In a Washington State Mountain Bike Trail Guide that Konnie gave to me, Robinson and I found the Jolly Mountain trail - approximately 18 miles up and down Jolly Mountain.  So Robinson, his dog Koru and I headed out for Eastern Washington early Saturday morning for some "drier" weather, mountain biking, and a little re-con skiing expedition.  It was raining in Western Washington, but we felt pretty good about getting some better weather over the pass.

We pulled into the Salmon la Sac Campground around 11:30 or so and were on the fire road at noon.  The weather was cooler than we expected and cloudy (sprinkles at times).  Of course, the road didn't allow for any warm-up whatsoever - straight up right away!  So we threw the bikes into granny gear and started huffing up.  We gained some good vert quickly and soon we were able to look down on the parking lot.  We also had a great view of Red Mountain - yes, Red Mountain.  And, no, we did not make a wrong turn and end up in Rossland, BC.  Funny though, how Roslyn, Washington is near a Red as well.  It was easy to tell why the mountain was named due to the red rock and dirt.

It was definitely slow going and we were the only ones on the road.  We saw one deer on the way up and evidence of animals (droppings, prints, etc.). We started to warm up as the weather alternated between sun breaks and rain.

I am not sure how far we rode up - Robinson and I are guessing between 5.5 and 7 miles (the book showed mile markings) but the trail gave few of the trail markings that the book had.  No matter as we were unable to proceed any further due to approximately 2 feet of snow on the trail - d'oh! Bummed, we did the thing we do best - pull out the video camera and make fools out of ourselves!!  We hiked about 50 meters up the trail on the snow and proceeded to tape our version downhill snow mountain biking.  After a very intelligent and heated debate involving precise calculations and formulations as to the depth of the snow, I set up for the first run.  MANY false starts later I FINALLY got going albeit slowly.  I got a little momentum on a dry patch and came in hot to the next snow patch and unceremoniously put that bad boy down (i.e. I crashed).  Robinson, up next, did much better in the same section and was able to stay upright.

Not having enough, we decided to start on the dry patch and come in hot to see how far we could stay on our bikes.  Needless to say we didn't make it far but Robinson had a very impressive fall where he couldn't clip out, fell over but was still pedaling (bike above him).  What a talent he is.

 All the while it began to snow!  I figure we were sitting at 5,000 feet. And as we began our descent, it began to blizzard (I shit you not) and we were a little concerned about white out (as we needed to bike along a steep ridge).  But mostly we were upset because we didn't have our skis!  It was wild being caught in a snow storm on mountain bikes in June.  After we dropped a bit we could see Red Mountain with a blue ski in front of us and a snow storm behind us.  Pretty amazing.

 The ride down was uneventful except for the fact that a deer crossed about 20 feet in front of us and Koru did her best to hog tie the healthy stag (OK, OK it was a female deer but I had to get the Logger in here somewhere).  After packing up, we went to Clllleeeeeeeeeeeee Elum to McKean's for burgers, fries and the best shakes around and then headed home.

All in all, a great trip - great scenery, quality time in the great outdoors, and redneck humor.  We were bummed that we didn't hit single track but we saw some potential for winter hiking and skiing so all was not lost.

Hope all is well with everyone.

 Cheers,  Scott B.