Iron Horse

I joined a few meetup folks for a ride of the Iron Horse Trail east of Seattle, from Rattlesnake Lake to Hyak.  It was billed as an all day ride, with time to smell the roses.  8 of us were to start at 9:30am and be finished up by 5pm.  The day was grey, but dry.  Temperatures were cool, but comfortable.

Julie, Victoria, and Sara, rolling like the three horsemen!

The gravel trail is easy enough to ride on any tire from about 32mm on up, with skilled riders able to negotiate it on 23's.

The Snoqualmie Valley

I was not the designated ride sweep, but I was the defacto ride sweep.  I provided company and moral support to two slower riders.

Both had suggested that they should turn around and ride back, but I knew they were both capable of doing this ride.  We just kept plugging along.  We arrived at the avalanche shed, a sign that we were near our turnaround.

 By the time we arrived at Snoqualmie Tunnel the three of us were probably an hour behind the lead group, but well within the published timeline.

As we pedaled through the 2.5 miles of blackness, we recognized the voices coming toward us. Our jackrabbits had turned around at Hyak and were on their way back to the cars. They didn't stop as they passed.  We knew we'd never see them again on this ride.  I was somewhat surprised that we didn't regroup on the way up, and failing that, a regroup at the turn around point would have seemed normal.

Our little "peloton" arrived at Hyak.

We stayed just a few minutes then started back.

We found our speed had nearly tripled.  Not only were we riding down a 2% grade, we had a 15 mph tail wind!

 We did stop at one of the bridges to take in a free show. We watched this guy work his way across the canyon for nearly a half hour.

This would seem hard enough as it was, without taking into account that there was a 15 mph wind blowing!

We finally pedaled off, not because the entertainment was lacking, but because we feared the skies were going to open up on us.  The clouds had been getting darker all day.

We arrived back at the trailhead at 4:15pm, even with the half hour watching the guy walk across the slack line.  We were well within the pre ride schedule......... but were still the only ones at the parking lot.  So much for a post ride debriefing.

At least we beat the rain.  Within minutes of beginning the drive back, windshield wipers were activated.


.......Road bike........Rollers.......MTB.......Lifecycle....Total
Today........0...............0.............45..............0.............45
Jan..........765.............0..............0..............0.............765
Feb..........248............0..............0..............0..............248
March......183...........0...............0.............0...............183
April........228...........0...............0.............0...............228
May.........200............0..............0.............0...............200
June.........199...........0...............26...........0...............225
July..........246...........0...............0.............0...............246
August.....502...........0...............0.............0...............502
Sept..........974...........0..............44............0..............1018
Oct...........899............0..............45.............0...............944
Total........4296.........0..............115............0..............4401