Scouting the Willapa Hills Trail

Author:  Dwaine

Adam and I are Puyallup Cyclopaths cut from a slightly different cloth. We own pickup trucks. We ride our bikes in the gravel. We ride our bikes when it's cold. It should be no surprise that our riding season has not yet ended. Last weekend we took the opportunity of a dry Winter day to explore and report on the Willapa Hills Trail.

The Willapa Hills Trail is a converted railway bed that extends 56 miles from Chehalis West towards South Bend. The Washington Parks Willapa Hills web page gives some details. It is paved for five miles at its Western end. The gravel is described as 'improved' for the next twenty miles and mostly 'unimproved' for the remainder of the length towards the ocean. As a converted railway it is mostly flat and straight.

What it does not detail is the definition of 'improved' nor does it give clues on if the 'unimproved' section is passable via the gravel style bicycles that we so dearly love. Adam and I chose a dry and cold day to do some firsthand exploration.

We met in Chehalis and were rolling before 9 a.m. A local dog walker warned us of ice on the trail and we observed frost or ice on most of the many bridges that repeatedly crossed the Chehalis river.

As expected the first five miles were paved and rolled quickly by. When the trail transitioned to 'improved' so did the scenery. The 'improved' gravel was about as smooth and perfect a non paved surface could be. The scenery would swing between open farm fields and wooded river banks.

This section sped by as well. As often happens our conversation wandered onto pickup trucks. Adam is considering a change and we debated the pros and cons of various choices. Gas versus diesel. New versus used. I could go and on. Our truck conversation was interupted by our arrival into Pe Ell at about the 22nd mile.

Pe Ell is about where the 'climbing' started. Please imagine air quotes around the word 'climbing'. Other than the bridge aproaches the grade never exceeded two percent.

Mile 27 brought the hugely anticipated change to 'unimproved' gravel. We were quite pleased that the road was still flat, smooth, and fast. The improved section had included crushed fine gravel. The unimproved did not. We kept trucking along.

Our next waypoint was near Pluvius Hill. We had climbed about 550 feet since leaving Chehalis 28.5 miles earlier. This is where the trail begins to ever so gently descend towards the ocean. This might be called a pass or summit by some. That is worthy of debate. But on this ride we noticed only a slight change in speed as we pedaled on.

My initial route planning included another waypoint at mile 32. But just before we got that far we were treated to a drastic change in scenery. The typical mixture of lowland Western Washington conifers and decidious species changed to a single species of birch. The sun was shining to the forest floor and we stopped for the only photo of our day:

The Willapa Hills Trail follows the same basic route as WA state Highway 6. In a few places the trail requires riders to cross this two lane country highway. But at mile 32 trail users are afforded the luxury of passing safely under Highway 6. This was our chosen turn around point and the closest we would get to the Pacific Ocean on this day.

The ride back was uneventful. Since the sun had been out for a while the temperature was up to about 40 and we stopped in Pe Ell just long enough for me to get my jacket off. Some time after the three hour mark we were feeling some serious fatigue. The conversation continued to be engaging but our legs were starting to talk a bit on their own.

After four and a quarter hours we completed the 64 mile ride. Being nearly flat meant we were spinning for almost every minute of the ride. I felt the effects at the end and once my bike was safely leaned up against the grill of the Vanagon I found a sunny spot in the parking lot to sit, stretch, and rest.

Hopefully next Spring Adam and I can complete the trip to the Ocean. When that happens you can bet I'll report our findings right here.

The Year 2020 in Review: COVID-19, Cycling and Positive Memories

Author:  Mike Hassur

Aah, 2020… what a year it’s been… lots of unpleasant memories (COVID-19, isolation, social distancing, wearing a mask, social unrest, etc.).  Nothing good about 2020… right?  WRONG… there were, at least, a few 2020 bright spots in our lives this year, and I would like to share some of mine. 

One of my biggest disappointments of the year was having to cancel all of our planned Puyallup Cyclopath (PC) Rides for 2020 because of Coronavirus concerns.  As usual, we had met in February to decide on our official PC ride schedule.  We’d come up with a schedule of rides (some old standards and some new) that looked to be both challenging and fun (2020 PuyallupCyclopath Ride Schedule); and, then, the Coronavirus came.  I touched bases with a few of my physician friends, and the consensus was that cycling in a fairly large group was probably not wise.  Having to cancel our rides was disappointing to me on a number of levels.  I like the physical nature of those rides, I like the locales in which we ride (i.e. the mountains), and – most importantly – I like the people with whom I share those rides.

