Author: Mike
Hassur
Wow, perfect weather and great ride.
I was up at 4:25 AM.
I had packed my bike and gear in the van the night before, so it was
just a matter of getting dressed, kissing Kathy goodbye, and heading out. By 4:55, I was filling the van up with gas;
and, by 5:15 AM we were leaving Conor Collins’ home and heading for Buckley to
meet the rest of the guys.
We arrived at Wally’s Drive In to find Nick Iverson
waiting for us. We loaded Nick’s bike
and gear in the van and followed Nick while he parked his car on a side
street. By the time we got back, Leon
and Jurgen were waiting in Wally’s parking lot and David Garate arrived a
minute later. Leon loaded David’s bike,
and we were off.
We arrived at the top of Cayuse Pass a little before 7:00
AM. The temperature was in the low 40’s,
so the decision was made to drive to the bottom of Cayuse (south side) and head
up toward Backbone Ridge and Paradise first.
The rationale being that we would be climbing during the colder part of
the day and descending after it had warmed up a bit.
After parking the cars about two miles from the Steven’s
Canyon Entrance to Mt Rainier, we headed
past the ranger station (still closed
at that hour) and started the climb up to Backbone Ridge. It was still pretty chilly; but, as soon as
the climbing began, we started to warm up.
As usual, Conor was off on his own as soon as we started to climb. The rest of us visited and rode at a steady
pace. Probably because of the “group
effect”, we found ourselves at the top of Backbone Ridge in no time.
We descended the west side of Backbone Ridge and started
climbing up past Box Canyon to the lower portion of Steven’s Canyon. We stopped at a viewpoint at the beginning of
Steven’s Canyon and took some photos. It
was pretty spectacular. As we proceeded
up through Steven’s Canyon, we were early enough that there was very little
traffic. Soon, we found ourselves at the
hairpin turn above Steven’s Canyon; and, not long after that, at Reflection
Lake. 
We cruised up to Paradise where we stopped to take a
couple of photos. Leon was cold and
wanted to keep moving, so he headed down to find Nick who was somewhere behind
us. We were to meet Leon at the bottom
of the Paradise Meadows Road. After a
few minutes we (Jurgen, David, Conor,
and Mike) headed down. When we got to the aforementioned meeting
place, NO LEON OR NICK. We waited for a
few minutes and decided to ride back up to Paradise looking for them. We rode back up to the visitors’ center, but
still no Leon or Nick. This time, we
split up with two of taking the west road down from Paradise and two of us
taking the east road. We arrived at the
bottom and regrouped, but still hadn’t found our two missing riders. As we headed back toward Reflection Lake, we
finally found them.
After comparing notes to figure out how we had missed
each other, we headed back past Reflection Lake and began the descent down
through Steven’s Canyon. That descent
has always been one of the best descents that we do (both in terms of riding
and scenery). Now that they are
resurfacing it, the descent will be even better.
We negotiated Steven’s Canyon in no time and soon found
ourselves climbing the three miles up the east side of Backbone Ridge. Again, this went by quickly. We flew down Backbone Ridge (east side) to
the Ranger Station and out of the park.
We had planned to do Cayuse Pass after replenishing our
supplies at the cars, but we were running a little short on time and decided to
forego Cayuse. This proved to be a good
choice as we had the opportunity to listen to the end of the Seahawks game on
the way back to Buckley.
At Buckley, we split up and headed home. As has been the case for most of our rides
this summer; the weather was great, the scenery was great, and the riders were
great.
click on the following link to view all the pictures from this ride: https://picasaweb.google.com/103821724300588557330/2013_09_08BackboneRidgeAndParadiseRide#slideshow/5922049140439487666
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