Clueless at Farringtons!

It was a hot day but not unpleasant--my goal today was to finally get up to and ride all the great upper trails in Farringtons. I had done mucho hiking back in the winter to get familiar with trail system and GPS a few things for Trailforks but I never rode the upper trails,

Truth be told, this pudgy old man ended up shamefully hike-a-biking a lot and even got lost but nevertheless, its a fantastic place and the upper trails are truly awesome.

After a long and arduous climb up the single track that FCNEMBA built years ago (I was on that build!) I took a long breather at this spot. The climb exhausted me and my chain keep slipping which made things worse, But at least up until now - no other bikers witnessed this turtle (moi!)

Nothing special about this view except that its past the climb!

Once I neared Farringtons Lake, a cool breeze off the water was most welcome!

 Looks kinda like a "4"

After many rest stops :-( , I made it to Devils Den (see video at end) - it was awesome! Its hard to tell from this photo but its a 30 foot drop behind that flat rock in front. I'm thinking this might be a neat place to play my Native American flute.

Descending from the heights of Devils Den requires a bomb down this rock staircase. This old man walked it (I squawked like a chicken while gingerly hiking down it to shame myself!)

 At the western end of Devils Den looking up a it

I finally stopped to mark the location of the States marker (photo taken back in March).

(short video - scenic highlights)

Ah yes - the clueless part of this trek....

Well I was exhausted and was getting even hotter so I was anxious to hightail it home. I rode quite a few trails in the middle of the park and thought I was making my way south but didn't really recognize the trails I was riding on. It turns out the place looks completely different with all the verdant summer undergrowth so much that I was actually clueless as to where I was.

Finally I chatted with a biker (Alex) who explained that yes I had no idea where I was going and was actually heading back north in the wrong direction and still on the far western side of the park - duh! So I took his advice and went the way he was going and only after turning on the GPS and using the Trailforks map app did I realize where the hell I was. It was a long trek out. I actually had to ride north for quite a bit to catch the down and out trail. Well once I got on the downhill section that eventually merged with the old carriage road - I bombed it as fast as I could!  Trailforks saved me!