Seattle Forrest

The ride was 30 miles, but half of it was up hill and the other half was down, so the climbing was pretty concentrated.

This was a fun ride, but less of a scenic one. I've driven over Swauk Pass more times than I can count, camped nearby (my ride started where I'd stayed, years ago) and done some hiking in the area. It was nice to connect with the area in a new way, especially since you can cover so much more ground on a bike than on foot. I've never been over Old Blewett Pass, though, and that was a lot more fun. Plus it turns out to be a nicer looking and drastically less traveled road, ending with some exaggerated switchbacks.

It was hot and thirsty work, and none of the creeks were anywhere near the top. I ran out of water more quickly than I expected, filled up at the north end of Old Blewett Road, and started seeing signs about mining ... decided not to drink the water. My purifier doesn't work on arsenic. There's a ghost town from the mining days nearby...

Lots of big brownish hills with ponderosa pines. It reminded me of parts of California.



^ This is Swauk Pass. The road used to go over Blewett Pass, but, when it came time to build a new road, they put it over Swauk Pass instead. But people refused the new name, and called the new road The Blewett Pass Highway. DOT said "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," and renamed the pass. They don't have jurisdiction over maps and hiking trails, though, so there's some local confusion.





^ The sign reads "Old Blewett Summit." (Rant #2: a pass is not a summit!)



I didn't get any shots of the hairpins, because I was having way too much fun speeding through them to stop. Here's a map, if anyone is curious.

TrojanHorse

Beautiful! I still can't get over how many Cervelos people just leave laying around up there.

Say, your map isn't linked?

Seattle Forrest

You're right! Too bad it's so hard to throw a frame over each shoulder and ride back up the mountain, or I'd be having my own "buy two, save $1,000" sale.

This is the map I had intended to link to:



Those switchbacks plastered a big smile on my face.

Ooompa Loompa

No doubt. I need to make a trip out there. I could pay for it by collecting and selling random Cervelos I find laying around.

plpete

You are so lucky to have such epic and picturesque roads to ride on my friend! I enjoy seeing all your posts and lusting the roads. Makes me want to take a weekend trip so a mountainous area and do some similar riding.

Your R3 is a great climbing and descending bike but how have your carbon, I assume clinchers, have been performing. I imagine climbing they should do fine but how were the descents? Wondering about the breaking performance in such conditions as yours. When descending I don't usually "ride" my brakes the whole time but its nice to know you can safely slow down when needed. I'm debating a similar wheel set as yours or something like the Shimano C-24 wheels.

Seattle Forrest

Thanks for the kind words! Come out here sometime and make a bike tour of The Cascade Loop. It includes the section I rode on Saturday, and lots of great and varied scenery.

Mine are tubulars, and before I bought them, I kept reading that they're not as bad as clinchers for heat buildup, because the brake tracks aren't as close to the tube. Anyway, I was a little concerned about the same thing this weekend, because the descent was long and steep, because I spotted some deer foraging next to the road and thought I might need to do a panic stop, and because it felt like 90 F, with the sun beating down in a powerful way. I stopped at one point to check, and the rims weren't much warmer to the touch than my top tube. So that's probably not an issue - heat on long descents. (I'm about 200 lbs and 6'1" for the record.)

plpete

Thanks for the info! I would assume the the carbon specific pads would have a lot to do with limiting the heat build up during breaking. I'm usually 170lbs at my heaviest and 5'10" so I think carbon clinchers would be fine. Usually when descending I like to push myself to higher speeds and don't break until I have to

Black wallnut 

[h=2]sum·mit[/h]   /ˈsʌmɪt/ Show Spelled[suhm-it] Show IPA
noun 1. the highest point or part, as of a hill, a line of travel, or any object; top; apex.

That said the summit of Long's Pass trail is Long's Pass. The Summit of any road that goes over a pass is by definition the highest point the road reaches whil cresting the pass. Was the road clear of snow the whole way? I'm guessing you went north over the old road and returned south and west over the new road?

Seattle Forrest

My thinking is that a pass is the lowest point on a ridge, and the summits are the highest points. The summit as the high point for a road never made sense to me; if I go hiking, say to Granite Mountain (near Snoqualmie Pass) but don't make the top, I wouldn't describe my high point as the summit of my hike. I suppose I could, but I don't think anybody actually would.

There were a few small patches of snow on the old road, but they didn't stretch across the entire roadway. It looked like they had probably slid recently from higher ground, and the biggest of them might have covered 1/3 the width of the road. There was almost no traffic, so I just went around.

I went north on 97, and came back on the Old Blewett Road. The map made it look like the switchbacks on the south side of the old road would be more fun, so I wanted to have more speed coming south.

I stopped for lunch at the Mineral Springs Resort. I figured the campground across the street would be a good place to park, but it's still closed and gated. They let me park outside the restaurant during my ride.

wapiti

That's a nice piece of road. My favourite, still unexplained story on there is from a trip over it in March about 4 years ago. Came over from the Wenatchee side. A Honda Accord, half up a tree, pointing the wrong way. Snow tires are a good thing.

Street Pedaler

^^^This. I've grown to look forward to these Posts. Great scenery to ride through there. Good stuff! But I still can't figure out why that bike keeps stalking and photo bombing you.