Three Highest Passes of the Cascades

Not quite sure how the Permanent got this name, since Washington Pass at 5,477 feet is higher than the three passes on this ride - Chinook (5,430), White (4,500), and Cayuse (4,675). So, for truth in advertising purposes, consider this a notice that it is really "Three High Passes of the Cascades". Okay. Now the record is clear.

I've wanted to do this Permanent for quite a while. So when the weekend opened up and the weather looked good, choosing this was a no brainer. Then the weather started turning too nice ... as in too hot. A forecast of mid 80's on the west side and mid 90's on the east side had me waffling. Bunnyhawk suggested riding on Sunday instead ... a much cooler forecast. Tempting. Very tempting. But no. I don't do well in the heat and the only way I'm going to get over that is to do some riding in it.

So I do what I can to prepare for the heat. Make sure I will have enough water ... three bottles should do it .. with some Ensure as backup. Enough food to eat along the way. Light color clothes to reflect rather than absorb heat. Remove fenders and backup light since it isn't going to rain and I shouldn't be riding in the dark. Take the counter-clockwise approach to the route - we should get two of the three climbs out of the way before noon - while it is cooler. Start the ride as early in the day as possible.

Since the ride starts at Greenwater and the only service open at that time is Buzzy's Cafe ... which opens at 6:00 AM ... we will start at 6:30. There are eleven riders - Erik Anderson, Bill Gobie, Dave Harper, Josh Morse, Vincent Muoneke, Eamon Stanley, Ken Ward, Charlie White, Michael Wolfe, and myself. Most of us get there a bit before six. I'm fiddling with my bike on the deck when Buzzy opens the door and gruffly says "They can't leave their cars here all day." While folks move their cars I go in and ask to order ... it is only Buzzy and I can tell service is going to be slow. Fortunately I should be able to get my bacon, eggs, & hash browns in time to eat and leave by 6:30. The others drift in and order. At 6:20 or so I go up to the cash register and ask to pay ... a couple of others, who had just had coffee, join me. Buzzy appears overwhelmed. When I pull out my Visa, he swears. Cash register breaks down. It is apparent that asking for a receipt is not going to be practical. Buzzy realizes that something is burning in the kitchen and leaves. I sign the VISA receipt and head out. It is now about 6:30, so those of us who are ready take off.

Michael Wolfe zooms off, with Vincent following closely. Erik Anderson, Charlie White, Ken Ward, Dave Harper, and I ride together for a while, then Erik & Charlie move out ahead as the grade increases. Ken, Dave & I mostly rode together until shortly after the turn back onto 410. The ride down from Cayuse Pass on SR-123 was fantastic ... the rode was redone last year and we had 5 or 6 miles of an effortless 35 mph descent. That was fun. I was glad to have my jacket and leg warmers on though. At the turn onto SR-12 I take them off ... no need for them on the climb up and the next descent won't be that chilly.

We make it to the top of White Pass and then stop for a sandwich at Silver Beach resort ... site of the overnight on last year's spring 600K. Since it is now warm and it is about 50 miles to the next certain water stop at Clifdell, we load up on water & ice. There is a bit of a head wind as we continue down 12 towards Naches, so it seems to take forever to make it to the 410/12 intersection. I've gone through one of my bottles. I have two insulated bottles and one regular water bottle. The water in the remaining insulated bottle is cold ... the non-insulated water is warm ...the insulation does make a noticeable difference.

I get into a good rhythm and begin to move out ahead of Ken & Dave. About ten miles up from the turn there is a store on the left that is open. I go in and restock with water & ice. Thinking Ken & Dave must have passed by while I was inside, I go on, hoping to catch them at Clifdell. They aren't there of course ... apparently still behind me. Not knowing how far back they are, I press on. I love the climb up Chinook. This road is fairly quiet, in pretty good shape, and is so scenic. While hot, it has been manageable ... plenty of water and an Endurolyte every half hour seems to be keeping me in decent shape. Still, the last five miles are pretty brutal ... the grade is "only" 5-6 %, but in the heat and after 125 miles and some 9,000 feet of climbing so far every 0.1 mile just ticks by ever so slowly. I have to stop every 1 - 1.4 miles to catch my breath for a minute and drink. Fortunately there is a bit of cloud cover now so it isn't as hot as it could be. But I finally make it to the top. Even though there are 27 miles to go, I feel as though the ride is complete. The rest of the ride is almost all downhill ... I can practically coast in.

