Once upon a time, there was a nice road that led up the Liumchen area, all the way to the Liumchen Ecological Preserve.
After many winters of rain, the unmaintained road was washed out pretty badly and getting to the area was "problematic" for an unskilled rider like myself.
Fast forward to recently and the road has been rebuilt by the logging companies. I got the intel from an old hiking acquaintance, and since I was off work early today, I decided to scope out the area for myself.
As I drove up the hill, I thought back to the last time I was up here....at first I thought it was 2006, but then I remembered that someone with some heavy equipment had "graded" the road about 5 or 6 years ago. Nonetheless, this particular hill and I have some history, but I won't get into it...it's a long story.
Soon, I reach the first switchback with a decent view.
Cultus Lake would be to the extreme left, behind that knoll in the foreground.
Some staged TW porn...she looks funny with the Double-Take mirrors, but at least I can see!
The road continues to climb and climb...I navigate dozens of cross-ditches. Soon, the "new" road ends and the old one picks up where it left off. It was downright ugly in places.
I didn't want to stop to take any pictures on the way up, and lose my momentum...so I thought I'd get some on the way down, but it was so slick and icy that I was afraid to stop in places...so there are no pictures showing how bad the road is.
Slick and icy? Yeah...I found the snowline.
Now, every puddle I cross is frozen solid. In some places, the water has run down the middle of the road, creating a ditch of ice...making my way through that was interesting. Coming back DOWN that was even more "fun".
Eventually, things level off and I am riding along the edge of the mountain...and I find the small pond that I visited back in 2006.
When I last saw this, was in the summer and the pond was home to several large salamanders. I took a series of photos, hoping to stitch them together as a panorama of this quaint pond and the surrounding mountainside, but something went wrong with the camera (probably too cold) and I didn't notice until I was off-loading the pictures at home...so no pano, either!
Directly behind me is a viewpoint to the valley below...
...and there is a small waterfall that drains the pond...
Funny how an area can look SO different between seasons.
A bit further down the road, any water seeping through the rocks has frozen into icicles...
On my way back down now, this spot has the best view of the valley below. From here, I am actually looking down on some family!
The Cheam range peeking out from behind Elk mountain.
The "road" to the left goes uphill, to the Ecological Preserve...I am going downhill to the right.
This area is at 49.039399° -121.858096° of Google Earth, if you want a closer look.
After many winters of rain, the unmaintained road was washed out pretty badly and getting to the area was "problematic" for an unskilled rider like myself.
Fast forward to recently and the road has been rebuilt by the logging companies. I got the intel from an old hiking acquaintance, and since I was off work early today, I decided to scope out the area for myself.
As I drove up the hill, I thought back to the last time I was up here....at first I thought it was 2006, but then I remembered that someone with some heavy equipment had "graded" the road about 5 or 6 years ago. Nonetheless, this particular hill and I have some history, but I won't get into it...it's a long story.
Soon, I reach the first switchback with a decent view.
Cultus Lake would be to the extreme left, behind that knoll in the foreground.
Some staged TW porn...she looks funny with the Double-Take mirrors, but at least I can see!
The road continues to climb and climb...I navigate dozens of cross-ditches. Soon, the "new" road ends and the old one picks up where it left off. It was downright ugly in places.
I didn't want to stop to take any pictures on the way up, and lose my momentum...so I thought I'd get some on the way down, but it was so slick and icy that I was afraid to stop in places...so there are no pictures showing how bad the road is.
Slick and icy? Yeah...I found the snowline.
Now, every puddle I cross is frozen solid. In some places, the water has run down the middle of the road, creating a ditch of ice...making my way through that was interesting. Coming back DOWN that was even more "fun".
Eventually, things level off and I am riding along the edge of the mountain...and I find the small pond that I visited back in 2006.
When I last saw this, was in the summer and the pond was home to several large salamanders. I took a series of photos, hoping to stitch them together as a panorama of this quaint pond and the surrounding mountainside, but something went wrong with the camera (probably too cold) and I didn't notice until I was off-loading the pictures at home...so no pano, either!
Directly behind me is a viewpoint to the valley below...
...and there is a small waterfall that drains the pond...
Funny how an area can look SO different between seasons.
A bit further down the road, any water seeping through the rocks has frozen into icicles...
On my way back down now, this spot has the best view of the valley below. From here, I am actually looking down on some family!
The Cheam range peeking out from behind Elk mountain.
The "road" to the left goes uphill, to the Ecological Preserve...I am going downhill to the right.
This area is at 49.039399° -121.858096° of Google Earth, if you want a closer look.