WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES



Samish Island, Mount Erie and Samish Bay from about the 1,000-foot level of Burnout Rd.

I wanted to get in more climbing so 24 hours after my Mount Baker repeats, I pulled out the 29er and headed up Cleator Road for a sustained 45-minute climb. Followed that up with Burnout Road, off the south side of Fragrance Lake Road. Along with probably the best unobstructed water views (see above and below) around, it's got four crazy-steep pitches that thankfully, aren't super long.

Burnout Road tops out at about 1,800 feet or so and in the old days, before last fall's logging, you could find the So Easy Trail that dropped down beyond Lost Lake, pass behind Samish Lake and then climb up out of the basin to Pine and Cedar Lakes. And maybe you still can, I just need to take the time and make the effort to find it. Today, I wanted to see if I could connect the Burnout Road with the Dictionary Trail and thus Lost Lake. And as I found out you can. Yipee!

At the top of Burnout--which, like Cleator, tops out at about 1,800 feet--just head through the clearing, look north toward B'ham and Chuckanut Mountain and follow the above road to that point right there. Just before you reach the end, there's a semblance of a trail off to the right. Pop down there and in two or three overgrown trail-riding moments, you'll be at the Dictionary. Very cool. This should make for some epically fun, scenic-as-heck loops.

In all, I got in 31 miles with 3,700 feet of elevation gain. Not sure how mountain bike miles and climbing feet translate to road-riding units. I'd think it'd count for more since my mountain bike is much heavier than my road bike and mountain climbs sometimes reach pitches of 25 to 30 percent. Whatevuh--I've got close to 11,000 feet of climbing in two days. (Which is still 5,000 feet less than the Mount Shasta Summit Century.)