Category Archives: roadtrip

city, history, roadtrip, travel, USA

Seattle

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For a city know for its rain & only having two seasons, winter & August, we were lucky to have an absolutely stunning day on Friday exploring what is a very nice city in the sun (but then most are). After much frustration with the metro’s awful website, Google Maps told me what I wanted to know simply & we headed downtown after a much needed sleep-in. First stop was the Underground Tour, which came highly recommended from Karin. The tour was insanely popular, but very well run, informative & most amusing. When Seattle was built originally it was in the intertidal zone & twice-daily flooding was a bit of a problem. Not to mention the smelly waste-disposal problem – sewage tended to come back in with the tide. Like all good American cities it seems, Seattle had a big fire in its history which went a good way to wiping out the whole city.

For the rebuilding phase the engineers wanted to take a long time to raise up the height of the city. However, the building owners didn’t wait so rebuilding started almost immediately. Eventually the City put huge retaining walls along the perimeter of 33 blocks worth of the city. These were then filled with whatever they could find & so the street was now up on the second story, while the sidewalk was still down on the first floor. Eventually a new sidewalk was built bridging the gap between the street & the building, leaving a underground network of tunnels where the old sidewalk used to be – this was what we toured through seeing all manner of relics. Well worth the time & money to get that interesting insight in to the city’s history.

The coil of the first electric elevator in Seattle & other paraphernalia.

The ferry to Bainbridge Island was a good way to get out on the harbour & enjoy the sun & good views of the city. So we spent a few hours riding out to the island, poking around & tripping back.

We strolled over to the famous Pike Place markets, saw people throwing fish around to order & wandered out. Valerie had decided some time ago that she wanted to buy me a Stetson in the States (I could hardly refuse such an offer) & as this was our last chance we eventually found the shop we were looking for. With me having no fashion sense, it was a long deliberation before I ended up with a grey fedora – which I hopefully will find occasion to wear a bit. That night we managed to tick off a very slight desire to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. It was crazy busy on a Friday night, but we had a nice meal & the cheesecake was very good & not too intense.

bikes, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Lewis River Trail

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Crossing in to the final state of our trip, Washington, it proceeded to get more & more grey as misty clouds descended down the hills as we drove northeast towards Mt St Helens.  Washington, well this part anyway, was a bit more down in the tooth than any parts of the country we’d been through in a while – just older, less maintained houses with plenty of rusting pickups lying around.  My great idea of a ride was looking more & more damp as we pulled in to the Forestry Service HQ – their webcam of the volcano was just a screen of grey.

The road continued east along the top edge of Swift Reservoir before crossing the Lewis River just as it entered the lake.

Closer inspection of the GPS trail showed that I could cut the 33 km loop in half by getting Valerie to shuttle me up the road to the Lower Falls.  We lunched in the very dark & tree-lined parking lot before heading out to check out the falls.  Once again, the river was high & the falls were interesting as the drop curved around to be mostly parallel with the overall flow of the water.

Still rather chilly, I had to put on all my long-sleeved riding clothes before heading down the trail.  The river only had a gentle drop along the length I was riding & it didn’t really feel like I did an overly large amount of downhill.  In fact, there was quite a bit of climbing amongst all the moss, trees & ferns.  It was nice to have decent bridges that didn’t require dismounting, although some were a little slippery in the damp.  Annoyingly, the dogbone on my bike snapped early on so I had to do most of the ride with my bottom bracket (& therefore, pedals) floating around.  [This part has been quite difficult to find a replacement for, I may have a bodge job that will do the trick for Canada.]  There were occasional pretty glimpses of the river & creeks flowing in to it.  The short pinch climbs kept coming, but I was soon meeting Valerie at the pick-up point.

This bridge wasn’t so great, showing the signs of such a damp climate.

It was very well-timed on our part that the road along the east side of the mountain was opened the day before our visit.  We got a few glimpses of Mt St Helens & the reemerging forest along the drive in to Seattle.

bikes, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Out of Bend & Gunsight Trail

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We got the call just before ten o’clock that Subaru Guru in Bend had finished the head gasket replacement. Excited by the prospect of getting back on the road again, we made the big trek to the south of town & back, packed up & were pulling out of the driveway by eleven o’clock. We had ended up staying a week in Bend – not the ideal circumstances, but a great place to be stuck (even if the weather was a little unseasonal) & we were so fortunate to have Allen & Lisa’s kind hospitality.  I was toying with the idea of a big drive & then the classic Lewis River ride near Mt St Helens, but in the end decided that was too optimistic.

But I had a back up plan – the Gunsight Trail near Government Camp that I had intended to ride the day the car problems started. Mt Hood was once again shrouded in cloud, but it was a lot warmer than last time we drove through the area. The GPS trail I had showed riding from the highway, but as I had Valerie to shuttle me I managed to skip a few kilometres of paved road in the forest. When it turned to gravel I got on the bike, but the doubletrack is so good I would have been confident taking the Outback up there quite a way. I could see the ridge that I had to get up to & it was a long way up. Mostly the doubletrack was steady climbing, but it got pretty steep at one stage – climbing 150m in 1km. I was sick of pushing that middle ring around halfway through that section.

