Dragon's Back, Betty, Belt, Etc.

Saturday I rode up Dragon's Back and it's in great condition. I cleaned the steep, rocky bottom portion for the first time. There are a couple of wet spots at the top, just before the junction with the Alta Aqueduct Road. It's cool how this once doubletrack trail is slowly filling in as singletrack. I love how this climb has 5 or 6 steep pitches, each followed by a flat that allows you to barely recover before the next climb.

I then made my way over to Betty:

The horses have chewed up Betty pretty good on the steeper spots and it was still wet (but not mucky) on the north facing downhill slopes.

Here's the junction of Betty and the Belt Route:

I didn't expect to get very far and so I was surprised I made it to the top without a problem. Near the high spot on the Belt Route, icy snow patches start to block one side of the trail, but the other half was rideable thanks to the sponge effect provided by the leaves, grass and deer droppings (I think the deer really like this trail).

Once on the downhill side, it dried out again until the section where you wind through the dense scrub oak prior to linking up with Frank. Then the trail was swallowed up by 1-2 ft. of snow and lots of drooping-onto-the-trail scrub oak. I ran into another guy later in the day who took Betty all the way to the Altar without problems, so I think that's the way to go to the Altar until the Belt Route dries out.