Seattle Forrest

Are we allowed to show pics from rides that weren't in the immediate past...? I did this one back in September, and I wasn't terribly happy with the cell phone pics, so I never posted anything about it. Now, in the dead of winter, though, standards are a bit more lax. I was looking through the files from the cell phone for something else, saw these, felt a bit nostalgic, and thought I'd share, despite the mediocre quality.

One fine day, I put the bike on top of the car, drove up the I-90, parked at the Pratt Lake trailhead, and unloaded the bike. I rode through the picnic area and then up forest service road 58, over the pass, down under the freeway, and to the end of the pavement beyond the Gold Creek Pond trail, then through the Alpental ski resort to the Snow Lake trailhead, and back to the car. It wound up being about 25 to 30 miles, and 2,000 feet of climbing ... I was surprised how little elevation gain there was. It was a nice, warm (but not oppressively hot) sunny day, the kind I miss right now.

These roads aren't the world's most scenic, and this wasn't the best time of year to appreciate the scenery here: the snow is melted, and the wild flowers (mostly foxglove at this elevation) are played out. But the ride was a pretty meaningful one for me, because it took me by about a dozen trails I hike regularly.

Case in point ... Franklin Falls is a short, easy hike, and about halfway through, the trail comes within a few feet of the road. So I stopped here, leaned the bike up against a section of fence, and tried to get a picture of the river in the background:



A fun little bridge:


Starting to leave/climb up out of the thicker forest:


Approaching the west side of the pass:


SWEET WATER OF LIFE! I bring a purifier with me on rides like this, and refill my bottles from creeks. Snoqualmie Pass has a ski resort, gas station, convenience store, and coffee stand, so I stopped for a smoothie ... but most of the mountain rides I do don't have that option.


Toward the ski resort:


This is the end of the road. That's a reservoir lake bed on the left - the water level goes up and down:


I was experimenting with fit, and had tried a very Fredly +17 degree stem. I'm not using it any more:


Passengers on the right side of the bike will see the Gold Creek headlands:


This is the worst shot by any photographic standard ... but imagine how much fun these switchbacks were! There are two of them just as the road leaves the forest, and they were a big part of the draw for riding up here in the first place. I went through this one at speed, then came back up to get a photo and to do it again:

Seattle Forrest

This is one of my favorite trails in the area, and the lake itself is an 8 mile hike (one way, not round trip) from where I parked for this bike ride. The hike takes you up and over the ridge, the one that overlooks the road, and the one whose peaks are visible from much of the ride, then drops you slightly into the next valley. I took a different approach for the hike, though.

Seattle Forrest

The first two are the same waterfall, with two weeks between them.

Seattle Forrest

Keekwulee Falls:




Slide area:

freighttraininguphill

Ooh, those are beautiful! I can picture myself climbing those roads, with cam recording as always!

cohophysh

the FS road is paved up there? is there a map?

iforgotmename

Awesome pics.

avmech

Gorgeous!!!! Thanks for posting them

Seattle Forrest

Tinkham Road turns into FS Road 58. It's paved up until it enters Snoqualmie/Mt Baker National Forest, because there are a few homes on the road. Then, there's a giant pile of snow from the plowing. So, hikes to the Denny Creek trailhead are an extra mile or more this time of year. I don't have a map for you, but for this ride, I took exit 47 from I-90, went left from the exit, and parked at the Pratt Lake trailhead.

Same bridge. Kind of weird to look at these side-by-side.

Pamestique 

Seattle: Your photos always make me so jealous! It is so beautiful where you live and ride...

BTW been meaning to say... I love the wheels on the new bike. I did not like those other ones...

Seattle Forrest

Actually, the wheels in these pics are the ones that came with the bike. I've had them about a year and a half, and worn through most of the brake tracks ... they're very concave. I just got my new wheels Monday, and picked them up with the tires glued last night. I'll probably donate the ones in the pics (above) to Bike Works; they said they'll use the hubs and spokes.

Here are the new wheels. This is a truly horrible picture - I got home after dark with them. And it was starting to rain, which is what the little flecks on the rims are. I'm happy with how well they match the color scheme of the bike. The bike is painted and shiny, while these let the carbon weave show through, and not shiny. In normal light they look more black, and a better match.

Ultimately I'd like to replace the decals with some custom ones. I'd like to do a silhouette of the Cascades on one side and the Olympics on the other. Or maybe front and back ... I'm not sure.

Neil_B

I regret I won't get to ride on those roads until 2013 at this point. It was to see such things that I wanted to drop everything to ride west. Thanks for the photos.

jeepseahawk

Thanks for the photos, have not been over snoqualmie pass since 1989, looks exactly the same, very green.

funrover 

Beautiful pics!

caphits

WOW:

Philipaparker

Wow great pics

Ursa Minor

Wow great pictures makes me wanna go ride in the pacific northwest but i hate rain. Is August a good time to ride up there?
Thanks

Charlie

Seattle Forrest

I'll probably get a mountain bike this spring, and I bet you can guess why. But in the meantime, I'm trying to figure out where I can take my skinny-tire road bike into the mountains at this time of year. Hopefully it's starting to melt on the desert side.

treebound 

Nice, thanks for sharing. Brings back memories. Do they still allow cyclists on I-90 when the paved frontage roads end?

cyclokitty 

Beeeautiful pics!

Buck_O

Beautiful area. Hiked Denny, Mason, Melakwa, Franklin, Iron Horse, and Bandera many, many times.

One of these ays when i am less of a *****, i will actually ride my bike up the pass.