Listen up, school is in! Most of us have been schooled in mud riding (typically not by choice), but there are few local schools of mud riding better than that of George Creek Grade. There are diffent kinds of mud: First, there's thin mud that coats you and your bike, but washes off easily. Next there's the ultra gritty mud that eats your chain, gets in your teeth, shreds your eyes, and Lord help you if you have rim brakes because when you get home the rims will be junk. Finally there's the kind of mud found on George Cr. Grade - it sticks better than super-glue and water will not wash it off...and yes it bonds to every thing it globs onto and ruins every thing... sunglasses have no chance and clothing...well it takes many washings sometimes to remove to poop-looking stain on your hind-end. In addition (yes there's more) the George Cr. mud eats chains in seconds, reduces rim sidewalls to paper thin thickness with rim brakes, and takes a chisel or at least 8-10,000 miles of riding rough terrain to get it to finally leave your frame.
A few local riders (
Corrie and Doug) found out the hard way recently and I'm sure they are now aware that you just don't go treking up George Cr after there's been a bit of moisture. There is an exception of course...cold, frozen ground. While Corrie and Doug are still chiseling the George Creek mud off their bikes from this last weekend, today's ride up presented no mud problem.
I could see where they had stuggled through the ultra muck-a-muck-e-yuk, sorry, but I was snickering some because several years ago I had done the same thing (you can read Corrie speak his mind on this here-->
click). Today the ground was quite firm after some recent cool weather, but as soon as it warms a bit you can bet the gumbo-bike-destroying-muck will be back.
Here's the proof - a pic of my tire...hmmm clean...
After finishing George Creek mud-free, I decided to zip over to Hellsgate State Park for a few loops - overall it was a cool day, but the bright sun made up for it.
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