2012_06_24 Chinook Pass (Yakima) Ride

Author of this post:  Mike Hassur

Date:  07-04-2012

This title is a bit of a misnomer.  Due to a dubious weather forecast west of the mountains and a decent one east of the mountains, our plan (Les, Jim, and Mike H) was to meet at the top of Chinook Pass at 7:30 AM, ride 30-40 miles down the east side toward Naches, and head back up the way we came. 

As we drove through Enumclaw and headed toward Greenwater, the rain seemed to get worse; but that was to be expected because we were on the west side of the mountains.  When we got to Cayuse Pass it was still raining some and the roads were quite wet, but – no problem – because we were still  on the west side of the mountains.  At the top of Chinook, sure enough – no rain, but the roads were quite wet and it was cold 35 degrees.  No problem – we would just drive down the east side of the mountains 30-40 miles.  It would be dry there; and by the time we rode back up to Chinook, it should have dried out as well. 

The further we drove east, the more it rained.  Finally, we were in Naches; and it wasn’t raining.  By this time, we had decided to ride a loop from Naches to Yakima and up north of Yakima.  We stopped at a Shell Gas Station for a bathroom break before getting out the bikes.  As we were standing inside of the Shell Station, the hardest rain that we had seen all day began.  At that point, I was ready to call it a day and drive home; but Jim Wilcher suggested that we drive over to Yakima, have breakfast, and see if things dried out.

We drove to Yakima; and, lo and behold, NO RAIN.  We decided to forego breakfast and head out on a ride while it was still dry.  Our goal was to ride through the town of Selah and catch Canyon Road which runs north along the river toward Ellensburg.  In keeping with our less than stellar luck for the day, we got on the wrong road and never saw the river to Ellensberg.  On the other hand, the road that we were on turned out to be beautiful.  We had decided to turn around at a certain time in order to get home at a reasonable hour.  Ironically, when we reached our pre-determined turnaround time; the road ended (turned to gravel).  We had been riding into the wind and gradually climbing for the entire first half of our ride, so the ride back was fast and fun.  We were back to Yakima in no time. 

 It turned out that we really enjoyed this ride - enough so that we discussed possibly having an early Spring Cyclopath ride in this area next year (maybe from Yakima to Ellensburg and back).  We actually know where Canyon Road is now, so no worries about missing it the next time!

See all of our photos from this ride at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/103821724300588557330/2012_06_24YakimaRide#