News Tribune Adventure writer and novice cyclist Craig Hill is training to ride the 202-mile Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic in one day and discovering the local riding scene and the sport’s nuances along the way. In his blog, he explores ideal riding routes, events, relays tips from the experts and helps you figure out if you’ll need to shave your legs for your next big ride.
Guest blogger: Rick Beitelspacher teaches junior high English in the Puyallup School District. You can contact him at tshirtguys@comcast.net.
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Banner Forest near Port Orchard is a great place to spend a few hours on your mountain bike - if you can find the place.
The web of trails is well known among locals, but if you've never been there getting good directions can be tough. First timers who get their directions from the web natoriously get lost on their first trip.
I found this out the hard way earlier this week when I visited the trail three friends. We followed the bad directions from usually dependable DirtWorld.com. Apparently, these faulty directions have made their way to other mountain biking websites. We ended up driving past Trophy Lake Golf Course about half way to the Pacific Ocean, before we realized we were heading in the wrong direction. After s stop at the golf course for updated directions and we finally found the trailhead.
We rode for about 90 minutes on trails with names ranging from the inviting ("Donald Duck") to the intimidating ("Pulverizer") before an injury to the youngest member of our party - 14-year-old Luigi Devereux of Puyallup - forced us to call it a day.
The trails are well worth the drive from Tacoma or Puyallup, even though you won't find much that is super technical.
IF YOU GO, USE THE DIRECTIONS BELOW REGARDLESS OF WHAT ELSE YOU READ.
DIRECTIONS TO BANNER FOREST
- From Highway 16 take the Sedgwick Exit.
- Drive EAST on Sedgwick for six miles.
- Turn RIGHT on Banner Road.
- The trailhead is marked on your right after about a mile.
