My friend Kate is visiting for the weekend - she's training for Trans Rockies and came for a long weekend so of course we had to plan some epic rides.
Today was Day 1 of what I am going to refer to as the Cascade Adventure. W
e started the day with a 45 min climb (1700ft of climbing up single-track) out of Roslyn (the filming site for the Northern Exposure TV show) up Ewalk to the Cle Elum ridge and over the other side into the Tenaway valley. We got lost for a while here, crossed several streams, and found some fun singletrack. We eventually found our way back up the ridge on some super steep sandy singletrack (yes, I was walking. Fraser, on the other hand, was a mountain goat today and was zooming up all of the steep climbs). We finished off the first part of our day with a super fun single-track descent called 'rat pack'. It was worth every foot of the 3350 feet of climbing and 22 miles.
The photo is atop of Cle Elum ridge. Not a bad view.
We then headed over to Kachess lake and climbed Thorp mountain. This is a 3500 ft climb with no breaks. It starts gently with
5 miles of 2% grade alongside the lake and then gets into switch-backs at 10-20% grade. The climb offers many great views and cool breazes. it was pretty hot today and I was excited to see the snow. At the top we admired the view before we turned our bikes around to the cool descent. This part of the ride was about 22 miles and 3500 feet of climbing.
We finished the day with some burgers at the 'Mountain High' burger joint and headed home. Ahhh, nothing quite like a long day in the saddle. All told we covered 44 miles and almost 7000 feet of climbing in under 6 hours. Not a bad day ... we've got 2 more days of riding bliss to come.
This second photo is on top of Mt Thorp ... another fantastic view!
Today was Day 1 of what I am going to refer to as the Cascade Adventure. W
e started the day with a 45 min climb (1700ft of climbing up single-track) out of Roslyn (the filming site for the Northern Exposure TV show) up Ewalk to the Cle Elum ridge and over the other side into the Tenaway valley. We got lost for a while here, crossed several streams, and found some fun singletrack. We eventually found our way back up the ridge on some super steep sandy singletrack (yes, I was walking. Fraser, on the other hand, was a mountain goat today and was zooming up all of the steep climbs). We finished off the first part of our day with a super fun single-track descent called 'rat pack'. It was worth every foot of the 3350 feet of climbing and 22 miles.The photo is atop of Cle Elum ridge. Not a bad view.
We then headed over to Kachess lake and climbed Thorp mountain. This is a 3500 ft climb with no breaks. It starts gently with
5 miles of 2% grade alongside the lake and then gets into switch-backs at 10-20% grade. The climb offers many great views and cool breazes. it was pretty hot today and I was excited to see the snow. At the top we admired the view before we turned our bikes around to the cool descent. This part of the ride was about 22 miles and 3500 feet of climbing.We finished the day with some burgers at the 'Mountain High' burger joint and headed home. Ahhh, nothing quite like a long day in the saddle. All told we covered 44 miles and almost 7000 feet of climbing in under 6 hours. Not a bad day ... we've got 2 more days of riding bliss to come.
This second photo is on top of Mt Thorp ... another fantastic view!
