The Residual Sugar

For ten years we've looked out our living room window at the modest range of mountains that separates the Gooseneck drainage from the Mill Creek drainage. I spend most of my riding time up there on a variety of dirt roads. I can get to the top of Dorn Peak and home in a couple hours and know I've done a couple thousand feet of hard climbing. For years it hasn't been much more than a suffer-fest. I never thought there was much to look at except my front tire. It's basically plantation ecosystems in various states of harvest or restoration. Pretty to look at from a distance but the charm seems to fall off fast when you're up there.

When you go on a hike, you almost certainly follow a trail. That trail exists to take you someplace lovely. When you take a mountain bike on a trail established for riding, you get to go fast through challenging terrain that provides a different but in many ways equally rewarding experience defined as much by movement as scenery. When you …