Back in the land of grapes.

Zachary Cole — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:24:41 +0000

Somebody braver than I on a downhill trail at Northstar.

Last weekend I stayed at Northstar Resort in Truckee, CA. I took the dogs for a hike on Saturday, and went biking on Sunday. They were having a race on Sunday, so that was pretty cool to see. I wanted to compare Northstar to the other places I had biked on this trip. Their website said they stopped running the bikes on the chair lift on September 1, so I was pessimistic that it would still be going. It was still going – I was really thrilled to get to enjoy Northstar this summer. I had been up two years ago and the jumps and technical ‘features’ had scared me out of my gourd – I stuck to the fire roads. This year, since Tamarack had shown me the way of the fun, I totally hit every type of trail I could find – Northstar has a plethora of choices. It was really fun, but a bit more rocky than Tamarack. I definitely understand the need for the extra suspension you get from a downhill bike – am I going to buy one? No. But I will rent one this weekend at Tamarack and see what it’s like!

It came out just about what I had wanted to budget for time – 10 weeks. Although the gas could have been cheaper, it was overall a really great trip. I didn’t get to see a couple of things, because the urge to come back was a bit overpowering (tired of driving a huge beast mainly). I didn’t see Bryce Canyon National Monument, Canyonlands National Park, or do the long loop of Slick Rock Mountain Biking Trail. I’ll definitely have to go back and visit southern Utah again and catch some of the sights I missed. Maybe I’ll combine that with a trip to Roswell, NM in the spring when it is a bit cooler.

Nine States and 4,416 Miles in 10 Weeks. It would have been 10 states if I had gone to Four Corners, but that was 16 miles out of my way!

Final Mileage tallies from Road Trip 2008:

Week 10 Mileage 337
Week 9 Mileage: 767
Week 8 Mileage: 261
Week 7 Mileage: 692
Week 6 Mileage: 324
Week 5 Mileage: 438
Week 4 Mileage: 328
Week 3 Mileage: 122
Week 2 Mileage: 275
Week 1 Mileage: 872
Current Total Mileage: 4416 (approx)

Final Week’s leg of travel:

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Rough Sketch of Entire Trip:

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