Objective: Combine rides I did on 4/22 and 4/23/19 into one ride;

Ascend Best Chance Rd/N Fork Skookum Creek, cross over/descend Cook's Creek, try to find a short cut to the trail on Sandwich Creek, ascend Sandwich Creek, cross over/descend S Fork Skookum Creek, to Vane's Lake Rd.

Ride Stats: 26.15 miles, 2323 ft elevation gain.

Here's the ride: The red line I rode on 4/23, the blue line I rode on 4/22, and the yellow line is the short cut I was hoping to find. I didn't show most of the asphalt road approaches in this map.

What an awesome ride! Great roads, great views, great climbing work out. 4 ridges and 4 creek drainages. And, I bought a new, hard tail MTB this morning and used it, and it worked great! What an improvement.

I tried to find a short cut that the map shows as a forest service road, but I lost the way, and back tracked and took the longer way, which added to the climbing vertical feet. I'm going to work on finding that short cut. Looking at the Map My Ride map of my ride (that's a mouth full) today and comparing it with the topo map, shows I was very close. But, the road I took, didn't start where the map shows it starts. So, I ended up descending more to Berry Rd., and then climbing back up. The short cut would reduce some climbing, but where's the fun it that?

Here's some photos of the ride;

My new ride on N Fork Skookum Creek

Just crossed over to Cook's Creek drainage

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Almost home now, this is where I saw the elk herd two days ago

Views of the valley/home and Pend Oreille River, during the crossing from Sandwich Creek to S Fork Skookum Creek

The descent down the S Fork Skookum Creek/Vane's Lake Rd lies in the middle of this photo, behind the sloping ridge

This is one of the fields the elk ran into. The owner has a bunch of miniature horses he raises.

Looking at the ridges, and canyons/drainages I just crossed

The playground

Objective: Ascend Best Chance Rd. / N Fork Skookum Creek. Cross over into Cook's Creek drainage and descend to Berry Rd.
Ride Stats: 19.7 miles, 1375 ft elevation gain

I rode parts of this route last fall. I've been turned back this spring three times; Twice by deep snow, and once by a young moose standing in the snow. Today, I finally completed it, and it was a good ride. My rear derailleur freaked out on the way up, and I tried my best to get it re-aligned, but ended up having to massage it, using 3 gears only in back, so I really had to work the front derailleur.

Here's the route;

Here's some photos I took along the way.......

The view after crossing from N Fork Skookum Creek, to Cook's Creek

Here's right where you cross over into Cooks creek drainage

A three way fork in the road

Now, I have this wild idea to go buy a better suited MTB for these forest roads, and the ride it on a route that combines this ride and the ride I did yesterday...... a total of 4 creek drainages, 3 ridges. 

Objective: 

Ascend Berry Rd. along Sandwich Creek, then cross over to the South Fork Skookum Creek drainage and descend to Vanes Lake Rd > Skookum Meadows Rd. > Conklin Meadows Rd. 

18.98 miles/1450 ft elevation gain.

I attempted this route on April 11th, but was turned around by 1.5 to 2 ft of snow. I was able to complete the route today, and was pretty happy about it. This is a good ride...... great workout for climbing, great route, great views/surroundings.

Here's a topo of most of the route. Conklin Meadows Rd. is not on the map.

Berry Rd. is a climb that will get your heart pumping. That starts off this route, after a warm up on the road to get here. It starts to level off for awhile at a spot I call "The Gap":

South side of The Gap

North side of The Gap

Road through The Gap

Typical road on Berry Rd, as you enter the forest and follow Sandwich Creek.

I was very happy to get to this fork. Last time, this is where I turned around due to deep snow. This road climbs a bit more and then traverses from Sandwich Creek drainage over to South Fork Skookum Creek drainage, and the route's descent. So, finding and taking this road is crucial.

Starts climbing at the fork


Climbing and traversing lead to a great view of the valley, Pend Oreille River, 49 Degrees North. I took a break here, held a crucial safety meeting, and took some photos. I had cell service here, so I edited and posted a photo of my view on Facebook. I was sitting down on the edge of the road, by some small bushes. A few minutes later, I notice 4 ticks crawling on my legs.

49 Degrees North on far right, upper corner. Valley 1200 vertical feet below.

Looking at where I live, next to the river, in the center of the photo.

Here's the typical road at this section;

I started descending a bit towards South Fork Skookum Creek. I stopped to take some photos on the way down........

This section of the blog is sponsored by "ASS SAVERS"!

The road was right beside South Fork Skookum Creek for a couple sections, and I went through a north facing canyon section where the air was much cooler. 

Looking down at South Fork Skookum Creek

This area had trees with thick moss on them. It looked cool.

Only a couple sections of snow, very rideable, in the north canyon.

Then the road opened up and was sunny. 

I made it!

Something really cool happened as I was pedaling towards home, about 2.5 miles away, on Conklin Meadows Rd. There was a herd of 25-30 elk grazing in the grass. I spooked them on my bike, and they started moving, jumped a fence, crossed the road, and then jumped another fence. I took video of it.....