First Ride on the Tallboy! Tiger Mountain

Ok, today was by Divine design. Could not get any better. Have been longing to take the new Santa Cruz Tallboy out for its first official ride. Today was the day. Been many years on my own mountain bike. Hmmm... how do I get ready for a mountain bike ride? Not sure. I'm used to road bikes. Well... the Tallboy needed some accoutrements first. Seat quick release. Bottle cages. Tool bag. All finally on, but took seemingly way too long. Tire air pressure? I dunno. Feels ok. Load up the car. Drive.

Tiger Mountain is about 30 miles from my house in east King county. Its a really awesome, multi-use area for hiking, horse riding and mountain bike riding. I have ridden out there many times, but the last time was probably 12 years ago. It has a lot of single track, true to the Pacific Northwest, a lot of tree roots, rutty, wet soils and plenty of rocks.

I arrive at Tiger and I feel a bit possessed. I am focused. Unload the bike. Click on the sat tracker, check the suspension. Roll out.

The first 2.5 miles are a steep gravel forest service road. Man I am huffin'. It has to be a 10% grade. I stay in my middle ring and get out of the saddle on the steepest parts. What a monster I must be smashing the pedals. Man I am huffin'. Wait, I said that already. After that it levels off a bit and its all gravel road to the top of east Tiger. The last 200 hundred yards are the steepest. Bear down, pump, pump, pump. The radio towers appear and I am there.

There is a nasty little secret to Mt Biking... yah gotta go up to get the fun downhill rides! I hang at the top of east Tiger for about 20 minutes. A few, fellow riders arrive. We have all been puffing.

Time to go. From the top I'm hitting East Tiger Trail Summit Trail, Preston Railroad Grade, NW Timber Trail and a couple forest roads to link it all together.

Ok, so if you follow my blog, you know that I started riding MTBs back in the early 80s. But, for the last 10 years, I have been on a hiatus and have not ridden nor had any durn fat tire machine. My cycling has been devoted to road biking and touring (recently). The minute I pedal down the first single track on Tiger... things are WAY different. First... there are now 29" tired MTBs as well as 26" tired (27.5" too, but the jury is still out on this tweener size). My Tallboy is a 'two-niner' as they say. The trails feel different too. Much more oriented to flow and pump vs sheer technical single track.

So, I pump, I flow, I brake, I chatter, I navigate, I balance, I get technical, I squeeze the seat with my legs, I keep the eyes pealed... man this is fun and damn challenging. I get off-beat, out of rhythm, dab the foot, bump my ass on the seat... grab the brakes. I take a break... this is hard work. But absolutely fun and exhilarating.

In my younger days of mt biking... I felt pretty skilled and adept at riding. I don't remember fear or even moderate concern coming into play when I rode the more technical trails. Yesterday... was a bit different from back then. Yes, concern. Yes, some fear. But, I am older now and do not have that "balls to the walls" mentality anymore. Heck, my balls were deflated a few years back! Older age has set in.

Lastly, since we're talking about age, the route definitely beat me up. Ten miles of technical single track with rocks, roots, creeks and steep slippery pitches, mussed me up pretty good. At times, I felt I needed a kidney belt.

Enjoy the photos!

Highway 90 Issaquah, heading east to Tiger

This is a satellite track of my route.

 

Here is the Garmin Connect plot.

Time for a selfy!

This kid looked in good form. Grinding away.

Mount Rainer

What else can you do with a picnic bench?

Oh boy. In my day... we had no 'Warning Signs' on the trails! Interesting hiker yield to bikers! I like that!

Looking west toward south Puget Sound

Why not another selfy!