Diving off through the trees to the left, I soon popped out on an old dirt road that went up more gradually to the start of the singletrack. As this road met another, the trail dived off into the trees. I was immediately concerned by the amount of blowdown that I had to climb over – it was going to be a long ride if there were many trees down. But trees weren’t much of a problem after a few hundred metres as I continued climbing on the singletrack. I quickly became reacquainted with my old friend Mr Snow at about 1700m. So for most of the ridge I pushed over quite a bit of snow, rode on a little of it & climbed over the odd tree (breaking a spoke in the process). Pleasantly the cloud was retreating from Mt Hood & by the time I was on the top of the ridge at a burn-site I could get a decent view. There were also good views out to the east of the High Desert.

After slowly making my way along that ridge between 1700 & 1800m for quite some time the trail finally turned down & the snow became scarcer & scarcer. Unfortunately, the screaming good downhill was often interrupted by fallen trees. Nonetheless, it was a great run down – a nice wide trail with just enough rocks to keep one from getting too complacent. Unlike the descent from Surveyor’s Ridge last week, the switchbacks were so far apart I wasn’t annoyed by them. It ended up a pretty short ride at about 17km/10 miles, but after all that climbing, snow & trees I didn’t really mind as I dozed on the drive into Portland.

bikes, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

McKenzie River Trail & the Xen crew

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On my fourth attempt to ride the McKenzie River trail, I was finally successful. With the car in the shop having its engine pulled out & apart, we had a loaner that actually got us more than eight miles out of Bend on Highway 20 north. For most of the hour drive to the trailhead I wasn’t overly keen on all the rain that was falling, but as we started to go down the other side of the range it eased off a bit.

Starting at a recently sealed parking lot, the new trail signs aren’t quite up yet, immediately I was over the first of many log bridges crossing various streams & the river on the ride. There was a mile or so of nice wide packed dirt singletrack under big trees before I crossed another bridge at the head of Clear Lake. The east side of the lake has a lot of lava flow to ride over & it’s easily the most technical & tricky part of the ride – quite slow as well. The sun wasn’t out, so the lake wasn’t as clear as it may usually be but beautiful all the same.

The tricky rock continued for a while & I passed many hikers before the trail suddenly became sealed in the middle of a big lava flow – some quite tight corners here. After the lake the trail alternated quickly between smooth trail & rocks. After crossing a forestry road & then the highway in quick succession it wasn’t long before I happened across the river plunging over Sahalie Falls. There were a few vantage points to get a look (& feel – a little spray, but nothing like Yosemite) at the water thundering over.

The river disappeared for a while underground & while I was cruising down through the damp, mossy trees I caught up to a group – actually a pair from Salt Lake & another from Portland. After a bit of chatting (it turns out we all had Giro Xen helmets of different colours) we were riding up to Blue Pool where the river comes back out of the ground. Strangely still, it was even clearer than Clear Lake. Looking down from above it was very difficult to gauge its depth, but it was plenty stunning. We all traded cameras a little, so I ended up with a few photos of myself for a change.

Switching the order around a bit as we continued down the fun trail through more trees, rocks & moss I somehow found myself at the front. I’m not sure that that is always a good idea as I kept stopping for pictures like the tourist I am.

Just before the halfway point Rob & Kevin had to leave & head back to Portland. Jeremy, Pam & I continued on our merry way. There were a few small climbs, but these weren’t much of a bother – helped to break up the monotony of sweet downhill riding. The descents weren’t particularly steep, just good fun weaving in & out of trees & dealing with the occasional rocky section.

At times the forest became quite enchanted as the moss was even more mossy, the light darkened & it all became a little etheral. I was wondering where the Faraway Tree was & Jeremy was concerned that some gnome was going to jump out from behind a rock, put a big stick through his wheels & steal all his stuff.

We continued our way down throughly enjoying the ride – Jeremy & I had a good pace going & I was happy with a few little rest stops. Especially as I’d hit climbs thinking they’d be short & they were always twice as long as I expected. For quite a bit of the ride beside the river we’d noticed a mist hanging around the yard or two above the river – it was a little spooky seeing it so much.

There was a bit of riding near the highway, but the traffic noise was generally blocked by all the trees. The trail-goodness just goes & on & on and after five hours we were within a mile of the cars when both Pam & I managed to stack it. I was having too much fun & rode around a corner to find a white-bearded, bare-footed hippy in the middle of the trail – he was surprised as I grabbed a handful of brake, washed out the front a bit & stopped & fell to the left very quickly. From all accounts, Pam did a commendable impression of someone wanting to introduce her helmet to a tree – not sure how that happened. A most excellent ride all up & great to have met good riding buddies along the way.

Valerie & I took the scenic route 242 back to Sisters. It climbed its tortuous path up to over 5000 feet through a lot more rain & big trees. Valerie was particularly pleased to see a black bear cub run across the road in front of us, I was pleased that this time I wasn’t on my bike a few metres down the trail. At the top of the pass it was all volcanic rock again & just dry enough to get out of the car. There is a cool old viewing platform at the top with small holes in walls to look out at the various peaks. Alas, it was too cloudy to see any.