The Pain Mill

OK, it wasn't that bad, but it was a pretty long evening ride with a fair amount of climbing up Millcreek.

The gate is still closed and Mark and I wanted to get in a ride before the gate opens next month and the hordes ascend.

Riding up the road seems to last forever.

We usually go up to Dog Lake first, but this time we started up Big Water then took GWT up to the saddle.

Mark rolling the single speed.


On the way up we had a Slysquatch sighting. I was so stunned I forgot to snap a photo. But Heather saw the creature on the Crest and got this picture:


And Kenny braved the danger and got this close-up shot:


Heather posted video of the beast ripping The Spine.

Strange things in the mountains this year.

We escaped with our lives and made it up to the saddle. Nice view into The Canyons resort.


On the way down we tried to judge if we had enough time to climb up to Dog Lake. I thought we did, Mark wasn't so sure. We went for it. The lake looked nice, same as always.

The descent was exceptional. We didn't see another soul the whole way down.

It was rather dark the last few miles of the Pipeline from Elbow to Burch. In the tree-shaded hollows I was riding by braille.

We made it down without incident and drove home in the dark. It was nice to slurp up every last ray of daylight for a good Millcreek ride.


Bonus

Even a fabled and elusive mountain creature gets a toothache now and then.