July Rides

[khg]

On Saturday I rode on Mt Rainier--up to the Sunrise Visitor's Center and up to Chinook Pass. It was some of the most fun I've had on a bike--I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was! It was also really neat to have a ton of other cyclists out with the same crazy idea. The population up there seemed evenly split between cyclists and international tourists.

If you've been to Seattle, you know how impressive and large the mountain looks from the city--at Sunrise, the summit appears to start rising just a few feet from the parking lot, and it is mind-bogglingly huge, beautiful, intimidating, awe-inspiring--I don't even know the words.

Then after the slog up to Cayuse Pass, the turn onto the road to Chinook Pass takes you through a couple of long switchbacks that...well, the view is just ridiculous. That, combined with the grade lessening for parts of the switchbacks, produced a giddy euphoria, as it was suddenly so easy to pedal my bike (comparatively speaking), and the view was unbelievably spectacular. Seriously, even in the middle of the experience, I could hardly believe it was real!

I'm now looking at my calendar to figure out when and how often I can get back up there this summer. The Mt Rainier National Park is truly a national treasure, and I can't recommend getting up there highly enough--bike, car, hike, whatever!

I wrote a blog post with a few mediocre cell-phone photos (though they are actually decent if you click to see them full size)-- http://mebikedolomitesoneday.wordpre...inier-by-bike/