Osborn Ridge Running

	Osborn Ridge Running Sunday, October 9, 2011 Today, we went on a trip up the Buster Road trail, past New Eldorado creek, up to the ridge above it, and went ridge running south back to Osborn Creek. This particular ridge running was new ground for us. The blue dots are the Buster trail, which leads north to the start of the Ridge running we did -- in red dots. This USGS map was produced by a "gtopo", a Linux software program by Tom Trebisky. The map itself was further edited with "gimp" (like Photoshop for Linux) which sized it, cropped it, added text and dots.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews My German Shepherd, Sydney, leading three of the riders, Arnie Ashenfelter in the rear, Doctor Derek Leedy in the middle, and myself in front. Keith is not in this picture: he is the photographer.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews My Shepherd Sydney comes up to investigate Keith, the picture taker.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Endless miles of Willow tunnels like these are a highlight, or perharps the curse, of the Buster trail.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Keith Andrews, the photographer.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Frozen scapes. Cold up here in the mountains, even in early October.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Motion frozen in time. Seven months before it moves again!
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews That's the ridge we want to go to! It overlooks the New Eldorado Creek, the Willow Tunnels and ends up back in Osborn creek.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Keith's trusty 2-wheel drive Honda 300.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Ramon crosses a little frozen rill.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Up on the ridge, Arnie Ashenfelter investigates an interesting rock formation. We later dubbed this "Alaska Rock" because it looks like a map of Alaska, stuck into the ground sideways. Very distinctive. From there you can look east and see the whole Flambeau River country. This is "Hill 1270" on the map.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Sometimes the going is rough! We skirted this rockpile.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Up on top, one of us is ridge running. Glorious riding indeed!
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Looking down from the ridge. The plainly visible river is Osborn Creek. Notice at the right of the picture it forks. That is Cuss Creek (see map above). This picture is taken just as we were starting the descent from the ridge to Osborn Creek.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Arnie and Keith.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews Bear sign. We saw a lot of these. This was sticky, warm and steamy. But, we did not espy the bear.
	Copyright © 2011, Keith Andrews We descended from the ridge and came down on Osborn Creek. Here is Dr. Leedy taking a well deserved rest. This is at a lower elevation. The river is flowing, but the ponds and sloughs are already covered with a thin layer of ice. RETURN TO XALASKA.COM

Osborn Ridge Running

Sunday, October 9, 2011