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!

 

THE LARCH THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' AND OTHER METHOW MEANDERINGS

So here's the current state of the alpine larch as of this morning at Washington Pass. Quite beautiful with splashes of gold at the foot of Liberty Bell.

I got in a couple book-research rides over the past couple days near Winthrop. This is near the end of Falls Creek Road, just above Westside Chewuch Road where it becomes Forest Road 51. It's part of a three-forest road-climb route known to locals as the Triple Bypass. The above climbed to just a hair under 5,000 with a couple steep pitches of around 12 percent. As I found out last week at Lion Rock near Ellensburg (see a couple posts below), something great about these paved forest roads is that this time of year, there's no one else on them; you basically have the road to yourself.

Here're a couple riders I met heading out FR 51. I don't remember their names but one is a zoomba instructor, the other a pilates instructor. Nice folks.

Eastside Chewuch Road in the morning. Oh, but I do love da' Methow!

METHOW MOUNTAIN BIKING

The boy Baker and I headed east earlier this week--Winthrop, to be exact. Mountain biking and camping were on the agenda and well ... after that three-hour drive and then pedaling our bikes around for a few hours, then trying to figure out to microwave our dinner at our campsite, we figured one out of two ain't bad. So we stayed at a motel, the Winthrop Inn. (Truth be told, the dad finds camping to be a bit of a hassle 'lest there're others around to help take care of those hassles. Plus, he'd much rather sleep in a bed.)

On the way over we stopped at the Washington Pass Overlook. That's Liberty Bell. I've climbed South Early Winter Spire, the farthest nubbin there on the left, which I never cease to tell people in the hopes that they'll be impressed. (If you've climbed it, you know that you approach it from the other side where it's not nearly so burly.)

Monday afternoon, we mountain biked from the Chickadee Trailhead up by Sun Mountain Lodge where all the rich folks get to stay. We also had the unique opportunity to find out just what you do when the derailleur snaps off the nine-year-old's bike. You ... anyone? ... that's right, you carry the bike yourself and have your son ride yours. (That's Bake riding me K2 Lithium.)

Day two, after dropping Bake's bike at Methow Cycle and Sport, we headed east, up over Loup Loup Pass to Omak because there's a skateboard park there. Kinda. Pretty run down. Pretty depressing. Pretty much wanted to get the heck out of Omak almost as soon as we got there. But hey, it killed a few hours and Loup Loup is definitely something I shall return and ride someday. Perhaps soon. (The Methow's Fall Bike Festival www.mvsta.com/summer/bikefest.html?)

Back at our Methow motel, Bake swam ... ... then we picked up his bike--now with a new derailleur--and headed back up to Chickadee. Pedaled 'round Beaver Pond then climbed to Sun Mountain Lodge from where we enjoyed a screamin' descent back down. The boy's new derailleur worked like a charm.

Back to B'ham this afternoon. A great trip!