{"id":341,"date":"2009-04-10T13:57:12","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T21:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=341"},"modified":"2009-04-10T13:57:12","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T21:57:12","slug":"japanese-gulch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=341","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Gulch"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>By the end of the workday on Wednesday, I was dog tired. However, the sun was out and the weatherman was calling for rain and general crappiness on Thursday. I can rest when it is raining so I headed out to Japanese Gulch in Mukilteo. Lucky for me my hotel is in Mukilteo and the\u00a0trailhead is\u00a0just a few miles away.\u00a0\u00a0I could have ridden the streets to the trailhead but not knowing where the trails would take me, I decided to drive to the trailhead and start from a known location. The trailhead also happens to be\u00a0at the bottom of the trail system which could make for a quicker return should I start running out of daylight.<\/p>\n

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What a score this place turned out to be. There is a railroad track,\u00a0that goes up the middle of the gulch and and on either side are steep wooded hillsides. There are trails on both sides of the gulch\u00a0that loosely follow\u00a0the top, bottom and\u00a0part-way up the hillsides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The trails are almost exclusively singletrack with really nice flow.\u00a0\u00a0There are also plenty of undulations in the trails so\u00a0wither you are\u00a0going up\u00a0or down the gulch you will get to do some grunting as well as some grinning.\u00a0\u00a0 It is just a matter of the ratios between\u00a0the two\u00a0depending which direction you are going.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0I started out climbing up the southside of the gulch on one of the hillside trails.\u00a0\u00a0 There were quite a few grunting sections as well as some tight turns.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was all good by me as I was digging the loamy soil as well as the\u00a0greenery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Even though the flora has not broken out of winter mode yet, it was still pretty.\u00a0 I had lots of oppurtunites to take it all in as there were numerous intersections were it was purdent to look around before moving on.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0I avoiding descending too much as I made my way up the gulch.\u00a0 There are several trails that short cut between the high trails and the low trails.\u00a0 It was on these short cut trails were I saw the\u00a0remenants of a few hucker projects.\u00a0\u00a0 None of them showed much recent use and\u00a0mother nature was working hard to reclaim them.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0When I got to the top of the gulch I cruised along a few trails before I popped out into an open area and HOLY CRAP I could see my hotel. Sweeeeeeeet!\u00a0\u00a0 Now I could drop into the gulch from almost right out my front door.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With this most killer info locked in my head I started back down on the other side of the gulch.<\/p>\n

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There were just as many twists, turns an general flowy goodness on this side of the gulch.\u00a0\u00a0 My daylight was starting to dwindle so I spent less time exploring and more time heading down.\u00a0 I passed a couple of bailout\u00a0trails were I could have dropped down to the railroad tracks and zipped right down the trailhead.\u00a0\u00a0 Even with the threat of darkness rising, I was not in enough of a hurry to pass up singletrack.\u00a0\u00a0 I ended up bobing, weaving and undulating my way back down to the trailhead on proper singletracks and arrived back at the car in the twilight.\u00a0 An afternoon well spent in my book.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The general consenus is that San Diego weather guessers have it pretty easy.\u00a0 Sunny with temps in the mid-60s to mid-70s will be correct 75% of the year so we don’t attract the best and brightest weather folks.\u00a0 It\u00a0must be the same in Seattle except the standard prediction\u00a0is going to be\u00a0cool and\u00a0gloomy with a good chance of rain.\u00a0\u00a0 So was the predications for Seattle on\u00a0Thursday.\u00a0\u00a0 First thing\u00a0in morning it was indeed cool and gloomy.\u00a0\u00a0 By lunchtime however, the weather turned pretty good with sunshine and brisk but not cold temps.\u00a0 AKA Great!\u00a0\u00a0 I knew what I would be doing after work.<\/p>\n

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Within 15 minutes of getting back to the hotel room, I was out the door and on the bike.\u00a0 A few minutes later and I am on my freshly found trail from the day before and\u00a0headed back into Japanese Gulch.\u00a0 Since I had rushed through the north side of the gulch the day before, I explored my way down the gulch this time.\u00a0\u00a0 At intersections I would often take all the turns figure out were they went and\u00a0doubleback to try the other directions.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a good time for sure.<\/p>\n

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Once I made my way to the bottom of the gulch I started climbing up the other side, but this time I took\u00a0different\u00a0trails than the day before.\u00a0 I was digging the quality singletrack out here and the amount of it.\u00a0 I has missed some\u00a0good chunks of stuff the day before.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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By the time I made it to the top of the gulch again\u00a0my daylight was waning.\u00a0 \u00a0I did not have enough light for another run down the gulch so I cruised back to the hotel.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0With the exception of a few built up stunts, my 6.6 is\u00a0way more bike than is needed out here.\u00a0 So I pay\u00a0a little extra on the climbs, good trails are good trails and these goodies are rightout my front door.\u00a0 This will not be my last ride here.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Simpson Park in Hemet, CA<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Getting a little Iron in my diet.<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>