Well, that sucked!!  So, what to do now?  I decided that I would have a summer of solo rides located primarily on the Foothills Trail starting at the Puyallup Trail Head (with the occasional “social distanced” ride with one or two other riders sprinkled in as well).  I had been doing spinning class at the YMCA over the winter on a regular basis and riding my rollers some, so I was in decent shape.  I began to get outside for a couple of rides in late February; and on February 22^nd, I did a 23-mile ride and averaged 18.0 mph.  I was pretty pleased with that average speed, and it made me think “since I can’t ride with my buddies and visit (visiting being one of my favorite things to do on a ride), maybe I’ll focus on my average speed during these solo rides and see how it goes”.  By March 1^st, I’d done a few more rides including a 25-miler at 18.2 mph.  On March 3^rd, a 40-mile ride to Buckley and Wilkeson at 17.6 mph.  On the following day, the same 40-mile ride resulted in 17.8 mph; and now I’m starting to think now, “hey, this could be fun”!!  After a couple of more rides, March 9^th produced a 31-mile ride (just past South Prairie and back at 18.9 mph (tantalizing close to 19 mph).  The next day (March 10^th): 34 miles at 19.7 mph (“what the heck – this is really fun and sort of close to 20 mph”).  March 11^th was sort of like throwing cold water on my enthusiasm - literally.  I did a 30 mile ride to South Prairie and back.  It was cold and starting to rain as I approached South Prairie which meant that I was wet and really cold all the way back to Puyallup – so much so that I couldn’t stop shaking when I arrived at my van, and my peripheral vision was “strobing”.  A March 16^th 49-mile ride with Les Becker down into the Nisqually area rekindled my enthusiasm.  Late March had quite a bit of rain, so my riding was mostly some hill repeats in our neighborhood in case I had to abandon quickly.  April brought better weather; and on April 1^st, I did my 34-mile ride past South Prairie at 19.5 mph (still sort of close to 20 mph, but no cigar).  April 9^th brought a 51-mile ride (including Wilkeson, Carbonado, The Fairfax Bridge, Buckley and back to Puyallup) at 18.2 mph.  I was encouraged.  The average speed was down a little, but this route was longer and had considerably more climbing.  April 11^th brought a ride entitled (on Strava) “Whew, that was fun!!”  It was my normal 34-mile ride just past South Prairie, but I managed to average 19.9 mph (I’m thinking “darn it, I almost got to 20 mph”) – enthusiasm skyrocketing!!

4/14/2020:  Mike at Fairfax Bridge just past Carbonado...
52 miles/18.0 mph

After a couple of more 19.0 mph rides in the 30-34 mile range, April 21^st brought a 51-mile ride at 18.7 mph (pretty much the same ride that I’d done on April 9^th except that this one was 0.5 mph faster…).  April 24^th saw a 52-mile ride at 18.6 mph, and April 26^th was a 58-mile ride at 18.1 mph (I’m thinking “take THAT Coronavirus – you’re not going to ruin my summer”). 

           

  

4/26/20 Calfee and Mike at Fairfax Bridge 

For the sake of brevity, I will simply list some of the rides that built up to probably my best ride of the summer which occurred in June:

April 29^th… 35-mile ride at 19.8 mph. 

May 5^th… 58-mile ride at 19.2 mph

May 7^th… 34-mile ride at 19.1 mph

Finally, on Sunday May 10^th on a ride that was purposely short (only 20 miles, because it was Mother’s Day); I managed to average 20.2 mph!!  Mother’s Day with Kathy and the boys and that ride (even though it was short)... COOL!!

