MORE 2010 MONTHLY BIKE PHOTOS

Here's some more, July through December. Please enjoy!

July - Chinook Pass on the east side of Mount Rainier. A frozen Tipsoo Lake is in the foreground.

August - Vern Latta (Mary's hubby) and the chirpy Tammy Bennett climb the last couple miles to Artist Point at the end of the Mount Baker Highway.

August (again) - Me (again) on the last section of the 17-mile, 5,000-foot climb to Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula.

September - Tom Meloy and Mark Clausen bomb down from Artist Point on our superfun Everson-to-Artist Point-and-back Hundred-miler.

 Sept. (again) - Titanium Cancellara at the finish of the Capitol Forest 50-mile Mountain Bike Race. Because of a mechanical, he ran about seven miles of it and rode the last 10-plus miles with this wheel strapped to his pack.

October - Steve Hindman descending Atomic Dog on a day in which some of us rode every single trail on Galbraith Mountain.

November - Near the top of Galby's Towers during a snowy Thanksgiving Day ride.

December - View of the San Juan Islands from Galby's Wonderland Trail.



PACKWOOD-PARADISE-STEVENS CANYON LOOP

Rode a kind of RAMROD Jr. today. Eighty miles with 6,000 feet of elevation gain including the climb to Paradise (el. 5,400 feet) and the one over near Stevens Canyon that climbs to about 3,500 feet. Only Cayuse Pass was missing. As well as about 75 other miles. (Click here to read about my epic bonk on Cayuse two years ago.)

Still, it was plenty tough. Rode it all on my own. From Packwood, where I was on the road at 5:45 a.m. if you can believe it, I headed northwest via Skate Creek Road and the Nisqually entrance of Mount Rainier National Park. Saw many elk along the way but hardly any cars, which was great.

From Nisqually, thus began the 17-mile climb to Paradise which isn't super duper steep, just long. Along the way, I kept imagine the juicy something-or-other I'd get to eat at the visitor center cafeteria once I made it to the top. Alas, it hadn't opened yet; I left so early I made it to Paradise by 9:30. From there, the screaming-fun descent that goes on and on into Stevens Canyon. Probably my all-time favorite road bike descent. Had to stop a few times for photos--saw a big mama bear and two cubs and just above is Reflection Lake. Rainier is truly an amazing place!

Next up, Tour de Whatcom this Saturday.

SUNRISE-CAYUSE-CHINOOK

Incredible day of road bike climbing on Thursday last. From the White River Ranger station to Sunrise--that's 14 miles with 2,900 feet elevation gain--back down and then up to Cayuse and Chinook Passes--that's another 8 miles with 2,000 feet of climbing. Finished it off with a quick dash (in a manner of speaking) up Crystal Mountain Boulevard which was 1,500 feet of ups across 6 miles.

At the top is Sunrise which is absolutely incredible. About 1,400 feet higher than Artist Point (between Mount Baker and Shuksan), and 1,000 feet higher than Paradise where RAMROD tops out on Rainier's south side. Sunrise Point is 2 miles before Sunrise and a couple hundred feet below it, but from there I could see Mount Baker, Stuart Mountain in the Enchantments (near Leavenworth), Mount Adams and of course, Rainier. That's a sweep of almost 200 miles from Baker to Adams. Incroyable!

The photo just above is me and my Tarmac Pro a little below Chinook Pass with Tipsoo Lake and Mount Rainier in the background. Below is Highway 410 to Chinook Pass. None of these climbs is especially steep, mostly in the 6 to 8 percent range, just long. They're nothing like the seemingly vertical (but much shorter) pitches I came across during last week's Torture Century. In fact, the last two miles from Sunrise Point to Sunrise were mostly flat. I can truthfully say that I pulled into Sunrise still in my big chainring.

This morning the Titanium Cowboy, Scott Young, and I got out for about 2-1/2 hours on the big ol' 29ers. (Though with our titanium plates and screws, all three of us--Scott, Johnny Boy Clark, and myself--are titanium cowboys, really.) Man, that was fun! First real MTB ride since the collarbone break. Felt really, really good. Almost like it was a rigorous physical therapy session. We did Lower Galby--Last Call, Rock 'n' Roll, and the like--up to the Wall and down the Three Pigs. Only difference that I see right now is that I'm not comfortable on anything resembling a bridge. Anything that raises my wheels off the ground, and thus the distance I could fall on that collarbone, I'll walk around. Pretty cool: we saw three pileated woodpeckers!