular on the way up, and we decided to take a detour to the Tiger Mountain Summit, where a communications site sat. After taking pictures, we headed back down the summit and to the trail head.
On the trail, we found a labyrinth of terrain ranging from technical roots, to harsh berms. Flying through the trails, we let the bikes do our bidding as we fought within an inch of our nerve threshold to control the bikes and pull of the stunts we wanted. After a few miles of switchbacks, the first spill of the day finally occurred. . .
To be continued….