May 13^th… 68-mile ride (almost 2,000’ of climbing) at 18.6 mph

May 15^th… 34-mile ride at 18.7 mph

May 17^th… 35-mile ride at 19.2 mph

May 19^th… 56-mile ride (1,200’ of climbing) at 19.0 mph

May 24^th… 75-mile ride (2,300’ of climbing) at 18.1 mph (a little visiting on this ride as I rode from Orting to South Prairie with a friend from spinning class)

May 26^th… 32-mile ride at 20.1 mph

May 28^th… 44-mile ride at 19.0 mph

May 31^st… 30-mile ride at 19.4 mph

June 2^nd… 39-mile ride at 18.3 mph (stopped at various points along the trail to pick up trash… it’s a nice trail, and I figure that we all should contribute to keep it that way)

June 3^rd… 51-mile ride (~1,300’ of climbing) at 19.4 mph (getting a little faster on those longer rides)

June 8^th… 66-mile ride (1,900’ of climbing) at 18.8 mph

June 12^th… 34-mile ride at 20.4 mph (fastest ride of the summer so far)

** Note:  For all of May and June, I had the feeling that I just couldn’t wait to see what the next ride had in store… **

June 14^th… 65-mile ride at 15.0 mph (last ride with Leon… this ride was about visiting and enjoying the ride together – which we did… it was not about going fast)

June 16^th… 34-mile ride at 19.6 mph

June 19^th… 54-mile ride at 20.2 mph with 1,000’ of climbing (I considered this my best ride of the summer when both distance and average speed were taken into account.  I got a LOT of satisfaction from this ride.)

June 28^th… 37-mile ride at 20.2 mph 

 Mike & Belching Beaver post-ride hydration 6/28/2020 

At this point of the summer, I was wondering “how much faster can I go on rides of 50-60 miles, or how much further can I go with avg. speeds in the 20 mph range”.  The answer was “you are pretty much at your limit (at least, when riding solo)”.   Although I had quite a few more rides of 19 mph or above (and some at more than 20 mph), I never quite matched that June 19^th ride in the latter part of Summer and into the Fall (I did have one ride on July 12^th that averaged 20.7 mph, but it was only 26 miles long).

Though my performance plateaued after than June 19^th ride, my enjoyment did not.  My largest group ride of the summer was on July 3^rd with Scott W, Kyle D and Martin K.  We did repeats on the climb up to the Sunrise Visitor Center on Mt. Rainier.  We went early, so there wasn’t much traffic (i.e. it was easy to “social distance”).  Click on the link below to see video of our descents:

7/03/2020 Descent from Sunrise Visitor Center (Video)

 I had the opportunity to enjoy The Climb with Les Becker on a couple of occasions with lots of visiting both times; and Dwaine T., Adam A. and I had a great ride out to the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier and back with lots of visiting and me trying to keep up.

Adam and Dwaine and the Carbon River...

Finally, I’ve had the opportunity in the past couple of months to do more “two man rides” with a number of different Cyclopaths (in addition, Martin K. and I have done a number of enjoyable rides together recently).

A special “shout out” to Dwaine T. who has gone out of his way to travel from University Place by bike (and, more recently, in his new “1980’s vintage VW Vanagon”) to Puyallup in order to meet me for numerous rides).

 

Dwaine's pride and joy AND make-shift coffee shop... if you knew the amount of
work he has put into it, you would understand why he's so proud of it...

So, whether it was the performance gains that I enjoyed in the spring and early part of summer, or the opportunity to do more “2-3 person rides" with my friends in the latter part of summer and into autumn, or BOTH; my “outdoor cycling season of 2020” was special.  It was very different, very challenging, very satisfying, very memorable and very interesting in terms of how I had to approach it as compared to any other year that I can remember.  Thank you to everyone who played a part in it.

If any of the rest of you had positive cycling experiences this year and want to share them on our blog, let me know.

FINGERS CROSSED FOR 2021...👍👍

2020_09_17 Pikes Peak: Leon Matz and Scott Wagar

 Author:  Leon Matz

I was real excited to have my first (hopefully of many ) Cyclopath visitor to Colorado Springs, Scott Wagar.  Scott was arriving in the area on Tuesday and wanted to ride on Wednesday and Saturday.  We knew that there would be much less traffic going up Pikes Peak on a weekday, so Wednesday was the day.  As most of you know, Scott is not shy about taking on a challenge.  Climbing to the top of the second highest paved road in the US (14,100 ft) with less than a day to get used to the  altitude was more than a little ambitious. 

