Cyclopath Ride: Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier
Author of this post: Make Hassur
What a
great ride!! I met Leon in front of my
house in Puyallup at 5:55 AM, and we headed out toward Orting. It was chilly (40 degrees), and we could
certainly feel the cold as we raced down Shaw Road at 35-40 mph. On the way to Orting, we saw a Cyclopath
jersey heading toward us on the trail.
It was Tom Peterson on his new carbon fiber Fuji bike (what a nice
looking bike). He’d arrived early in
Orting and decided to ride out to meet us.
The three of us rode into Orting to find Les, Kurt, Dan, and Mark
waiting for us in front of the bike shop.
It was
still pretty chilly as we headed out of Orting at 6:45 AM. On the way to South Prairie, Kurt Maute said
he just wasn’t feeling right. He turned
around and headed back to Orting which was disappointing for the rest of
us. We headed over to South Prairie and
up Tubbs Road Hill (the steep hill just south of South Prairie). If any of us were cold at the bottom of this
climb, we weren’t by the time we reached the top! As usual, Leon tried to kill us on the climb
(speaking only for myself, I would say that he was successful).
By the
time we arrived in Wilkeson, it had warmed up enough that we were all taking
off our jackets and stowing them. Just outside of Wilkeson, the climb to
Carbonado begins. This climb is one of
the “competitive climbs (segments)” listed on Strava.com, so those of us with
Garmin bike computers (which is almost all of us) were psyched to attack that
climb to see how we could do. I worked
really hard on the way up. At the end of
the climb, my assessment (fogged a bit by oxygen deprivation) was that none of
the other guys looked nearly as tired as I felt.
After
Carbonado, we wound our way up to the Fairfax Bridge and headed on up toward Mt
Rainier’s Carbon River Entrance. By this
time, it was warm enough that I really didn’t need to wear gloves (though I
kept some light ones on for protection).
We
zoomed on up to the Carbon River Entrance, made a pit stop, and headed
back. Tom and Leon left just before the
rest of us. I knew that Tom had a tennis
tournament going on at the club and that he was anxious to get back into cell
phone range to make certain all was going well.
As the rest of us headed back, we noticed that Tom and Leon were already
out of sight. We just figured that Tom
was hammering to get back into cell range and that Leon just couldn’t resist a
good hammering. We set off in pursuit,
figuring that we would see them soon.
The further we went without seeing them, the faster we went. I was sure that they would wait for us at the
Fairfax Bridge above Carbonado, but when we got there – no Leon and Tom (“Boy,
they must really be in a hurry”?!).
We got
in a pace line and raced past Carbonado and down the hill into Wilkeson – still
no Leon and Tom (“Good grief – did they get a ride back to Orting”?!). As we were riding through Wilkeson, a guy on
a nice looking Honda motorcycle pulled up next to us and started talking to
us. Unfortunately, he had on a big
helmet that covered his mouth; and we couldn’t understand a word that he was
saying. He didn’t seem angry, so I just
smiled and gave him a “thumbs up” sign.
The motorcyclist then proceeded to pull off the road about 100 yards
ahead of us and take off his leather jacket.
He was wearing a Cyclopath jersey!!
It was Kurt Maute. He had been so
disappointed that he couldn’t do the ride with us that he drove home, got his
motorcycle, and came out to find us. How
cool is that?
After a
quick visit with Kurt, we headed toward South Prairie and Orting.
When we
arrived in Orting, we saw Tom’s truck still sitting where he had parked it that
morning. We just couldn’t figure out
where Tom and Leon were. As it turned
out, Leon and Tom and had ridden less than a quarter of a mile from the Carbon
River Entrance when they turned onto a side road and proceeded 100 yards or so
to a bridge where we often stop to take a group picture. When we went by the bridge, we didn’t see
them; and we assumed that they were ahead of us. Tom and Leon didn’t see us either, so they
wasted a lot of time looking for us on their way back to Orting. It was a real Keystone Kops routine.
Considering
that the first three or four of our rides last summer got rained out (or rained
on), this ride was a resounding success.
The weather turned out to be very pleasant, the scenery was wonderful
(as usual), the company was ideal, and the riding was exciting. Can’t wait for the Alder Lake Loop Ride in
two weeks.
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