On our way north to the Seattle Bicycle Expo, Neil and I stopped just west of Olympia, Washington to ride the dense woods of Capitol State Forest. The first half of the ride – the climb – was very scenic and relaxing after a long day of driving, but the descent portion of the ride turned into a bit of a fiasco. The ride was incredibly fun for the most part, but it became another trail that we couldn’t ride at our full potential, and we had to promise ourselves we would return in better conditions.
After a long, winding drive through the woods just west of Olympia, Washington’s state capital, we reached the trailhead deep in the forest. Capitol State Forest is a relatively isolated area, and as we drove through the trees and clearings it was a nice break from the monotony of the freeway. We had been driving north toward Seattle for hours, so we were excited to be getting out into the wilderness after a long day of driving.
We got onto the trail about four p.m., leaving us plenty of time for the ten mile loop we had looked up on our smartphones on the drive in. The first few miles of trail were very flowy, feeling like a roller coaster that didn’t require much effort. The big tires on our Surly Krampuses bit into the moist soil and provided great traction. However, right after we crested a small hill and started down a quick descent, I heard a loud hissing and felt something wet splatter on the back of my neck. I pulled over and realized a sharp stick had pierced my tire, sending the sealant from my tubeless setup spraying up my back.
I reached into my pack to pull out a spare tube, but soon realized the gash in my tire was too big to patch up. It would have required a few layers of duct tape on the inside of the tire to keep the new tube from bursting when inflated. We realized we would have to walk back to the trailhead, which was, luckily, not too far away and make a bike switch. Neil would grab his Oxide Battleaxle, which we had with us to showcase at the bike expo, and he would lend me his Surly Krampus that he had been riding.
With the bike situation worked out, we hit the trail again and soon found ourselves in the middle of a long, mellow climb. The route through the woods was very beautiful and relaxing, winding through the trees, across bridges and rivers, and traversing a steep hillside as we made our way to the ridge. When we finally made it to the top, the view was incredible. The sun was going down and the fading light in the sky made for a colorful display. Capitol State Forest is a large, wild, relatively unsupervised area, so we heard gunshots in the distance from hunters. We soon pedaled into a large clear cut section on the ridge and realized that the forest has active logging operations. Standing in the clear cut at sunset looking at the beautiful views with the sound of gunshots in the distance made for slightly eerie but also strangely calm feeling.
We began the descent just after the sun set and the light started to fade quickly. We realized that with the flat tire that had set us back, we would probably get back to the car right as darkness set in. Little did we know the dark would come much sooner than we thought. As we started along the ridge we found some fun rocky sections and little jumps, but as soon as we got off the ridge and into the trees, it became very hard to navigate the trail. In our earlier haste to get off the highway and onto the trail, we hadn’t thought to bring any lights with us, and the tree cover blocked much of the remaining natural light.
The rest of the ride turned out to be very challenging, picking our way down a fairly rocky, technical trail in near pitch blackness. At many points, all we could see was the very faint outline of what could be a rock or a root, and somehow we were able to steer around the obstacle. Other times, drops in the trail as tall as six or eight inches snuck up on us and sent us reeling, but luckily we never went over the bars. As challenging and frustrating as it was to ride down an all-mountain style trail in the pitch black, we were very surprised we never went over the bars. We found the trick was to go slow and keep our weight back over the rear end of the bike, so it could bounce over the unseen bumps.
When we finally made our way back to the trailhead, we got in the car and exhaled deeply, glad we had made it back safe and sound. We vowed to pack lights in our backpacks next time, and counted ourselves lucky that nothing had gone seriously wrong in the dark. The ride turned out to be a lot of fun, and we were excited about the adventure of finding our way down in the dark, but we treated it as a learning opportunity to be more prepared next time.
Check the Cycle Monkey Tales blog for more ride reports from our Northwest Trails trip, including video footage from our rides.
-Phil
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