I had a great ride on Chuckanut with the Marks today. We started on Old Fairhaven Parkway, rode out the Interurban to Larabbee State Park, and then climbed the Fragrance Lake Rd to Cleater, and from there to the top and the Double Black Diamond Trail.

Mark Belles lead on his totally rigid old Kona (his Jekyll is in the shop with a broken shock), and I followed with Mark Adriance bringing up the rear. Mark B. was riding exceptionally fine lines as we dove down through the upper drops, but just like coming down from Cutthroat Pass I was able to hang with him all the way. We took the first of the two scary steep faces (the one that comes in one long straight shot with big logs in the trench to the right) bam-bam and exited in the g-out to the right like we were on the same string. I heard Mark Adriance behind me click out to walk down the face with the comment, "too close to ski season." On the next scary steep face (the one that is actually a series of linked faces that twist steeply back and forth over roots, etc.), Mark's line was exceptional. It began with a dive to the right up and around a tree which gave him a straight fall line shot down the first part, where you need to have maximum tire bite because of the sharp, root strewn exit. Again I followed him like his shadow and we diced the drops in an exhilarating blur. This was the first time I rode all of Double Black Diamond without stopping or putting a foot down once. Big Day for Bruce.

Approximately 2300 verts. I ended up with 38,000 verts for the month of October, and 356,000 for the year so far.

Vert Quest chronicles "The Man Known As Mongo's" pursuit of the World Record for climbing on a mountain bike, 404,000 vertical feet, or the vertical equivalent of 13 sea-level-to-summit ascents of Mt. Everest during a 12 month period. Mongo's mountain bike climbing tricks are distilled in Mongo's Over-the-top Guide to Climbing.