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Justin and I nearing the Chinook Pass summit, nearly a 5,000 foot climb.
Me on the long climb up Cayuse Pass, mile 62.
Justin on the last grunt before summit of Chinook Pass. Nice snow melt stream on the right.
Yes, yes another cycling post. Awesome route. One of my Patagonia teammates, Justin Angle and I finally were able to schedule a training road ride near Mt. Rainier. Since we both have been battling running injuries this season…it was nice to hook up for a ride. Not only could we talk about cycling, but ultrarunning too. We have been trying to mesh our schedule for a while and finally nailed down a time that worked. We met up at the intersection of Hwy 12 and WA-410, east of Mt. Rainier for the Triple Bypass loop on Friday, July 3rd at 8am.
Justin suggested it and it was a great loop. The route we did heads west up Hwy 12 to White Pass, then down to 123, which we took north up to Cayuse Pass and the intersection of WA-410. Then climb WA-410 up to Chinook Pass and finally the descent back to where we started. 116 miles, 7100 feet of climbing. Great loop and the weather was nice and warm and sunny. It was a little toasty the last 20 miles heading back down toward Yakima Valley with a hot, dry headwind. Justin and I quit chatting and worked together in a pace line to get through the final miles in the heat and head wind. My car thermometer read 101 when we got back. Hot.
All in all, great day. I highly recommend the route. We did it on Fourth of July weekend (Friday) and probably would have been a bit better, traffic-wise, if it were a “normal” Friday. Lots of people on the road. Most cars were pretty courteous…got buzzed by a few idiots. Always a bit scary when that happens, but we got through unscathed thankfully.
We ended up gettin’er done in 6 hours and 19 minutes (18.5 mph average). We had some great views and climbs and the 123 section was stellar. Giddyup!