The boys starting their trek up the mountain at around 3:00 pm and expected to be at camp around 7:30. So we had some time to kill. So the other guy I was with new of a state park where we could hop on our bikes for a couples hours to kill some time and have some fun. So we started riding, heading up the hill looking for a lake that he knew about but couldn't ever find previously. We climbed for a bit and after a while we got up above the trees and could look down at the valley and see the towns of Wenatchee and Cashmere. It was pretty cool. We climbed a bit more searching for this lake, but never did find it. Eventually we decided it was time to head back down and get camp set up. We were bombing down the mountain and since it was Eastern Washington the trail was dry. My buddy in front of me was kicking up tons of dust and my sunglasses were covered in specks of dust. As we came out of the trees the sun was shinning right in my eyes through my dust covered glasses, needless to say I couldn't see anything. Not good when flying down the mountain on a bike. I couldn't see the large rock or root or dip in the trail or whatever it was that I hit that caused me to fly over the handle bars and take a nasty spill. After a few seconds of gathering myself to make sure I wasn't seriously injured (which I wasn't, just some scraped knees, legs, elbow and hands) I got back on the bike and continued down the mountain, a bit more cautiously.
We made it to the truck then drove to our campsite to set up camp and got dinner cooking. We expected the rest of the crew to show up around 7:30 pm so we had dinner ready by then, but they never showed. So we waited...and waited...and waited some more. At around 9:00 we got worried and tried calling them to see where they were, but they had no cell reception. So I drove to the trail head where they were supposed to come out onto the highway. Not there, so I waited there for them to show up...and waited...and waited. Still didn't show up. At around 10:00 pm they finally got cell service and called for me to come pick me up at a lower elevation closer to where our campsite was. So I drove over there and found them riding down a forest service road. They were absolutely exhausted and out of water. So I gave them all some water, loaded up the bikes in my truck and drove them all to the campsite. Once at the campsite, we quickly ate (mostly) cold dinner and went to bed.
The next morning we ate some breakfast, took down camp and bandaged up any wounds we had. Then we drove all our bikes and crew up to the trail head where they were supposed to come out of last night. We started biking around 10:30 am. We climbed about 600 feet or so on our bikes before we began our long and fast descent. It was a grueling ride up, especially for those who rode all the way in yesterday. After climbing we reached the peak and got some amazing views of Wenatchee below. It was pretty cool to look down on the valley as you ride a narrow sketchy trail with a cliff inches away. But eventually we got to go downhill. That was way fun. I felt like I was riding the brakes the whole way down and still was cruising down the mountain faster than I wanted to be going. All of the boys fell at least 3 times on the downhill portion, but luckily none were very serious. Just attention getting. It took us a few hours to ride the 15 or so miles of the downhill portion of Devil's Gulch trail. Then we rode about 10 miles on the road into the town of Cashmere. And finally after being scorching hot in the near 100 degree weather and completely exhausted with wounds and sore butts we got to enjoy some awesome BBQ at Country Boy's BBQ in Cashmere. That was some good eatin'. After lunch we drove over the pass and back home.
Region: Central Cascades, Stevens Pass, East
Distance: 14 miles
Elevation Gain: 3200 ft
Peak Elevation: 4963 ft
Difficulty: Difficult
Pass Requirement: Yes, Northwest Forest Pass
As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.
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