Rat Pac and Black Diamond

Well, this was a good long weekend.

Saturday I took a hike up to Granite Mt. with Amanda. The weather wasn't the best... It rained on us on the way up, but the top was above the first layer of clouds, so we were able to see the clouds rushing by below in the wind which was really interesting and not something you'd see on a perfectly clear day. Later on I saw Spiderman 2 with Amanda and Marcel. The cinematics were great, and the movie was worth watching, but don't expect a deep twisting plot.

Sunday it was looking like crap weather in Seattle, so I headed past Snoqualmie Pass out to Roslyn near Cle Elum to try and find the Rat Pac trail. It was a bit hard to find. I met a local on the way up who was looking for the same trail, and wanted to come along with me. He decided after three miles of climbing a 9% grade that he was through and wanted to go home. That was the last person I saw all day.
After about five miles up the hill I decided that I had probably gone too far. I turned around and went down a couple of trails that turned out to be the wrong ones resulting in a lot of walking back uphill... Eventually I found the trail and for the most part I kept to the easier sections to avoid getting stuck up in the middle of nowhere. I was getting worried that I was biking further and further from my car, but after about 10 miles of riding (including the up-hill) I popped right out in front of my car which was quite a relief.
Turns out this trail is a bit more geared towards the downhill folks, so I wouldn't take my bike over any of the bigger hits (especially when riding alone). The structures built here are nowhere near as nice as the ones on the North Shore of Vancouver, and I'd actually label them 'sketchy'.

Monday I decided to head out to Black Diamond to hit the trail named 'Bruce's Bowels'. This place seemed to be a maze of trails, but it turns out I actually found Bruce's Bowels as well as another interesting trail too. I went for a total of 15 miles across two loops, and was quite glad when I found the trail back to the car again :) One of these days I'll find someone to go biking with me who knows the trail...
After this I went golfing with Jim up at the Fall City golf course. I really hacked up the course, but I attributed it to how sore my legs, back and hands were from biking.