Bracken to the Cicero Bridge~

To the Cicero Bridge!

I'd made another plan...  Driving home from Darrington last weekend, we did a little exploring.  Checking a couple side roads & finding the trail, it looked like I might be able to ride from Cloverdale - to the newly decked Cicero bridge.  Today - even though we got a late start, I thought we might just have time to give it a try!

A trail goes through it~

I was the only trailer at the Bracken parking.  That made me just a little nervous, but I locked everything up & just had to hope for the best.  I'd though about leaving from Haller - but decided if I could mitigate any of the going on rock - I would.  I was thankful later that I'd made that decision!

Bridge #2, first east from Tin Bridge

 It wasn't long before we were at the first of the newly decked bridges, where we'd stopped to turn back last week.  I had hoped that the trail would be less rocky from here on - more like the way it is when you leave from the Darrington end - but I was mistaken.

The rock was heavy~

The rock, as you can see from the photo above, was very heavy.  That kept us to a walk in most places...

This section is close to the river~

It's a really pretty section - along the very low river.  After last nights heavy rain, everything was pretty wet.  The weather went from heavy overcast, to brilliant, warm sunshine several times during the afternoon.

Road crossing~

Soon - we were at the first of the road crossings.  Butch & I had found a fishing spot at the end.  It's narrow, with a blind corner - keep an eye for on-coming traffic!

Beautiful Views~

We were at six-miles, it was getting late, so I called Butch & told him we'd probably go on another 1/2 mile or so then turn back.

Bridge #2 eastbound

But, that was when we came to the second bridge & I just had a feeling that it couldn't be that much further to our goal - so we continued on.

One more stretch of trail~

I could just see traffic up ahead & knew if we were coming to the highway crossing, the Cicero bridge would be on the far side!

It was!  But it was being worked on!

Going across the highway was challenging.  There's a good line-of-sight both directions, so we just waited until it was all clear & ran across.  Once we'd stopped to get the photo of Cicero, we turned back west.

Crossing back across~

This time, we again waited for the traffic & made our little run.  It's wide because of a bus stop on both sides.

Heading back~

Heading back, the views of the river are so pretty.  Soon the noise of the traffic faded away & the only sounds were the birds in the trees & the river below.  A Coyote appeared about 100 yards ahead - then disappeared into the trees.

On Tin Bridge

Soon we were back to our bridge & back onto the trails.  We hustled back to the parking area & it was a relief to find the Bronco OK.  Our trip was just over 15-miles, it would be very close to the same if we'd left from Arlington I think.  With all the rock - I was glad for Farah's pads, but even so - it's a whole lot of rock...  Not a ride I'll do again soon - until the trail gets the top dressing material to solidify the rock surface.