I make it in at 6:45 ... 12 hours and 15 minutes. Maybe I'm getting so where I can ride in the heat! One thing I learned about riding in the heat ... don't take yogurt covered cranberries. The yogurt melts and makes quite a mess.

RUSA 126 RAMROD

Back in the 80's, when I rode the STP several times as my big bike adventures, finally working up to doing it in one day, I heard about RAMROD. Riding Around Mt Rainier in One Day. Wow. Those guys must be nuts I thought. I'll never do that...I could probably never do that!




Since I've crossed over to the dark side ... actively randonneuring ... and definitely a bit on the nuts side myself, it has become time to challenge the perception that RAMROD is something I couldn't do. Mark Thomas and several others did the RAMROD Permanent in mid June. I was out of town and couldn't join them, but it planted the seed. They came up with a few tweaks to the course that I finally got around to making to the official Permanent route on Friday. There were a couple of minor questions to resolve before I could finalize them. So, time to ride!

While the Permanent isn't exactly the Redmond Cycle Club official ride, in effect it is the same thing - a one day ride around Mt. Rainier ... roughly 150 miles on the same roads. Lots of climbing ... up to Paradise Lodge at 5,400 feet and Cayuse Pass at 4,675 feet.

I wasn't sure what to expect. While I've ridden most of the roads, I hadn't been up to Paradise in years, don't recall ever having gone between Paradise and 123 on the east side, and have only gone up 123 to Cayuse Pass once - earlier this year on the 600K. The official RAMROD ride starts at 4:30, although folks can start later than that. I decided to maximize my daylight hours ... I'd get up at 4:00 and shoot to be in Enumclaw and ready to ride around 5:30.

I started pedaling at about 5:25. The weather forecast was right on ... at least to start... morning clouds. They were to burn off and then the day would end up in the mid 70's ... lots of blue sky. I didn't see the sun until I was in Mt.Rainier Park ... perhaps 10:15 or so. The clouds were heavy ... and brought Seattle rain ... a light mist ... with them for part of the ride from Eatonville to Elbe or so. Actually it was quite pleasant.

Traffic and roads were pretty good. There were some signs for a Route 162 Detour in Buckley, but no warnings about a road closure. A couple miles later, at the intersection of 162 and 165, the road was closed. Bummer. I went up and asked a worker if I could get through and he said he'd check, as they were just finishing up. A minute or two later, I was on my way ... even though the road was still "closed". That was close ... I really didn't want to have to backtrack and go some extra miles on a detour!

I made decent time from the start to the park entrance, getting there shortly after 9:15 AM ... slightly over 15 mph. The next part, up to Paradise, was much slower ... lots of climbing, but not all that steep. I stopped and took pictures along the way ... that's part of my excuse for taking longer. The mountain, the streams & falls were all gorgeous. Aside from a couple of deer outside South Prairie, no wildlife though.


When I got to Paradise ... 11:15 or so ... there was a fair amount of construction activity evident and lots of cars/people in the parking lot. I had a sandwich & soda from the cafe at the lodge, then headed down. For some reason going downhill is so fun! I did stop at take some more pictures though.



There was more climbing that I had expected between Paradise and 123. I had naively expected/hoped it would be pretty much all downhill. A lot was, but not as much as I wanted. There was a lot of construction on 123 up to and just beyond Cayuse Pass ... many places where the road had been torn up for 25-75 yards or so to be repaved. It will be nice when it's done, but was a bit of a pain. Still, I was at the top of Cayuse and headed down before I knew it.






I knew that Joe Llona was riding the Sunrise Permanent and thought that I had a chance of running into him on 410. Sure enough, shortly after Greenwater, he caught up with me and we rode into Enumclaw together. It was nice to see him again ... and thank him again for all those ice socks on the Cascade 1200!

I pulled into Safeway in Enumclaw at about 4:45 ... 11 hours and 20 minutes to do the 151 miles and 9,000 feet of climbing. Much better than I had expected.

And then to Dairy Queen for my Cherry Blizzard!