So, I'm blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest, a region that allows year round touring without snow as long as one stays out of the mountains. I'm sure some of the rest of Bike Forums folk have snow free winter seasons.

So, I've been taking advantage of winter weekends by doing light overnights. Anyone else doing these throughout the "off" season?

This last weekend, I did about 100 miles as an overnight, a lot of it on unpaved trails, two track and some single track, all around the (much) greater Seattle area, up into the next county and back. Free camping, a great rails to trails ride, a couple of minor disorientation episodes to keep everything interesting.

No significant rain, I didn't ever have to pull on the waterproofs.

Had Sun and Monday off, Left Seattle Sun 9 AM and rode out to Snoqualamie Falls. (pic 1) Soon afterward, hit the trails to get a little lost in the woods until I found the rail to trail I was looking for, and stayed on it until I camped at a great park by a river with a big suspension bridge to get to the campsites. Totally deserted and no envelopes to pay the pipe. bummer.


The next morning, hit the trails for half the day, wound up shooting for one town in the next county for lunch, but got turned about without the proper map coverage, wound up in another town ( the one with the good pie) and had a slice of applecrunch before riding back to Seattle Monday afternoon about 5.

Fantastic blitz trip. Got 'lost' twice, great unplanned pie stop, free camping, no crowds, no bugs.

Sometimes the off season yields quiet pleasures. Last month, same drill. Light winter blitzes. Anyone else enjoying the pleasures of the quick winter tour?

a few pics from the weekend: snoqualamie falls, coffee in camp, switchbacks on trail,
mossy wall, taking a break before getting lost for the second time