Tamara surprised me Saturday evening by suggesting we mountain bike up Grape Mountain rather than hike. We'd had a long road ride on Saturday and with tired legs, I'd figured a hike would do us good. But...
We negotiated the Sunday morning traffic jams on the road along Arrowrock Reservoir before turning off at Long Gulch Road and heading into the mountains. Yes traffic jams - seems like everyone was out on this Sunday morning. In no time we were up and over Slide Gulch summit and parked near the closed gate at trail 221A
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| Dusky Grouse on the drive in |
A short while later, we were on our bikes heading up the smooth two track in brilliant sunshine. Apparently this gated road is used to service a radio tower on the summit of Grape Mountain. It was in great shape and little used - perfect for a quiet ride.
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| Grape Mountain somewhere back there |
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| Tamara starting up the road |
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| Enjoying the sunshine |
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| All smiles |
We followed the meandering road, occasionally stopping to gawk at the views or identify any birds we happened upon. There was the occasional cloud and very little wind to go along with all the sunshine.
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| John looking back at the DDP |
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| Grape Mountain |
We were on the summit enjoying lunch in a little over 1.5 hours.
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| Summit Splattski |
Then it was time to saddle up and enjoy the mostly downhill ride to the base of our next objective, the DDP - Peak 5587.
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| John likes downhill! |
After stashing our bikes and changing shoes, we started up the ridge to Peak 5587. Other than dodging the occasional stand of manzanita, we pretty much stuck to the ridge and were on the summit in no time.
We didn't linger on the summit, but quickly turned around and retraced our steps to our bikes. A quick shoe change and 12 minutes later we were back at the truck. Gotta love downhill on a mountain bike!
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| Yellow Fritillary |
An excellent day spent social distancing with Tamara in the mountains.
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