Hello GRiT community, We are very sad to announce that GRiT 2023 is canceled and refunds are being issued. Details below.
We are planning an informal ride and some fun social vibes in the Teanaway on 6/24 instead.
We are working on a new, epic gravel event in late July or early August. Stay tuned.
What happened?
When we opened registration in December for the GRiT Teanaway we didn’t expect any problems given that we were doing the same course with the same plans as last year. The most important permit we were seeking (covering key sections of the course) was with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) going through the Teanaway Community Forest (TCF). We worked all winter to secure the permit but ultimately were turned down by the DNR.
We are disappointed and we are very sorry for this cancelation. We are hopeful that the GRiT Teanaway will return next year. If you have inroads with the DNR and would like to help, please let us know.
What’s happening in Cle Elum the weekend of 6/24?
We are leading an informal ride in the Teanaway on 6/24 and are planning some social events to make sure you can connect with your people.
The ride starts at 9am from Dru Bru in Cle Elum
Post-ride beers and pizza at Dru Bru
This is a no-cost, informal event. No timing or registration, just fun in the Teanaway.
We are working on a new, epic adventure for you in late July or early August. We will update everyone as things progress. Join our mailing list or follow us on Instagram or Facebook to stay abreast of the latest.
The GRiT, a bad idea that just keeps going, is back for 2023! This year we are going to make a bet that spring isn’t so cold and move up a couple of weeks to June 24th. We are also moving to Saturday so that folks can
Enjoy their epic accomplishment and party in town
Spend more time in the beautiful central Cascades
We hope to offer some further course improvements and rest stop fun. The course markings will be dramatically better as well.
Stay tuned for details. We didn’t learn our lesson and we hope you didn’t either!
The Department of Natural Resources is requiring us to have you sign their waiver. Please print, sign and bring to registration this weekend. We will have copies for you to sign, but if you do so in advance you might get an extra hug.
Whether you chose the GRiT, the GRiT L or the GRiT XL you’re going to face steep climbing and rough descents. The climbs are long, with grades touching twenty percent, and several descents are either studded with baby heads or contain soft sand. When it comes to choosing a rig for this event error on the side of low gearing and wide tires.
Can I Ride My Cyclocross Bike on This Course?
The quick answer is yes. The L course has been ridden on a cross bike with 35mm tires and 34-34 gearing (double ring up front). It should be noted that the rider is an extremely strong climber and an expert mountain biker. 35mm is narrow for this course, and many cross bikes don’t accommodate wider tires. One way to get around this is to fit your bike with 650B wheels. On my cross bike any 700c tire wider than 33mm will rub on the chainstay, but if I switch to 650B I can roll 40mm wide rubber.
Should I Ride My Mountain Bike on This Course?
Active suspension is not needed on this course, but the weight of a suspension fork may pay for itself on faster downhill times. If you are a strong climber and a fast descender of technical terrain a hardtail mountain bike is a good choice. There is no need for a full suspension rig, but if that’s what you have ride what you got.
How About a Gravel Bike?
This is a gravel course and it’s been ridden by numerous riders on various gravel rigs. As a generalization I’m going to say that the riders with the lowest gears and the widest tires fared best. As with the cyclocross bike, a switch to 650Bs and wider tires is a solid choice. I recently rode the L course on my gravel rig with 42mm tires and 42-46 gearing. I had a tough day, and felt that I could have used more tire and lower gearing.
Here is a photo of Rick’s adventure gravel bike
Is There Another Option?
Yes. I’ve ridden all or significant parts of this course on a mountain bike, a fat bike, a gravel bike and what I call my “adventure” bike. The adventure bike is a 2011 Yeti ARC retrofitted with a rigid fork, drop bars and 650B wheels. The bike has old school triple up front ultra-low gearing and 2.1” wide tires. This is my preferred bike for this course. During our recent pre-ride a friend rolled up on a Specialized Epic with a rigid fork, drop bars and 29”X2.1” tires – an ideal rig for this course. This type of ride, known as “monster gravel,” “gravel plus” or “adventure gravel,” is becoming popular as gravel riders begin to push the technical boundaries.
Whatever bike you chose, and whatever course you pick, GriT is going to be a challenge. A rewarding challenge, a beautiful challenge, but a challenge nonetheless. I wish you the best of luck and I’ll see you Sunday July 10th.
