The Day We Worshiped the Devil

Before getting into the particulars it’s pretty safe to say the ride they call “Devil’s Gulch” is absolutely and positively off the hook and WAY off the reservation. And I never even use those expressions. Overall it’s a 25-mile loop consisting of a continuous 3200ft climb over a 12-mile fire road and then a ridiculous decent full of tight switchbacks, razor sharp edges with 300ft drops, multiple creek crossings, straight-a-ways on hard packed soil for speed, speed, speed, and an overgrown forested section with winding moves that would remind you of something out of Return of the Jedi.

The trail is located in Cashmere, WA. We appropriately played the same-title Led Zeppelin song on the way. At the trail head we got a pep talk from 3 local riders that were sucking down some Budweiser (The Red, White and Blue as one of them said) after their final decent. One looked just like Bono. The Edge was not there. They gave us good advice about directions…take a right at the low parking lot, take a hard right at the cattle fence, rub some sticks together for good luck, etc. So we took off up the fire road and yes, missed our first turn. We ended up getting to a fork in the road and as it turned out not supposed to take either. Luckily a couple of riders showed up and smacked our asses around and got us pointed in the right direction. Apparently the expensive GPS devices Chad and Tony had were not so valuable…

Heads down grinding it out, trying to keep a 5mph pace, took 2 minute breaks every 1000 vertical feet or so. At the top ready for our decent it was like riding through a Japanese flower garden with a smattering of wild flowers at an alpine elevation. The downhill portions were controlled chaos…techy and fast at the same time…incredible! Longer distances between stops on the way down…we rode with big grins on our face, eyes bulging out of our heads, scenery abound but can’t take our eyes off the trail…for safety of course!

We each took turns busting out our Spielberg skillz riding ahead and snapping pics and video.

At the bottom we crossed the bridge we started at, fist pumps, let’s get dinner.