Scott drove to my house a little before 7 am.  We, then, drove to the town of Cascade to meet one of my new cycling friends, Al; and we began our ride from there.

The forecast was for the day to be sunny but cool.  It was 45 degrees when we started, so I had multiple layers on for the climb and probably more important for the descent as the temperature at the top was 33 degrees when we started with an high expected between 41-45.

The climb almost immediately hit 10%.  We stopped at the gate a mile into the climb to pay (the road to the top of Pikes Peak is a toll road).  Again, the climb was consistently 9-10% for the next 5-6 miles.  The pace Scott and I were doing was a little fast for Al, so he dropped back as Scott and I continued on.  Both of us were feeling pretty good; but it became clear that the weather forecast was off, because we were both sweating a fair amount.  There was no sign of Scott having trouble with the altitude which surprised me. 

We were about 13 miles through the 19 mile climb when I started having cramping issues.  I ingested some salt and some Rolaids and increased my consumption of Powerade.  Instead of riding side by side, Scott now rode up the road where he would, periodically, wait for me.  Unfortunately, the cramps persisted.  My stomach started feeling queasy, and I started feeling dizzy!  With 4 miles left and 1,600 feet to climb, I made the decision to head down.  Considering the cramps and the dizziness, continuing on the final portion of the climb wasn’t worth risking a crash.  It was very hard making that decision, because I wanted to summit with Scott.  I descended a 1,000 feet and tried to start climbing again, but the cramps returned (even though my dizziness had disappeared).  

I headed all the way down to the car.  Scott and Al made it to the summit and showed up about an hour later.

I'm not sure why I had all those issues. Three weeks before this ride I road to the top of Mt Evans (14,200') with none of those issues.

Pikes Peak is much steeper than Mt Evans; but...some days you have “it”, and some days you don’t. For Scott to be able to ride to the top of Pikes Peak (considered to be the second toughest climb in the US) with no time for his body to adjust to altitude was pretty amazing !

2020_09_27 Puyallup to The Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier and Back with Adam, Dwaine and Mike

 

Author:  Mike Hassur

 

This blog post is a little belated, but If wanted to make sure that I recorded this ride (even if I’m a little late in doing so). 

 A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Dwaine Trummert saying “I’m itching to go for a ride”.  We agreed to do the ride to the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier and back on Sunday, September 27^th.  We, also, agreed that it would be a good idea to ask Adam Abrams if he wanted to join us (which he did). 

Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier Ride
(67 miles and 3,000' of climbing)

Our plan was to meet at the head of the Foothills Trail in Puyallup at 7:00 AM.  We were heading out on the trail by 7:03 AM.  The first half of the ride (from Puyallup to the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier) is uphill most of the way.  It's not steep, but it's unrelenting.  We did a lot of visiting on the way out, but that does not mean that we were riding at a leisurely pace.  When you ride with Adam and Dwaine, I'm not sure that there is such a thing as a "leisurely pace".  In fact, the pace was brisk enough that; by the time we got to the last climb before reaching our "turn around point" I wasn't doing much talking.  I had just enough energy to do one thing - either talking or pedaling - and I chose pedaling.

We stopped on the bridge at the Carbon River Entrance and took a photo or two (as well as rehydrating and taking in some food).  This break was what I needed to get rehydrated and restock my energy reserves.  By the time we were ready to head back, I was ready to go.  

Adam, Dwaine and the Carbon River...

The only problem with me feeling refreshed and ready to go was that both Adam and Dwaine were, also, ready to go which meant that our return trip to Puyallup was going to be "vigorous".

Adam and Dwaine have done a ton of riding together, and they never seem to be at a loss for things to talk about.  It was in the early portion of the second half of this ride that I realized that a good strategy was to just let them ride side by side with me hanging back a bit listening to their conversation.  It was always interesting (with topics ranging from how to cook chicken to Adam aspiring to have a "power profile" similar to that of Peter Sagan), and it gave me the opportunity to draft a bit and save energy.  

Since this second half of the ride was mostly downhill, we were over 20 mph for most of the ride back through Carbonado, Wilkeson, South Prairie, Orting and - finally - to Puyallup (as shown in our video of the second half of this ride - see link below).  It was a blast!

