Seattle to Ellensburg. 120 miles of what I thought was to be nice hardpack away from traffic and surrounded by trees and nature. On paper this route looked dreamy, a slight 1% climb up 3000ft to the Snoqualmie tunnel and then a gentle 0.5% descent down the other side. The plan for this route was to make it all the way to Yakima but I ran out of daylight due to the conditions along the way.
The ride started at 4:45am and the morning was foggy and peaceful. The start of the ride crossing the 520 bridge and the Issaquah-Preston trail was absolutely lovely. Shortly after Preston I was deceived by my routing software to tackle a very steep climb on some dreadful singletrack. Eventually, after a bit of hike-a-biking, I emerged from the woods into a small neighborhood and continued to ride through a golf course with paths that I certainly was not supposed to ride on.
After a short stint on the Snoqualmie valley trail I reached Rattlesnake lake and the start of the Palouse to Cascades state park trail. The ascent from here was slow but gentle and after crossing many trestle bridges I reached the Snoqualmie tunnel. The cold wind from the east was noticeable before the tunnel was even in view. It was around 85 °F that day but cooled off rapidly as the tunnel approached.
I took a brief stop before entering to put on a wool buff and wind shell. The exit was visible as soon as my eyes had adjusted despite being over 2 miles away. The temperature dropped down to about 50 °F halfway through. I’m not sure how fast I went through the tunnel as I lost GPS connection, but I’d estimate a steady pace of 16-18mph with the occasional slowdown to avoid one of the freshly made puddles filling via drips from the ceiling.
Here, 80 miles in, began the slog of this route. What I thought would be an easy descent turning into the opposite as the trail had been covered in a fresh layer of far too chunky gravel that had yet to settle or have lines carved into it by service vehicles. Every mile or so was a metal gate most of which had to be dismounted to get around, or arrive at a complete stop to unchain, open, and then re-chain behind. This section felt very long due to the gravel and gates but eventually Cle Elum was reached and shortly after Thorp. In Thorp I abandoned the Iron Horse trail to enjoy some of the paved roads that run adjacent to the trail and highway. They were very comfortable after the last 40 miles of gravel and it was nice to feel my speed get up to 18mph instead of the average of 11mph I was doing before. I decided to call the end of the ride in Ellensburg rather than do the 40 mile poorly shouldered highway section through the canyon to Yakima due to the sun already being low to the horizon; my route planning did not anticipate being slowed so much by the conditions of the trail.
I was definitely underbiked for this with my 35mm tires and suffered for it. Still, the views and variations as you travel through different regions makes it so interesting, and the feeling of having crossed one of the largest mountain ranges on the continent is a satisfying one.
9/10