MORE PHOTOS, DETAILS FROM HART'S PASS-SLATE PEAK RIDE

Above are a couple panoramic shots from the top of Slate Peak taken with my fancy-pants Samsung Galaxy S III phone. (Of which, frankly, I don't feel worthy.) In the top photo, Brian Ecker, who made it to the 7,488-foot summit some 40 minutes before me, sits in the sun protected from the wind by that small building. Though it was 70 degrees down in Mazama where we started, at the top of Slate--which is 5,500 feet higher--it was 46 degrees!

Heading out. Our start/finish point was on Lost River Road, across the street from the Mazama  Store.

This was at the start of the lower narrow, scary section. This Harley dude appeared to be considering heading up but thought better of it and stopped. 

Such an amazing ride!

Good luck to everyone riding tomorrow's Mount Baker Hill Climb (Ride 542) and High Pass Challenge!

HART'S PASS-SLATE PEAK BIKE RIDE REPORT

Almost at the top. The last 0.3-mile to 7,488-foot Slate Peak is narrow and steep, averaging 16.5 percent!  Oh, and the road surface is slippery , powdery gravel that one's tires sorta sink into.   

Brian Ecker at the start of the hour-long descent back down to Mazama. About 10 years ago, I got a  flat tire on my pickup truck right on this stretch. That remains one of the most terrifying moments of my life. Riding this on a bike, however, was absolutely no problem.  

Smiling writer guy atop Slate Peak. The middle-of-the-mountains feel from Slate is absolutely  overwhelming  and I daresay unlike any other place I've ridden my bike.

Made it! GoPro handlebar cam records me making it to the top. By this time, Brian's bike  had been leaning against that post for probably 40 minutes. 

Brian on the descent.

Brian descends, Slate Peak in the background. That final pitch has stretches to 27 percent!

At the top: A closed lookout tower, a building with the highest elevation graffitti in the state, and Brian.

To folks planning on driving Hart's Pass Road, this might as well say: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here. But to those on bikes like Brian and I, no biggie.

I sorta have to admit, I got a bang out of passing car after car on the descent.

Unfortunately, this photo doesn't really show it, but this is one of two especially narrow stretches that gave me an agida-anxiety attack a decade or so ago when I drove this road. It's actually fairly low, about 3,400 feet, but is a half-mile of pothole-riddled, bumpy scariness. (The other is the flat-tire stretch I pointed out earlier.)   What I realized yesterday was that were you to go off the side in a car, you'd roll and tumble over and over again and you'd most likely die a bloody deathly death. On a bike, however, you'd be scraped up, sure, but wouldn't ragdoll down the mountainside or anything. If you've ever ridden Burnout Road, it's similar to that last really steep stretch that's somewhat exposed--I'd never ever want to drive that, but on a bike it's no big deal.    

Altitude sort of has a weird effect on me ...

Another Strava KOM for Brian Ecker. All in a day's work.

Stupendous scenery: Get thee to Hart's Pass-Slate Peak!

Here's our route/stats:

NEXT UP: HART'S PASS BIKE RIDE

The recent 82-mile Winthrop-Conconully epic whetted my appetite for some more Methow riding and well, if you're gonna go big, might as well go as big as you can get: Hart's Pass Road and Slate Peak. Topping out at 7,440 feet, the gravel road is the highest road in Washington State. (The road to Sunrise in Mount Rainier National Park is the highest paved one.)

 

It's a much shorter excursion than the Winthrop-Conconully loop. On Sunday a.m., Brian Ecker and I (along with hopefully one or two others) will head out from Mazama and just pedal uphill for about 21 miles 'til we hit Slate Peak, climbing close to 6,000 feet along the way. Admittedly, this has the potential for hair-raising scariness.

 

I've driven this road once and near had a heart attack given its skinny narrowness, pothole-riddled bumpiness and cliff-edge exposure. To cap it off, I got a flat tire right when I hit Slate Peak and had no idea whether I had a spare. (I did.) On a bike, I'm hoping that the road seems wide, comforting and relatively dreamy. I guess I'll find out. I plan to stop often and hug the mountainside if that's what I need to do.

 

NOTE: I want to thank the just another day in paradise blog for the above Hart's Pass Road pic. Beautiful!