Pacific Northwest - Riding around Rainier

Hi all -

We're visiting Washington; and will be staying in Ashford, just outside the gate to Mt. Rainier National Park. We're hoping some local folks have some suggestions for some epic road and mountain bike rides!

Thanks in advance!
Deb

Well this is going on tomorrow:

http://www.redmondcyclingclub.org/RAMROD/RAMROD_course_information.html

Too late for you to register and ride (it's been sold out for months), but you can follow the course. It's epic.

Epic Mountain Biking? Yup, plenty of it all around where you are staying. Check out Palisades, Skookum Flats, Ranger Creek, Crystal Mountain which are a few of my favorites:

http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:Palisades
http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:Ranger_Creek
http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:Skookum_Flats
http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:Crystal_Mountain

Have a great time!

Some suggestions -

1. 82 miles, great scenery:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/wa/seattle/427123939677646802

2. Go the website www.cascade.org, look for an organized ride in September call the High Pass Challenge, leaves from Packwood. Do all or part of that - 113-ish miles, great climbs.

The shorter version of the High Pass Challenge is to drive to Randle, and then climb up to Windy Ridge for a great view of Mt. St. Helens crater, and then return to Randle.

3. Drive through the park to the entrance to the Sunrise visitor center. Ride up to Sunrise and descend; for extra miles, ride out to 410 and climb up to Cayuse Pass. Or ride out of the park and ride up to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort.

4. If you're interested in another close-up view of Mt. St. Helens, drive to Toutle (about 80 miles from Ashford), and ride up to the crater of Mt. St. Helens / Johnston Visitor Center. Search for a ride called the "Tour De Blast" for details.

If you decide to venture down to Mt. St. Helens - two must do MTB rides:

Ape Canyon/Plains of Abraham. Pretty safe to say you won't find a ride like this anywhere else in the USA:
http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:Ape_Canyon

Lewis River. Beautiful ride.
http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:Lewis_River

Aww c'mon everybody... This is Planet Freaking Ultra asking for an epic ride down there and nobody mentions Jan Heine's RAMROD++ 600k course?

RAMROD course + Windy Ridge + White Pass + Chinook Pass + Cayuse Pass

If you are staying in Ashford, there's the standard climb up to Paradise. It's 50 miles roundtrip Ashford - Paradise - Ashford.

The road between the Longmire side and the Ohahapekosh side (Stevens Canyon Road) is still closed at Box Canyon for repairs. RAMROD had to do an alternate route today.

Another option is Skate Creek Road from Ashford to Packwood.

Because of the Stevens Canyon closure, unless you want to ride all the way around Mt. Rainier, there's no really good path that's a loop rather than out and back on the south side of the mountain.

The northern side has more options right now. A good choice up there is starting at Greenwater and doing any of the following, in any order, depending on how much climbing you want:

Greenwater
Crystal Mountain Blvd
Sunrise
Cayuse Pass
Ohanapekosh
Chinook Pass

A couple of weeks ago I did Greenwater - Crystal - Cayuse - Ohanapekosh - Cayuse - Chinook Greenwater. Overall time was about 4 hours and there's a lot of climbing.

We're staying in Ashford. Leaving Thursday!
:-)