Getting to trail 263 proved to be interesting, found that mother nature decided FR23 needed to go a different direction than it had previously. The road was simply gone for ~100 yards or so. Bikes had an easy way around thanks to the treed area, but there's no way a vehicle was getting by. We scouted for a way down to the river and across as the trail head was on the other side. Found the easiest spot to cross and then started into the unknown.
The first section of 263 is outstanding, some of it's fast and flowing and some of it cuts along the edge of where a stream flows to the river. After crossing that stream though, she starts to climb and proved to be a heck of a challenge in a couple switch backs. I ended up on my arse two times trying to make a switch back lefter, took a good beating and just about wiped myself out making it past that damn thing...lol. Unfortunately, we pretty much killed our buddy Aron. He'd been having issues with his throttle arm (elbow) and this trail didn't do that injury any good. The good news is we made it to the top where 263 intersects with Juniper Ridge (261), just took a bit longer than originally anticipated...lol.
Al and Aron were spent after the fun of 263, so they decided to hit the bail-out off trail 1 back to the road. Like fools, Jim and I figured another 9 miles of trail 1 wouldn't be too bad to get us back to camp, so we headed that way. The carrot of cold beers, whisky, and good grub made it wall worth it. We logged 38 miles for the day, not a bad day ride for the Giff.
