My son Jason dropped Doug and me off at the Mission Ridge parking lot at 6:30am. From there we biked west on the Liberty-Beehive Road, north along the Tronson Ridge Trail, up and down Sand Hill, up Peavine Canyon and then down No. 2 Canyon to Wenatchee. Thirty-seven miles of breathtaking vistas, a gain of 5800 vertical feet, one gi-normous rattlesnake and 8 1/2 hours of good company and edifying conversation.
This was definitely a "bucket-list" ride. For several years I've been admiring Tronson Ridge from the east and wondering what it would be like to ride down the trail that follows its spine. About half-way down Tronson Ridge, Doug and I agreed that we would encourage some of our friends to ride this trail, but only the ones that we don't very much like.
As we were descending the east side of Sand Hill Doug was (as usual) a minute or two ahead of me. As I zoomed down the track I had to stop suddenly to avoid running over a rattlesnake that was coiled up in the middle of the two-foot wide path. The serpent showed no signs of moving on so I hiked my bike through some sticker-bushes to get around him. I caught up to Doug a few minutes later he asked me why I was delayed. When I showed him a picture of the rattler he grinned and said, "Oh yeah, I just bunny-hopped* that." (Sheesh!)
If you're interested you can see the whole buncha pictures here.
*Definition of "bunny-hop": Some mountain-bikers (like Doug) ride clipped into, i.e. attached to, their pedals and can, by throwing the weight of their torsos upward, "hop" their bikes one-to-two feet in the air as the hurtle down the trail.
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