Pacific Northwest - After the Deluge ride

Rode my bike to Carnation this morning. Out Ballarat --> Reining --> Tokul roads to the Salish Lodge by the falls. Rte 202 was closed past that point to Fall City so I rode up to Snoqualmie Ridge and took the Lake Alice road down to the valley floor. Riding out on the West Snoqualmie river road was slow and tricky. It was closed to traffic with 'water on the roadway' signs but I figured if it got bad I'd just turn around. Pretty amazing. Most of the road was covered in a slippery layer of river silt..like that clay you see on a potters wheel if you use too much water. Only a couple of places were actually under water and there, it was only a few inches deep so I slowly pressed on. Many of the farmers were out calmly cleaning up the mess left behind by the receding water. Debris was stuck in the fences along the road. One or two trucks slowly passed me going the other way, no other riders. I turned and went up Tolt Hill and saw another cyclist climbing 100 yards ahead of me and I thought "hmmm. another crazy like me perhaps he'd like company" so I drew a bead on him and soon caught up with him. He was obviously a young racer in training decked out in a black, blue and white team kit riding a Felt cross bike with a power tap on the rear.. I think I run into him before climbing up the Issaquah Plateau the last time I rode into work. His reaction was the same as last time. I said "Hi, hows it going?" and he looked over his shoulder at me saying nothing, picking up his pace to put siome distance between us. I topped the hill about 30 seconds behind him and when we got to the bottom on the other side he turned right twords Redmond and I, left to Fall City. No incidents riding on 202 but I chose to go the quiet backroads to Fall City via the Issaquah Fall City Road. With 202 being closed past Fall City I had no other choice but to gut it out and climb the Lake Alice hill. I think it is harder than the zoo hill on Cougar. I have to use all the strength I have in my arms and legs to make it up that hill. Luckily, the hard part is less than a mile long. Riding back through downtown Snoqualmie I felt pretty sad for the folks who were flooded. There's an empty lot by the Bowling alley and it was filled with appliances and other fotsam that folks had pulled out of their houses to be trown away. Lots of moving vans and stuff sitting out on peoples' lawns. I got home with 48 miles under me, a couple of frozen toes and an appreciation for the good fortune to have a house that's high n dry. My heart goes out to those who weren't so lucky.

Up here on the East Hill there has been little evidence of any flooding. I did go into Enumclaw, where there WAS flooding.

Even people who have normally been safely above the normal flood zone were hit this time :( .

East Hill

Me and my friend tried to take a ride on the Puyallup River Walk on our 'bents. Our intentions were just to see how much damage was done and then continue on to the Foothills Trail. At least half of the riverwalk had been under water, now under mud. We rode through some of it, walked a little. We would normally do about a 38 mile ride but realized that wasn't going to happen as the Foothills Trail goes through Orting WA which had some evacuations. At the end of the Riverwalk we had only gone about 4 miles and were already beat. Perhaps my mountain bike would have been a better choice. 7.25 mile ride took almost an hour. We came back home on city streets. I fell once on a part of trail that had a real thin layer of mud over blacktop. My friend has a trike so no falls. If I had put off road tires on my 'bent I probably would have been ok.

I turned and went up Tolt Hill and saw another cyclist climbing 100 yards ahead of me and I thought "hmmm. another crazy like me perhaps he'd like company" so I drew a bead on him and soon caught up with him. He was obviously a young racer in training decked out in a black, blue and white team kit riding a Felt cross bike with a power tap on the rear.. I think I run into him before climbing up the Issaquah Plateau the last time I rode into work. His reaction was the same as last time. I said "Hi, hows it going?" and he looked over his shoulder at me saying nothing, picking up his pace to put siome distance between us.

Thanks for the write-up. Funny that you didn't get a nod out of the guy on the 'cross bike.

My cousin lives in downtown Snoqualmie, on a house that was raised an entire level after the last flood. I think they got hammered last week but I haven't been able to touch base w/her yet.

I'm amazed that West Snoqualmie road has emerged this soon, I expected it to be kayak territory even now. I take that one fairly frequently for my rides up to Carnation and Tolt Hill road.