Tronsen Ridge 03 Sept 11

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Jackazz, Guns and kwisn take on Tronsen Ridge -

Ride report to follow.

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Off to bed, more in the am.

[kwisn]

Cough, cough, I'm still hackin' duscticles. It wouldn't have been good for me to try and stay in front of either those two guys today. The mistake would have been 'spensive.
With some help from some local knowledge (Roy, you and me need to talk ), we staged at the Ruby Creek trailhead. The road hadn't been graded this year and some spots were "challenging".
My truck upon arrival. I'm sure it will buff right out.

We all commented on how overgrown the trail was and the lack of fresh tracks of any kind. DO NOT stage from here to ride Tronsen unless you like to push your and your riding partners bikes up a 50 degree 75 yard long 12" deep with silt "hill from hell" hill. Oh yea, don't forget the ruts. Gums and I were sitting at the bottom looking at each other with trepidation as Jackazz was off the bike only a 1/3 of the way up and trying to make some upward progress. If Tim can't make it........ Anyone who has ridden with him will know what I mean and for those who haven't, he's is extremely talented and adept at making his huge HP KTM take him wherever he wants to go.
After wrestling, cajoling, praying, and a little cussing (5 F rated), and a breather for us old guys to get our hearts back in our chests, onward we trek. This is supposed to be an adventure, right? No one dared taking out their camera as if it was dropped it would have never been found in the silt.
Last week from Devil's Gulch we were looking up at this ridge and it's unique rock formations and sheer walls. It has certain isolation to it even though for a lot of ride you can look down on the Hwy 97.
Mt Ranier way back there.

Jackazz taking in the sights with Hwy 97 below.

[oldx]

Thanks for the Pic's guy's.

[kwisn]

The trail hasn't seen much use this year as it's only open from June 15th until October 15th. I doubt that it was ridable before late July due to last winter's heavier than normal snow pack.
There are some exposed sections and others through the high alpine forest and meadows with lots of green grass, I bet the elk love it. The closure is for the elk calving season.

Gums, raring to go.

Due to it's isolation and tough reputation, we didn't see anyone except four mtn bikers. I saw one hiker up on the 9712 FS road. The bikers were all taking the long downhill route. It still would require a lot of pedaling.
The sign at the lower trailhead to the Tronsen Meadow trail. The squiggly sign says "most difficult" at the bottom. They spoke the truth as this trail required some pushing up a silty hill also. I think Tim blew past this difficulty as he wasn't there to help Gums and myself. Thanks, Joe, sorry for the roost.

Tim coming up the hill from the naked nymphet glen.

Gums from NNG.

At least that's what they tried to tell me. After coming DOWN the Tronsen Meadow trail, there was a trail off the other side of the landing. I went a few hundred yards down it and saw that it continued to fall away severely and I wanted/needed to save myself to get back up to the ridge trail. I turned around as Tim and Joe continued down the trail and waited for them at the landing. The came back soon and regaled me with stories of the topless girls cavorting down below in a meadow. I was born at night, but not last night.
We make it back up to 9712 and take a short jaunt up the Mt.Lillian trail. I haven't been able to find any info on it and it's not listed on the USFS map. Some help here would be appreciated. We were just looking for a viewpoint as I was whining that I was getting tired.
We found one right away.
This would be the bottom of Devil's Gulch, maybe, probably.

I believe this is the Beehive?

What's Gums doing way over there?

Why he's saluting us, of course!

[kwisn]

There are some tight spots and neat rocks all along the ridge.


I tried to capture nature's graffiti as the rocks were bright with red and green lichen. Sorry for the poor quality.

Just a view of some trail.

The ride back was mostly uneventful, except for a few falls and F's thrown around.
The ice cold Corona's at the truck were a great finish to great experience.
To those wanting to ride the ridge, go to the Sand Creek trailhead and ride the Red Hill trail up to the Tronsen Ridge trail. Or you can go in 5 mile road, or from the top of FS 9712. I would do the Sand Creek trailhead and try to keep Junkyard Bob's horse's from haunting my dreams. It hasn't worked so far.

Chelan County Animal Control along with the Sheriff's dept. is working on this as I type. If they can't fix it I'll go buy or steal them and bring 'em home. What's another 5?

[kwisn]

Oh yea, that's not an elk calving, that's Gums in the shade of that pine tree.

We missed you, H squared and Masternavigator (Masterchief). Get better soon, Peter.
We're waiting for your epic adventure ride report, Steve.

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Way too early in the morning.

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Warming up the two-smokers

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Keith, unaware of what lays ahead!

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Adventure walker?

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That's more like it!

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Snow covered Mt Rainier showing

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Tim, taking a picture of Hwy 97