Joined a ride advertised on the Evergreen Calendar, and so did some 12 other riders - despite being a large group, we were going strong, which was much needed on this loop. We took off from the Rat Pac bike park around 10am, went up the fire road for about 4.5 miles, then dropped via a drainage into Teanaway and gained elevation again as we climbed to one of the ridges. There we took a mandatory lunch on one of the slick rocks (this was one of the smaller ones, but had some fun roll-off routes off it so we took advantage of that, of course.

Then we followed the ridge as we dropped down to the river, which meant the climb back towards Rat Pac was ahead of us. It's a good thing it's divided into several semi-climbs - every time you think you're approaching the top, you remind yourself you know better (it can't be, we've been at this for far too short ... and you're right, once you reach the horizon, there's another ridge ahead of you : )

The reward is sweet, though, as you take the fun twisting trails with the occasional jump or ladder here and there down the Rat Pac system - if you have enough left in your tank, that is.

We saw all sorts of conditions - hero dirt/sand packed down just enough by the recent rains, some mud, some frozen crust and even some 4-inch-deep moon dust on one of the downhills. Overall, the trails rolled great and if we get another decent weather window, I highly recommend this ride for the views of the Stewart range and the autumn foliage with golden larches and cottonwoods so bright yellow you've never seen them like that before.

I'm attaching a screen shot of our GPS track.