Turtle Rock x3

Whew! I've spent a lot of the week on (and occasionally off) two wheels. Saturday I helped dad frame his house from about 9 to 3:30. I wanted to go for a ride in the evening. Dad showed up at my house at 5:30ish wanting to go ride Turtle Rock (after hearing me talk about it). So we packed up and went for a ride. Afterwards we stopped by the Ames monument (highest point on the original transcontinental railway) and checked that out. Photo above.

I knew I wouldn't get a ride in the rest of this week so BertrandTheBold and I had talked about riding some of the Happy Jack trails in a little guide book he has today. We hooked up at about 2:30 with one of my coworkers from STP (Dizzney, see the post about Lorry State Park) and headed to the Lincoln Monument exit where the Tie City trailhead starts. Some reps from Trek and Specialized each had a little trailer set up with some demo bikes there. After we checked that out for a few minutes we hit the trail.

The Tie City trails consisted of lots of loops that all interconnect and end up back at the trailhead (for the most part). We just rode and rode until we had covered a lot of the loops. The trails were all up and down and very rocky. Tough to climb but worth it for the downhill. We finished up at Tie City but hadn't gotten enough. We threw the bikes in Dizzney's truck and headed over to Vedavoo.

We horsed around on the rocks at the base for awhile and then set out on Turtle Rock again (third time in a week for me). We quickly left that trail down a little offshoot and forded a stream to get to a trail that disappeared up into the trees. We climbed up through the trees and came out on a little ridge overlooking the East face of Vedavoo. BertrandTheBold and I were pretty eager to blast back down the trail we came up and the trail we were following had kinda petered out so we turned back and went-a-romping back down to the creek.

Across the creek again and we were getting pretty tired. We decided to complete Turtle Rock and call it a day. By the time we came out on the other side of Vedavoo we had probably ridden 10ish miles the hard way: up and down on pretty rocky trails. BertrandTheBold and I were pretty wiped but when we got back to the truck Dizzney was still romping all over the rocks. Kids! I took off my hydro-pack and pretty much just laid down on the pavement. Yeah, maybe I'm not in the best of shape.

Dizzney headed home. BertrandTheBold, Wifey and I grilled some burgers and brats and then I had a rootbeer float. Pretty darn close to an ideal day!

Anyway, I've posted pictures below.

Summit Loop crossroads, from Tie City


Summit Loop, scenic overlook crossroads (I-80 distant in background)


Dizzney on a rock outcropping


BertrandTheBold on the scenic overlook


Dizzney crossing the creek


Me on rock outcropping, Happy Jack general area in distance


Turtle Rock trail, west side, near sunset