Rode Hurricane Ridge yesterday in Olympic National Park. By far, the longest, most relentless climb I've done. Nineteen miles long with 5,100 feet of climbing. By comparison, from the D.O.T. shed on the Mount Baker Highway to Artist Point, it's 11 miles and about 3,000 feet of climbing. I parked by Civic Field in Port Angeles, then headed up Race St. for about a mile before I hit the national park. There's no warm-up, no flat spot, just start climbing right out of the gate. And in fact the first 4-1/2 miles are probably the steepest of the whole ride. My Garmin Edge 500 consistently read 8, 9 percent so that whenever it eased off a bit to 4 or 5 percent, it felt like I was going downhill.
Absolutely beautiful day. No real wind, not too hot, traffic not too bad. Saw only two other cyclists including one dude on a Cervelo time trial bike. (Didn't look to be serving him too well.)
Big shout-out and thanks to my son Baker and sister Kath (and their dog, Roy) who were my support vehicle and photographers/videographers. (Bake took the top pic, BTW.)
Kinda funny: about halfway up my phone rings and I stop to answer it just in case it's my support vehicle. Turns out, it's the producers of this TV show, "It Only Hurts When I Laugh." They saw this video Bake made of he and his friends doing some stunts in which one kids kinda biffs it, and they want to know if they can use it for their show. I told them I'd call them back when I wasn't climbing a big mountain on my bike. (I'll keep you posted if and when it airs.)
Back to the riding: the descent was crazy fun (I hit 42.5 according to my Garmin; that's fast for me) and long. Really long.
I ended the day by riding about a bit of the Olympic Discovery Trail which traces the shoreline along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and will eventually extend from Port Townsend to La Push. Right now, about 50 miles in the middle are complete--the Sequim-ish to Port Angeles-ish area. Most of what I rode was paved though there was a fairly long gravel-Roubaix stretch.
Fun riding and great views. I'll be back!
(By the way, favorite road name we saw: Kitchen Dick Road.)
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