Month: August 2010

After 4 years I have finally been able to ride the Mountain Populaire, a 100k ride starting in Issaquah and tackling many of the local hills. I’ve had a variety of conflicts over the past number of years but everything worked out this year. The ride starts climbing straight away with Zoo Hill, the steepest climb of the ride, so there’s essentially no warmup.

My new wheels worked well and climbing seemed a bit faster (as did descending). I did my usual mix of riding with people for some of the time and riding solo for the other half of the time.

The ride wasn’t as tough as I’d expected, some of the Native Planet loops are tougher, but it was still a nice day out.

Next up this weekend is a climb up Paradise with Native Planet.

I rode this weekly ride for the first time in about two years (my schedule at work these days doesn’t allow me to make it to this ride anymore).

It was great to be out tackling these familiar hills again. It’s a 25-30 mile loop depending on what hills we decide to tackle which basically involves blasting up a steep hill, regrouping at the top, descending quickly and repeating. The various climbs have evolved nicknames over the years with evocative names such as Deaththreat, Guillotine, and Goat Hill.

It’s a good group of strong climbers to ride with and a nice training ride. I’m looking forward to my new lighter wheels arriving next week so I can kit out the bike better for hills.

At the start

View North (Canada in the distance)

Who says steel is heavy

View south at the top

I hadn’t climbed Hurricane Ridge before and when I saw that the Native Planet group were heading up it on Saturday I decided to ferry/drive over to it and give it a go.

The ride to Hurricane Ridge takes you to 5200 feet above sea level in 17 miles from the park headquarters. It is one of Washington’s toughest climbs with switchbacks reminiscent of the French Alps.

I saw a couple of familiar faces on the ferry and we met up at the Visitor Center parking lot for the start of the drive. All told there were only 5 of us which was surprising given the gorgeous weather, clear blue skies and temperatures creeping up to the 90s.

The climb starts right away from the car park with some of the steeper pitches in the first 5 miles leading up to the park entrance. It took a little while for my legs to get into a climbing rhythm with no warm up and the other riders I was with were soon out of sight ahead. There were gorgeous views all the way up (it’s impressive just how far you can see from 5200 ft on a clear day, from Canada to Mt. Rainier).

At the summit

I had a leisurely stop at the top with a big plate of fries enjoying the view.

Then it was time for the fast descent back to the car. The first part of the descent was a bit sketchy with some cross winds but once I dropped down a bit into the tree line it was more stable and I was chasing down and passing cars on the way down.

This was a great ride, an SIR classic which hadn’t been run since 2005. The course was based around 3 volcanoes (Mt. St. Helens, Adams and Rainier) with 3 major climbs over 193 miles, all on low traffic forest roads in Gifford Pinchot National Park. What more can you ask for!

The ride started at 5am in Packwood which meant a 1am start in Seattle to drive down. There were around 45 people doing the ride and we started off in the dark with a relatively flat leg to the first control. I ended up in the front in a small group of about 5 people (which gradually reduced down to just two of us and for a time just me, not a usual position for me). Saw a number of elk running across the road as we went along but managed to avoid any collisions.

The first main climb was up Babyshoe Pass which had a 7 mile stretch of loose gravel at the top which was quite challenging on my 25 tires. I ended up in my granny gear seated for the whole climb to avoid spinning out. Quite a few people on wider tires passed me on the way to the top and I actually fell over at one stage after I’d stopped the bike and was trying to get it going again. Nothing like a slow topple over at 1 mph with an audience riding up behind you 🙂 Thankfully the bike was fine and I only had a minor scrape or two.

After the summit there was an even hairier descent in the gravel and dirt for about 3 miles before we reached smooth tarmac again. I took it pretty slow and was happy to reach pavement. One more bump in the road and then a great 15 mile descent to Trout Lake with a tailwind on smooth pavement with no traffic. Hung out on my aero bars and caught up with some other riders on the way down.

We arrived in Trout Lake just as a parade was going by the single cafe in the area. It took a while to get food as 45 riders streaming in overwhelmed the single cook but it was fun to actually have the whole group bunch back up at 85 miles into the ride as we all hung out in the sun outside waiting for our orders. It’s tough to shake the mindset of in and out as fast as possible at these stops but once it became clear that this was going to take a while just hung out and enjoyed the rest.

Left after about an hour and climbed over to Northwoods. I rode up this climb with John Pearch and the chat made the climb go pretty fast. Kole and Jennifer caught us near the top and I rode with them for a while as well.

Northwoods was a manned control and I enjoyed a nice sandwich and soda ahead of the climb up Elk Pass. I was feeling pretty sleepy as I hadn’t had a lot of sleep leading up to this ride with the arrival of Sean a week ago. Caffeine was the order of the day.

Started up Elk Pass with Jennifer, Kole and John but their pace was a bit faster than I wanted to go so let them go. It was a pretty steep climb and took quite a few hours to get to the top, with a brief stop along the way at a secret control were I donned my rain gear as the rain had finally arrived. My goal was to get down the other side of the pass in daylight as the road was meant to be pretty sketchy. Sure enough it was pretty broken up and I was glad to have longer sightlines in the rain and mist with daylight as I dodged cracks in the road. It sounds like it was quite an experience for the riders behind me who had to descend in the dark.

My front light was acting up slightly at the bottom once I put it on, dimming and then going out. Thankfully stopping and pressing all the connectors tight seemed to fix the issue.  I suspect it was all the vibration on the gravel patches early in the ride.

Rode in the final 30 miles to the finish and arrived at 10:35 (17 hours 35 minutes after setting off, 15 hours 15 minutes in the saddle). Then all that was left was the drive back to Seattle, with various stops for caffeine. I was back in my bed 26 hours after having risen for the ride, a long but satisfying day (and night).