Number 1 is the Ridge Trail; 2 is Miranda; 3 is the Upper Ridge Trail; 4 is Upper Bob's; 5 is Lower Bob's; 35 is the Kenoyer Connector; 37 is the Raymond Connector.

If you're riding on weekends or after work, don't worry. You can ride the Ridge Trail just like normal. But if you want to grab that sweet ride at 11 on Wednesday morning, try one of these three alternate routes, which are marked in blue on GalbraithMt.com's newly updated Map #1:

Alternate Route #1 -- the easiest (but not necessarily the best) route is the revised Miranda Connector, which now slogs through a great deal of mud-to-be before it dives into the woods and eventually rejoins the Ridge Trail, which mercifully is open all the way above the junction.

This route begins at the end of Birch St., just like usual if you were climbing the Ridge Trail, but immediately goes right down the new road into the housing development at the end of Birch St., and then left into the trees.

Alternate Route #2 -- The fastest way to the Middle Ridge Trail is the shorter of the two Raymond St. routes. To go Raymond, you start one block west of Birch at the end of Raymond St., where a mellow old trail leads you up the valley to the junction of the power line that marks the top of the Lower Ridge Trail.

If you want to ride the Middle and Upper Ridge Trail, you turn left here on the trail under the power line and climb steeply (hike-a-bike is involved) up to the ridge line where the Ridge Trail awaits.

If you go straight here, though, you enter another realm. The old trail winds on and on, sometimes in the creek bed, and sometimes not, until it eventually comes out on the track that separates Upper and Lower Bob's Trails. 

You turn left when you hit the gravel road. From here you can climb the gravel road that switchbacks to the top of the Ridge Trail, Upper Bob's, Cedar Dust the Family Fun Center, and the rest of the mountain.  

Alternate Route #3 -- A little more complicated to explain -- but fun and useful nonetheless -- is the Roland / Kenoyer route. It's also the fastest way to the South Side, and the North Side above the Ridge Trail.

Here's how: go to Roland St., which is one block west of Raymond and two blocks west of Birch, and follow it to the end. At the end of Roland you go right (the only way you can go), and proceed again to the end where a little stretch of trail brings you back onto pavement. Go 1/2 block to the T and roll left. Within a block you come to a gate. Go around it and then go left at the first intersection.

Almost immediately you hang a right into the Kenoyer Connector, which is a very sweet and often overlooked trail. This brings you to the Pipeline Rd., and eventually to the same switchbacked, gravel road climb that the long version of Alternate Route #2 -- the Raymond St. Route -- uses to intersect the top of the Ridge Trail and the rest of Galbraith.

Please see GalbraithMt.com's free Map #1 for more details. 

The Invisible Man rides the Big Gnarly shortly after the Middle Ridge Trail was logged. You can still get there via Alternate Routes #1 and the shorter version of #2.