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Hansen Ridge questions

3K views 35 replies 16 participants last post by  kenobonn 
#1 ·
How bad is the FS road you have to drive on to the trailhead? Something an average sedan can handle, or do I need to borrow the wife's Subaru?

Also, looking at the map and Evergreen Wiki, I can't tell if the Phase 2 stuff is ridable yet, anyone know?

Hoping to get up there tomorrow for the first time.
 
#3 ·
Phase 2 was all there last year. The last part out to the road was raw and new but very ridable. Plan for a lot of extra time to do the OAB to the lake if you plan on going that far. We went clockwise out of the TH up the road and back via the trail to the right as an upside down lollipop and would recommend that.
Surprised there is no activity up there this summer just like last summer????? I wonder if the project is on hold... Still a fun ride and easy with any car up the road as Dan mentioned. Should be a greta day for it.
 
#4 ·
Like Borneo said. Just be prepared to do more climbing than it looks on the map. Out and back to Harris Lk. Is over 3000 ft of climbing, including a road climb on the way back that will be a hot one. Work wise, the FS gave us some more hoops to go through but we should be working this week. Plan is to fix up the trail near the lake. Have a good ride!
 
#6 ·
I'll live vicariously through you Tarekith. The PT told me to back off and limited movement in the shoulder for the next 2 weeks.... :( Phase 2 stuff off the top of the first climb should be great to the road. Check out all the amazing rock placement on the last climb to the lake too. Great job there.
 
#7 ·
Bummer about the shoulder Bob, though who wants to ride when it's so hot and dusty anyway? :)

Is the map on the evergreen site current, or does Phase 2 go beyond what is shown on those? I'm not seeing the lake you guys are referring to...
 
#10 ·
I've had the Hansen Ridge wiki page open in a tab on my browser since we did an Evergreen BOD ride up there end of last month - with the plan to get it up-to-date. I've been too busy. :(

As others have said, you can ride all the way to lake. Most of the leg to the lake is doubletrack. As far as the TH FS road goes, it's washboardy, but I do it in my A4 with 235/40 R18s.
 
#11 ·
You baller!

I'll be reworker most of the route to the lake on the west end of the trail starting mid next week, I think/hope. Going to leave the amazing rock work in place, just making a ride able route to the lake cuz all the soil wasted away on the first go on the trail to the lake. More amazing rock work to come.

Hint, Go ride to the lake on or after friday the 13th of Sept for fresh tracks of newly reworked trail. I may post a ride when I'm done up there to show peoples around.
 
#12 ·
Sounds good. I'll watch for a ride post, and lend a hand if I can.

BTW, I just took a digital sawzall to the Hansen Ridge page - burned some deadwood, updated the distance/elevation, added a Google terrain GPS overlay and an updated GPX file, turn-by-turn updates, some other stuff. Peeps please review for correctness. Thanks to the Evergreen educators that joined us on the recon ride last month for the GPS data.

Trail:Hansen Ridge - Evergreen Trail Guide
 
#14 ·
No, it wasn't deleted, but the link was removed and accidentally not replaced. I apologize for that - after spending several hours working on this after midnight last night, I must have just made a mistake: The existing image was too large for the page, and there was a problem in the wiki with scaling images on the fly.

Although the existing image is still there, I've uploaded a smaller version that fits in the page and inlined it into the trail page.
 
#15 ·
BP, the trail guide page looks great. I like the less-is-more on these wiki pages. I did the same thing to the Tokul pages earlier this month. Totally cleaned them up and left only the relevant info.

I did the 18 mile reverse lollipop with r1de, a few other Evergreeners. The views and terrain up there are awesome, and it's a legit pedal right now, even though the middle section is forest road. Can't wait until it's all trail, and it's in the works!

Ty, looking forward to seeing your improvement on the section up to the lake later this summer. Any way we could have you build a swimming platform while you're up there :)
 
#17 ·


Just got back a little while ago, wow what an epic ride out there! Made it all the way to the lake and back, though in hindsight wish I would have turned around a little earlier probably. Glad you guys gave me a heads up on how much climbing it is that route, it really DOESN"T look that bad when you first scout it at the map. Once I realized that where the Phase1 trail splits off of Phase2 is pretty much the highest point of the ride, you realize how much elevation you're going to lose going on the FS road to the lake.

Almost turned around a few times, but it was so hot out there by then I thought a jump in the lake might feel nice. Didn't realize you really can't get to the water that easy, oh well. :( Long climb on the way back, but my legs are feeling stronger today than usual so it could have been worse.

Favorite sections were the top of Phase 1, with all the large stones stacked on both sides of the trail. Also the machine made section of Phase 2 was pretty cool too, little flowy berms and fun log bridges over the small gullies. That long bench cut straight away was impressive looking too.

If I did it again in the near future I think I'd just skip the FS road section until it's finished being made a trail. Still beautiful views, but it's a long way to climb on the way back for essentially just a bomb down a road. Surprisingly didn't really care for the downhill on Phase1 either. You finally get to the goods and each turn is just sharp enough to make you scrub speed instead of flying downhill at Mach 2. Clever builders ;)

Great ride though, definitely one of the highlights of the year so far. Thanks again for all your help, going into rides like this with a bit more knowledge about what to expect always makes for a more enjoyable and relaxed time, which I sorely needed!

:thumbsup:
 
#24 ·
You'd have more "fun" with the gears and squish. Just sayin'...

To the earlier conversation, it would be really nice to have a trail down from the RR grade to the road climb to make that an optional route. I assume one could get adventurous and hike a bike down to the road though.... Park at 38 or near there and ride up the RR grade/road/do the loop to the lake and then back down the logging road to the RR grade...
 
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