After a summer of mostly solo rides (thanks, COVID), this ride was a welcome change.  I totally enjoyed having the opportunity to share this ride with Adam and Dwaine.  The visiting was great as was the aggressive pace.  My only complaint was that I forgot my camera; so I didn't have many photos to share from this ride.  

If this was my last "group ride" of 2020, it was a good one.  I'm looking forward to 2021 and, hopefully, more rides with The Cyclopaths.

2020_09_27 Puyallup to Carbon River Entrance of Mt. Rainier and Back (Video)

2020_09_19 The Coeur d'Alene Gran Fondo with Mike Richards, Rob Critchfield and Steve Barker

Coeur d'Alene Gran Fondo Route

Fellow Cyclopath Mike Richards, our friend Steve Barker, and I have been riding together this summer.  Toward the end of June, I received a text from a friend of mine who lives in Yakima telling me that he was training for the Coeur d’Alene Gran Fondo  https://cdagrandondo.com.  This is a ride around Coeur d’Alene Lake.  We decided that it would be a good event for us to train for and so we registered. 

Mike, Steve and Rob

Leading up to the event, we trained by riding many of the Cyclopath rides including Alder Lake, Gig Harbor, Carbonado, and Skate Creek Loop.  There were several different reported distances for the ride, any where from 112 to 120.  The reported vertical was over 7,000 vertical feet. 

The last two weeks leading up to the ride were frustrating and nail biting.  With the air quality so poor, we were not able to ride like we wanted to.  Also, we feared the ride might be canceled due to the poor air quality.  Looking at the weather forecast each day, we saw a trend.  It looked like the air quality was going to be good

 enough to ride, but this was due to some rain that was going to clear it out.  We decided the forecast looked good enough and so we drove across the state.  We had some friends who live in Spokane who were nice enough to allow us to crash at their house for a night.

Friday evening, it was still very smoky in Spokane with the air quality index in the 180s.  Our friend, Steve, had gone over ahead of Mike and I; and he picked up our ride packets in Coeur d'Alene on Friday.  While there, he told us it was so hazy you couldn’t see the other side of the lake.  We were a little worried about what the air quality would be.   

We woke early and left Spokane about 6:00 a.m.  As I understand it, this ride is normally timed; and you get a start time.  This year, given that ridership was really down and with COVID-19, they did a rolling start and did not time the ride.  We planned to start at 7:00 a.m.   

The start and finish are at different places.  We parked at the finish line, which meant we had a two mile soft peddle to the start through Coeur d’Alene.  We got a little lost not knowing exactly where we were going.  This was very fortunate for us, because we came up on a fellow rider, Andy Marosvari, and asked him for directions.  Andy was nice enough to tell us where we needed to go and rode with us to the start line.  Andy ended up riding with us the whole day.  Andy was a much stronger rider than the three of us, and he had done this ride a few times before.  Riding the ride with Andy was like having our own personal guide. 

It started to rain as we pulled into Coeur d’Alene.  By the time we started at 7:00 a.m., it was raining fairly hard and continued for the first hour and a half of the ride.  The temperature for most of the day was around 60 degrees.  We were damp most of the day due to the early morning rain.  Riding was pleasant; but, at the stops, we would get chilled until we started riding again. 

We met our Yakima friend at the start line.  There were about 10 riders from Yakima who were with him.  We all started out together. 

The ride starts out on East Court d’Alene drive.  There is also a bike path that runs along this road.  Some of us were on the bike path and some on the road.  You ride the road for a couple of miles and then turn off on East Yellowstone Trail.  This is where we had the first several climbs of the day.  This road to me felt like riding to the Carbonado ranger station.  About half way on this road, you lose the pavement.  You ride on a dirt road for about a mile climb.  The ride organizers do a good job of packing this road down and grading it before the ride, but it was a little sloppy given the rain.  At the top of this climb, you start down hill and pick up pavement again.  This downhill was a little sketchy.  The road was in poor shape; and with the rain, you really couldn’t bomb it.  

