We’ll be riding on the East side of The Gifford Pinchot National Forest and what we call the Mt Adams Backcountry.  This area is a major contender for best places to ride in the Pacific Northwest.  We’ll start our day from our meeting location and drive 20 Minutes to our first shuttle drop to East Canyon Trail, close to Takhlakh Lake.  From here, we’ll make our way west up East Canyon, that includes a nice little bike/hike a bike to get to our high point.  From the high point and on a clear day, you have the Best place to view Mt Adams, staring you down and offering a great look at this amazing volcano.  From here, we have a sporty decent, created by motos and perfectly bermed for the Modern Mountain Bike.  We descend our way to the 2328 road and what is essentially a road to trail conversion until we hit the top of our last descent before lunch on Squaw Creek.  Squaw is a sweet piece of trail that links up with our lunch van and a scrappy connector that offers some nice fall line descending through the Squaw Creek Drainage and a great way to end Part 1 of the day. 

We’ll link up with the van, have the chance to dunk in the river and grab some food and beverage.  From here, we’ll make our way to the Sunrise Road for a massive shuttle to the Upper Sunrise Parking Lot.  We’ll exit the vehicle and immediately start a short but stout hike a bike to reach the ridgeline on Juniper ridge.  We’ll head south towards Jumbo peak.  Between Sunrise Mountain and Jumbo peak is mostly rideable, with short sections of hike a bike to get us to our high point and the start of our final descent on Dark Meadow.  If we keep our eyes open and with some luck, we should be able to see some of our friends, the majestic white mountain goats, as they graze the land and watch us mountain bikers pass through their summer home.  After we catch our breath and our last view point of Mt Adams, Rainier and Hood, we’ll hop on our bikes for a massive descent down South Juniper Ridge and right into the Dark Meadow Trail all the way to the valley floor.  A little river ford, and before you know it, beer will be in hand and stories will be told.  Come on our for this incredible day on the bike.  If you are around for the weekend, consider pairing this with Strawberry Mountain the day before.  We’ll see you out there!