Hello from North Bend, Wa.
Last ride photo of the winter of 2025.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e119c79a_b.jpg by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

Dayum!

Welcome to Rattlesnake Lake. Do you go up the SVT, or climb Uplands Dr from North Bend? Not being a gravel rider, I take Uplands, which is always challenging. I need to get back to Uplands again since it is one of my hill training climbs.

To answer your question, Yes :)

I've been a resident in the Valley for almost 40 years.
Riding mostly vintage road and touring bikes.
Varied surfaces don't trouble me.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ddb73bf59.jpeg


My neighborhood borders the Snoqualmie Valley Trail so I use it a lot.
It's the gateway over the mountains to Eastern Washington on my right, and If I turn left,
the Lower Snoqualmie Valley where as you know are many nice rural roads North and West into the Puget Sound Basin.

As for the approach to Rattlesnake Lake;
Sometimes I ride up via the Uppety-Lands, sometimes not.
Sometimes as an out n back but most times as a loop.

The preferred way is up on the trail and returning via a screaming downhill thru the Uppety-Lands.
It simply flows better that way, and the speed you can carry thru the roundabout and under I90 into North Bend is much safer in that busy little section of stores and gas stations.

The Uppety-Lands does make for good hill training!
A false flat paralleling I90 followed by a steep ramp into the development itself then eases off somewhat giving you a chance to catch your breath before you reach that 90 degree turn and the wall that is your final test.
If you're unfamiliar with it, it can be heartbreaking. I love climbs that test your mental and emotional resilience in addition to your legs.

Am very familiar with what you are talking about. Have ridden the SVT route up to Rattlesnake a half dozen times and last year continued up through the tunnel at the pass. Uppety is a good word for those roads until you get up to Brewster Lake. The first time I rode up Uppity, there was an older gentleman running down and he said, “You are taking the hard way up.” And I thought to myself before knowing about your local branch of the SVT, taking Cedar Falls up would be suicidal Have ridden down Cedar Falls Road twice and think that will be it. I take it you live in the Wilderness Rim area. I live down in False City about 100 yards off the SVT, up from the airport.

I down the hill, closer to town in the Cedar Village neighborhood. We are almost neighbors!

The Globe Willows are the first trees to green up around here.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b5f0c8ce51.jpg
Second day of spring

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Pumped

“We are going to pump you up!”

Foothills Park, Palo Alto:
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Mr Rainier today with lenticular cloud.
Tomorrow thunderstorms and chance of a tornado?!

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Watercolor and coffee klatch at my usual post-ride coffee spot.

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Looks like spring has sprung.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bdc7a5565.jpeg
Pretty spring day. Hopefully we’ll get a few more days of rain and the green will stick around a while.

https://i.imgur.com/Fz9fBJn.jpg

Window decal on a Thom Bargen coffee shop not far from home. Excuse the phone pic- I'll have to go back and do a do-over with the nikon.
It seems to be a small local chain- there's another one downtown, but I never noticed window decals there.

-D.S.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d133b780d6.jpg
My brother is visiting. :-)

finally found a connector trail I had been looking for

initially wished I had not found the trail - 7/10 mile climb with a good part 10-20% grade :(

but the hiking trail at the end of the connector trail was worth the climb :)

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a8bdc5204.jpeg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ba4658cc3.jpeg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...740defa85.jpeg

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.

OK ... I have to ask.

That looks a lot like the area around Hernandez New Mexico, where Ansel Adams took his famous "Moonrise" photo. Is it?

PS: Wish I could talk my brother or sister into a bike ride!

It does look a lot like Hernandez, but it's about 15 miles south, on the other side of Espanola. ;-)

area the Panhandle trail passes under often referred to as ‘Stonehenge’ ( initially before the bridge roadways were installed )

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...938e565f5.jpeg

A little late... I just don;t think of posting images here...
Convict Lake with clouds rolling in, a few hours before the recent Mid-March big storm dumped 4+ ft on the Sierra, around Mammoth Lks...
needed a nice, brisk walk, by myself... renew my ties and appreciation of the world I live with - uncontrolled by man or I

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...695be751e1.jpg
Convict Lake, Mar 2025

Live On
Yuri

Convict Lake is really beautiful. Oy, that is NOT a lot of snow for that time of year! :(

I very much agree with this sentiment, and I love the way you put it. I need to do more of it myself.