For as long as I’ve been riding on the North Shore, the gravel road that is the main access to trails on Mt. Fromme has been measured in switchbacks. Not kilometers, not elevation gain, not elevation gain over a number of kilometers but switchbacks. Switchbacks with significant variance in length and elevation gain. As a unit of measurement, they obey no laws known to humankind. 

Now, when it comes to locals, this is handy and there are universal understandings. For example, 7th Secret is on the corner of the 7th switchback. If we’re riding up to Executioner then we’re going to the corner of the 6th and if it’s a quick Kirkford lap then we’re just popping up to the corner of the 3rd. Easy stuff. But trying to truly explain to someone who has only ridden their bike as high as say Expresso, around the midpoint of the 5th switchback, how much further they have to climb to reach the corner of the 7th is nigh impossible. It simply has to be experienced.

The highest that The Clairebarian had previously climbed on the road was a trail called Lower Oil Can and she had girded herself well to pedal to that point, the threshold of the next new beyond if you will. Head down, standing to pedal but coasting to nowhere, it was halfway between there and 7th Secret that the distance set in. That 5th switchback is a long one and the way the road flattens out after the corner of the 6th tends to expose tired legs and backs rather than flatter a rider’s remaining fitness. 

Getting over that threshold and riding yourself to 7th for the first time isn’t easy. And, actually, for many folks, subsequent times are even harder. There’s a genuine barrier somewhere between Expresso or LOC and trails that are higher. 

In my experience, it doesn’t really matter how many times I pedal over that barrier, the threshold remains until I find a new threshold that in relative terms makes the previous step seem less consequential. The best way to properly thrash a threshold is to discover a new harder one that I struggle to drag myself over. Claire feels the same way. Maybe it’s like that for everyone?

If it’s tricky to explain the seven switchbacks of Fromme to someone for the first time, the No Quarter climb is another galaxy altogether.  “Is it like Penny Lane and Good Sir Martin?” No. “Is it like Sobo No Michi?” No. “Mushroom climb?” No. “Big Trouble In Little Chainring?” Sort of! Even having climbed up the Skid Road section to the Baden Powell a number of times doesn’t really prepare a rider for what’s next.

Dig deep and pedal your mind, legs, and mountain bicycle to the top of No Quarter, and even then it’s not an easy thing to come out and explain to another rider. You’ve either done it or not. And once you’ve done it, it’s the new threshold until you do something harder. I ask Claire if she figures our next trip up No Quarter will be easier or harder now that she knows what to expect. It turns out we’re going to have to ride it again to confirm.