With the snow receding and the temperatures warming my buddy Dan and I decided to drive from Seattle to Cle Elum in order to ride the GRiT L course. Course meister Erik has put together a challenging route, and despite having ridden much of it in a piece-by-piece fashion I had yet to link it all up into one continuous ride.
Before I get started let me share a few route facts:
Distance:47 miles – 40 miles off-pavement
Total Elevation: 6000’ distributed over three major climbs
Technical Difficulty: High – steep climbs/descents, water bar and stream crossings
I rode my monster gravel rig: a 2011 Yeti ARC retrofitted with drop bars a rigid fork and 650B wheels with 2.1” Teravail Rutlands. Dan rode a Specialized Diverge with 700cX38mm gravel tires.
Dan and I rolled out of the expansive Dru Bru parking at mid-morning. After a mile and a half on pavement we turned onto gravel and soon we were on the first climb of the day. I’ve been up this road a few times now and I’ve come to call it “Granny Gear Hill.” The road surface is buff – totally drivable, even in a minivan – but it’s steep. Basically this is your good old-fashioned mountain bike ascent route (mountain bikers use it to access the Teanaway classic Rat Pack).
We crested Granny Gear Hill at mile six, where we took a few photos of a snow enshrined Mt Steward before turning right and dropping towards the West Fork of the Teanaway River. The descent is steep, rutted and potentially sandy. I say “potentially” because Dan and I were riding the day after a large thunderstorm and the old road cut was packed like beach sand, but as the ground dries this section will become deep and loose. A critical right-hand turn leads into the forest from where a decommissioned road leads to some flowy single-track. Be careful here as there are (I think) three log crossings. The logs are less than ten inches in diameter and partially buried, no problem for a mountain bike, but unless you’re confident I suggest walking a gravel rig. From there it was a coast all the way to Illahee Campground, which is located at the end of the paved section of the West Fork Road. On event day this will be the location of Aid Station #1.
The next ten miles of the course are fairly cruiser on a dirt/gravel road leading to the Middle Fork Road (careful there might be a few cars/trucks here) and the Indian Camp trailhead (note that riders doing the regular GRiT route will turn approximately a mile short of Indian Camp). The yellow gate marks the beginning of the second big climb. The road is drivable (maybe not by a minivan) albeit rutted in places. Once on top we were rewarded with some nice south gazing views.
The next five miles – a steady descent to the Teanaway River Road – is crux of the route. The descent follows a long-ago abandoned roadbed with as few as two and possibly as many as five hike-a-bike sections. The road has been bisected by numerous water bars, most of which are deep and steep; best to pass these at the edge of the old road. At Camp Lake the trail rolls through some tall grass that can obscure the trail a bit, but don’t worry continue straight you’ll pick up the trail soon enough. Camp Lake is more meadow than lake and as we rode through the waving grass, a mule deer looked up from her grazing, gave us a good look and then gently bound in the direction of the surrounding forest.
After Camp Lake be careful of three stream cro/”ssings that have been lined with baseball-sized ballast rock. The larger rocks have the potential to tear up tires and break rims so a little prudence here is advisable. After passing around a yellow gate and crossing the North Fork of the Teanaway River we hit the pavement at the Twenty Nine Pines Campground (location of GRiT Aid Station #2). After all of the hard-earned miles it was pleasant to roll a few miles on smooth tarmac. A right turn onto the West Fork Road returned us to the Ilahee Campground.
From here the route retraces itself: what was down is now up and what was up is now down. The climb is tough, but like all tough things you put one pedal in front of the other, keep going forward and soon enough you’ll be looking at a sweet descent.
The drop of Granny Gear Hill is fast and smooth. This is a deceptively dangerous section of the course as it’s tempting to really open it up, but be careful of sharp curves and loose gravel. It’s best to ride within one’s abilities here.
Dan and I returned to the car feeling like we’d had a full day. This is a “gravel adventure.” The course reminded me of what we used to ride on our, Ritcheys, Stumpjumpers and Trek 990s back in the late eighties and early nineties. The challenge of this course is not in its length, but in its climbing and technical difficulty. While putting the route together we’ve come to realize that there isn’t an easy way through the Teanaway, but what it takes in effort it gives back double in natural beauty and the bliss that comes from spending a day in the mountains.
There are three distances, Medium, Large, and XL. We rode the L course and although it’s just over 45 miles, this was a full day and took us almost five hours at a moderate pace with just a few short stops to take pictures and to check the route at intersections.
