Duck Farm Redux

Ride 17. Can you believe its been 11 days since I was on my bike last? Its this weather I tell ya.

Location: Vedder Mtn

Trails: Duck Farm Loop.

So while looking at the vmta.ca website I found a digital map of the Vedder trails confirming what the signs said. The Duck Farm trail can be rode as a loop. So with a layer of snow on everything, I decided today would be a good day to do some exploring. I loaded up the HT and I headed off to Chilliwack.

If you recall my previous route it involves a bunch of road riding, a nasty climb up an old rail line turned trail and a whole bunch of multi use pathway along the Vedder Canal. I was hoping that the loop route would eliminate that, and it sure did.

Before I was parking at the Vedder bridge, this time I parked at the East end of the Majuba Hill trail just east of Yarrow, across the old BC Electric rail line. From there you head up the trail. It is pretty easy to follow as it's marked with orange reflective tags nailed into the trees. Loading up at the truck I packed along an axe as I was planning to clear some of the branches off that fallen cedar tree, turns out a chainsaw beat me too it.

The axe turned out to be a major pain in the arse, as the handle stuck out past the top of my pack about 12 inches and I kept forgetting about it. Many a branch was snagged and I eventually got used to the snow falling down my back. The climb started out on an old grown in logging road/quad trail (even though everything is clearly marked as non-motorized use), then it switched to single track and that's where things got good.

The ride up took a little longer than my previous version, but it kept my tires on dirt (or snow in this case) the entire time. The only road portion is the 500m sprint from the end of the trail to where I parked. Once you neared the top the snow got to be about 3 to 4 inches thick, with a nice layer of frozen slush underneath. So that meant you where pushing, rather than riding up hill. That's when I came across this fellow. Unfortunately he did not have any Tootsie Rolls.

That about sums up this ride. I am super stoked with this new route and am looking forward to trying it out once this white stuff eff's off. To finish, one more gratuitous bike shot.