Sunday, May 1, 2022

Riding to the Snow

I’m awakened by the little chiming sound of my watch alarm going off. It’s 4:45am and time to get up for an adventure I’ve been wanting to do for awhile…Ride Hwy 20 (North Cascades) beyond the closed gate (no cars) up to as far as the snow has been cleared. 

Greg and Liz picked me up at 5:35 on the dot. We drove over to Albertsons and met Scott. We put the four bikes on his bike rack, and our bags in the back of his pickup. 

Look there! Two Norcos and two Canyons!

We were on the road at 6:00, heading up I-5. Off I-5 we went through Arlington, Oso, Darrington, Marblemount…up the North Cascades Hwy to the Lake Diablo Vista. We had a little contest going guessing how many cars would be in the parking lot. I guessed 10, Liz guessed 11, Greg guessed 35, and Scott thought we would get the last parking spot. We pulled into the parking lot and there were…0 cars there! Hmmm…we had seen several cars with bikes going up the road, or pulled over in one of the towns. 

We got ourselves ready to ride, and took some photos from the vista. 

Diablo Lake

The dam in the distance. 

Got a guy (who pulled in after us, but wasn’t biking) to take our picture. 

We started up the road, and a short distance later came to where all the cars were parked. They were all parked at the closed gate! To us it didn’t make much sense because at the vista, there were vault toilets. No such amenities at the gate! 

Beyond here lies car-free heaven!

We began the climb toward Rainy Pass. We were pretty sure we wouldn’t  get all the way to the Pass. 

Greg and Scott pulling away. Nice thing about no cars…you can ride wherever you want!

Liz coming up behind. 

Just keep on climbing!

Several years ago I did Rainy and Washington Passes on Hwy 20 with my oldest son, Kyle, as we rode the ACA Washington Parks Loop Route (17 days). I have to say, it was much easier riding without a bunch of camping gear!

Eventually, the guys got ahead of Liz and I. That was just fine. We were enjoying ourselves. 

Notice the snow is getting higher on the sides of the road. 

Some awesome views!

I started to have a bit of an issue…I had to pee, but where? Ah…up ahead I spotted a snow plow machine. I told Liz to block the one end (which wasn’t necessary because I was able to go between the big tires).

Pee stop!

Right about then, Greg and Scott joined us as they were coming back down. They said it was only a mile further to the end of the cleared road. They were going to continue  down for a bit more, then ride back up (overachievers!) while Liz and I made our way to the end. 

The end in sight!

We can go no further!

Grayson holding himself up in the snow!

The road continues, but we do not!

Quite the party at the end of the cleared road. 

Shenanigans. 

Later on I discovered we were just 1.2 miles from Rainy Pass. They’ll have it cleared by next weekend. 

After pictures and a little food break, Liz and I started heading back down. We did stop to take this photo of the bikes against the snow. 

Good job bikes! Now let’s go down!

The last bit going up was about a 6% grade, so we started with a nice fast downhill. Then it leveled out a bit. As we continued down, we noticed there seemed to be a head wind picking up. We didn’t recall having much of a tailwind going up, but we probably did have some. However, it was definitely increasing as we were descending. There were times where we were actually having to work to go downhill (at least at a speed that we wanted to go). We were just grateful that we were going downhill! At one point, we did meet up with Greg and Scott, but they were still going back to the end again. I heard Greg say to Scott as they pulled away, “I’ll give you half my sandwich.” Sounded a bit like a bribe to get Scott to go the rest of the way back up (I’m sure it wasn’t…).

We stopped now and then for a few more photos. 

Where Bigfoot crossed the road!

Bet that water was mighty cold!

But so clear and beautiful!

Avalanche for sure!

Even bigger avalanche!

So much water dripping off the rocks and hillsides. 

Ross Lake

The guys eventually caught up to us. We were almost back to the gate. We got to the gate and there were even more cars! We continued back to the Diablo Lake Vista parking. There were more cars when we got back, but they weren’t cyclists, just people out for a drive. 

We rode 48.9 miles in 4 hours of ride time. Not bad! Best of all, the weather was gorgeous! We couldn’t have asked for a better day on this, May 1st! 

We stopped in Marysville at a MOD Pizza (introduced Scott to the MOD Pizza concept).

My pizza! Delicious!

It’s a long drive, but it was worth it. Thanks to Greag and Liz for picking me up and bringing me home. Thanks to Scott for driving the long drive. A really great day!!!










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