this is Cleman Mountain also known as baby head hill and this is the most
infamous hill in the entire Washington backcountry discovery route
All right. So the idea here... The best way to get up a hill like this is to clear all the rocks out of your way
So you have a nice clean path...
No it's not.
Cleman Mountain is infamous because many a bike has met its fate here and
many a rider has fallen down and struggled. It catches people by surprise
from the bottom it looks very unassuming but this Hill is made out of lava rock
and it doesn't walk together it continues to move so going up the hill
that front end is gonna kick around the bike's going to kick around and many
riders aren't ready for that there's three steps to success on this
particular Hill first you got to have the right mindset when you get to the
bottom of this hill if you can't visualize yourself at the top if you're
not convinced you're gonna make it just turn around go around but that means you
have to go all the way back to the pavement cuz there's no work around in
the dirt for this particular Hill second part is make sure you know where you're
going park your bike down the hill walk up and
take a look at what it looks like it doesn't look like much from the bottom
but when you get up there you find out none of this stuff walks in it's rolling
around it's like riding on gravel but it's really big gravel the third part is
having the right skills and the right techniques sitting down on this hill is
not an option you need to be standing up and being neutral get forward on the
bike so that your hands are loose on the controls in the handlebars as you start
going up this hill your bikes gonna get really loose on these rocks these things
don't walk in your front ends gonna start moving left and right the back end
is gonna kick up and move off of things and you've got to be above the bike so
when it's moving you're independent of the motorcycle
you have to stay loose on the grip your your throttle hand you can't be holding
on really tight and being rough on it has to be very very smooth and you've
got to keep those two fingers of that clutch for your buffering power every
time that back wheel catches a rock and spits it out it ends up in midair when
that tire hits the ground you need to have already buffered power trimmed off
just enough so when that tire hits the ground it doesn't start spinning but it
keeps you moving forward if you stall and stop on this hill things only get
worse you've got to keep the forward motion keep your eyes at the top of the
hill anytime you look at something that's where you're gonna go and you
can't worry about looking at rocks on the hill the whole hill is made of rocks
what you're looking for is that notch that you can get your wheel into you're
looking for the rocks that are buried in deep that are predictable traction that
you know when you ride up and over them they're not going to move when your back
tire hits it that you're gonna keep forward driving forward momentum when
you get to the top there's a shelf of rocks here and they don't move at all
but it looks scary that's the best place to go because you can get up on that
shelf and you've got good control it's predictable you know what's gonna happen
and you can keep the drive going
now this Hill isn't for the faint of heart
and it's not an easy hill but there's got to be a first time if it's your
first time coming here bring somebody with you keep your bike light pull your
luggage off at the bottom of the hill make it easy for yourself and then haul
it back to the top any adventure bike can make it up this hill I'm running
Street tires I have street air pressure I did add a
little protection I've got the beefiest skid plate I can get on the bike
I've got interim protection and I've got guards so I don't accidentally break my
levers if something goes wrong in the end it's not the bike or the gear that
gets you to the top of this hill safely it's your knowledge it's your confidence
and it's your skill