Tuesday, July 15, 2014

7 Summits Trail and Rossland Radness

Jocelyn coming off one of the 7 peaks with Old Glory Peak - the highest point of the Rossland Range and also a mountain bike ride - in the background.

Slogging up to Record Mountain, the 5th peak.

Getting started at the first peak - Mt Lepsoe.

Jocelyn and Maelle

The 7 summits is a good ride. The initial ascent is 7km or so, and takes just over an hour. Its entirely rideable but super tiring and I did some serious bike pushing. Once on top of the first summit, its a lot of long descents with short ups, and flat sections. The trail is pretty fun with some tricky rocky bits but definitely all rideable. Its fun to see the landscape change from forested to alpine to dry, high deserty to forest again. The final 5 km down Dewdney Trail is a great amount of descent but could use some major buffing out. Its more of a rough hiking trail, than a fun mountain bike ride. 

In addition to the 34 km ride, we also rode in the town of Rossland. Trails included a quick, evening ride at the ski hill on Miner's and Redhead, which was a nice ride on a flowy blue square/black diamond loop. On our last day, we rode Upper Whiskey and Crown Point on the south side off town. This was an awesome, slightly technical double black to blue ride with neat, steep outcrop downs, some built stuff, and quick bermy turns. Lots of challenge and fun. I highly recommend Crown Point.