At 9:00 AM Greg Kauper, John Phillips, Nikos Mills and I started out on this “lollipop” course.
The hard parts of this course are the three major climbs.
The first one comes right out of the gate and is heading out on the stick of the lollipop and was super steep so I never had the energy to take my hands off the bars to take a picture. 🙂
The second one is in the first half of the loop/body of the lollipop and is not quite as steep and is a little smoother (fewer washboard) too.
The third climb is the return trip on the stick of the lollipop and is the most fun. Assuming you still have the energy to enjoy it of course. And assuming it’s not a really dry day would turn this climb into a giant sandbox. Greg described our conditions as “hero sand” which it really was. It had rained some in the previous days so we had awesome traction and never spun our rear wheels.
The fun parts of this course are:
The first descent. So good! You head down a short stretch of dirt road and then turn right into the woods. From here to the bottom it’s mostly doubletrack, singletrack, and FUN. You are also in the woods so it’s not quite as exposed as the rest of the course. At the bottom of this descent, you cross a creek which is a good source of water in case you need it. I do recommend filtering.
The second descent. Even better! Is that possible…?! The first part is steep but then it’s mostly gradual with lots of water bars, tiny creek crossings, eroded trails, and lush green meadows. You really need to pay attention here as some of the dips and bumps are bigger than you think so don’t let it rip.
The views! If the skies are clear, you can see for miles in every direction.
The dangerous parts of this course are:
All the water troughs. Be careful as you approach these as some only have a very narrow section of rideable trail that goes around them and some will require you to get off and walk your bike as the transition at the bottom of the trough is too sudden to ride.
The last descent! Be warned, this is very steep and you’ll be tempted to let go of the brakes on the straight sections but each corner invariable has some washboards and my heart rate spiked more than once when my rear tired locked up as I got air off of a bump. Also, the last part of the descent is paved so you feel like you have ultimate traction but some of the corners are sharp. Watch out.
This is truly a ride for a GoPro. Too bad I left mine at home. 🙁 Here are some of the highlights.
One of the many creeks we crossed.
One of the more aggressive “dips” in the trail.
“Now where does that trail go again…? The route says straight ahead.”
Bike porn.
Getting some water before the last climb.
Singletrack baby! It’s not just for mountain bikes anymore.
Gearing – I used a 42/52 low gear and would not want to try this course with anything bigger. I run a 1x drivetrain with a 42-tooth chainring and a 10-52 cassette.
Tires – I ran 650x48mm Rene Herse Switchback Hill tires at 25 psi and would recommend at least 45mm tires. There were four of us, two others had 650×2.1″ tires and one had 700x38mm tires but 1) our pace was only moderate and 2) this person’s rims are wide and 3) we had perfect conditions/traction. If it’s hot and dry 38mm tires will get swallowed by the sand. Or you’ll flat. Or it will be an incredibly uncomfortable day in the saddle.
I only carried two large bottles but filled one before the last climb. One of us drank two big bottles and a 70oz reservoir they carried on their back. If it’s hot, bring a filter and perhaps bring a third bottle or pack.
I almost never take my fenders off but for this ride, I kept bending the front one when I tried to ride over logs. My front tire would clear the log but then the lower part of the fender would catch it and bend back. 🙁 I recommend not using fenders for this ride because of all the obstacles even though it’s nice to keep the mud off. Or just walk your bike over every log.
Rick Heckenlaible and I did a modified version of the GRiT L course yesterday. BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front), it’s hard. Hard enough that I punted on going back up and over Cle Elum ridge to get back to the start and instead rode down Teanaway on the pavement with tail firmly between legs which was still difficult due to head winds all the way back to the start. The climbs are harder than my still recovering knee could take which forced me to get off and walk multiple times on the 2 main climbs.
Both Rick and I were riding drop bar, hard tail MTB’s with 2.1″ XC type MTB tires and my gearing is 34-46. Rick’s is well under 1:1 too. I would not have turned down an even smaller front chainring.
There were a wide variety of conditions between really smooth gravel, single track, sandy and muddy sections, multiple dismounts for small creek crossings (feet dry), grassy meadows where the route nearly disappears, rutted erosion channels, erosion control ditches (both the fun catch air type and a LOT of the “I will kill you” over-the-bar type that have a single path around one end).
Tons of great viewpoints to be had everywhere. Really a unique and interesting course.