Hwy 97

At the bottom of this downhill, you make the turn onto Highway 97, which is about 10 miles into the ride.  We then road Highway 97 for the next 30 miles to Harrison.  From my perspective, this was similar to riding in Gig Harbor where you have a lot of rollers, which were interspersed with climbs that felt similar to me like the climb from Wilkinson to Carbonado, although some were a little longer in length.  Highway 97 hugs the lake for the most part and you are often riding overlooking the lake.  The rain cleared out the smoke and so the air quality was good and it was very scenic riding along the lake.  Fortunately, there was really not a lot of wind because the road is quite protected through this stretch. 

There was an aid station about 20 miles into the ride, which was at the top of one of the climbs.  We opted to pass that station and stopped at the aid station in Harrison.  This station is hub station on the ride for a number of reasons.  One reason is the Gran Fondo has a number of distances you can ride.  There is one ride that is essentially half of the ride that we were doing.  These riders ride the same course as we did to Harrison for the most part, and then they board a ferry boat that shuttles them back across the lake.   The other reason is that the ride that we did loops back to Harrison so it acts as an aid station twice during the ride. 

The aid stations were decent.  They had bottled water due to Covid instead of water jugs so you had to fill our bottles up by pouring the bottled water into them. 

From Harrison, we left highway 97 and started about a 5 mile climb.  This was the start of an approximately 30 to 35 mile loop that took us away from the lake for a big loop that eventually takes you back to lake.  The grades of most of these climbs were 4 to 6%, which some of them bumping up to 7 or 8% near the top.  This climb took us up on a plateau of rural farm country.  Once on top, we rode through a lot of rollers.  You then ride a fast downhill off the plateau to a flat part of the course.  After a few turns, you jump on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.

Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes

The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is a paved trail that is quite remarkable.  The trail is in incredible shape and runs through some marsh lands and then along the lake.  We rode this trail for about 20 miles with the Harrison stop about in the middle.  The first part of this trail was sheltered from any wind.  We rode through a lot of marsh type water on either side of the trail.  Andy told us last year, his group was stopped for 15 minutes because a bull moose stood on the trail and wouldn’t leave.  He said he often sees moose along the trail. 

Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes:  Chatcolet Bridge

Rob nearing Chatcolet Bridge

Steve & Rob

After the Harrison stop, we rode into a fairly stiff headwind for quite a while.  You leave the trail in the Heybrun State Park, and do a major climb through the park.  Once on top, you then ride for about 10 miles through some big rollers.  The course then dumps you out on Highway 95.  You then make your way to the Coeur d'Alene Casino where there was an aid station.  

Coeur d'Alene Casino location

  

We fueled up and recovered a bit, then started on the home stretch.  A lot of this is downhill.  There is one last climb several miles from the finish.  The course takes you off of highway 95 for this climb.  The last stretch of highway 95 is a steep downhill.  I was grateful for the downhill grade as I could see the miles flying by much faster as we rode toward the finish. 

I found the ride challenging.  The best part of the ride was riding with good friends and meeting a new friend, Andy.  Andy rides 500 miles a week either on his trainer or the road.  We rode this much like a Cyclopath ride where the stronger riders waited periodically for everyone to catch up, which most of the time they were waiting for me.  Andy was on the front most of the day and really did more than his part.  As you all know, one of the great things about cycling is the new friends you make.  We were very fortunate to spend the day riding with Andy.  He would make a great Cyclopath, so we told him if he is ever in Washington to look us up for a ride.  He was going to do RAMROD this year, so maybe we will see him next year on Rainier. 

The total miles ended up being 118 miles for the course, but we rode 120 if you count the two-mile ride to the start line.  This is a great ride and would be one that most Cyclopaths would love.  They normally do this in conjunction with Octoberfest in Coeur d’Alene.  Due to Covid, Octoberfest was cancelled this year.  Your ride entry gets you into Octoberfest in a normal year.  It would be a fun event you could take your family to. 

We wore our Cyclopath jerseys.  Many people came up to ask us where we were from because of our jerseys.  One of which, was Isaac Mann, the ride organizer.  He thanked us for doing the ride and driving over from Puyallup.  He told us that next year, if several Cyclopaths want to ride, we should reach out to him; because he will give us a group rate. I think the normal cost is just under $100. 

I believe the Cyclopaths would love this ride.  It is made up of a lot of rollers and climbs.  The only negative in my mind were a few stretches where the roads were a little sketchy.  Overall, it was a great ride.