Author: Mike Hassur
This ride to The Carbon River Entrance to Mt.
Rainier and back is usually our first ride of the year (this year, it was our second official ride as
we had a new ride on the Kitsap Peninsula two weeks ago). By design, this ride is meant to be sort of
bland. It is not particularly long, it
is not as scenic as some of our rides later in the summer, and it is not nearly
as challenging as some of our other rides.
The goals of these early season rides are to enjoy seeing guys whom we
haven’t seen over the winter, to help us regain some fitness, to have fun, and
to have the riders feel pretty good about themselves at the end of the ride. We don’t want people “bonking” and being
discouraged. Even though this ride is
not particularly spectacular, it seems like most of the participants have a
blast doing it each year.
This year the plan was to meet in Orting and to
be leaving by 7:00 AM. I left home on my
bike around 6:25 AM. The ride to Orting
was uneventful (the most exciting thing being honked at by Martin as he passed
me on his way to Orting). Usually, there
are quite a few riders on this ride.
When I arrived in Orting, there were only a few guys there: Craig Hill, Adam Abrams (a friend of Craig’s
who joined us), Les Becker, Leon Matz, Martin Katzberg, and Kurt Maute. Soon after my arrival, Nick Iverson and Lanny
Moore showed up. Lanny said that there had been an auto accident that blocked
his normal route to Orting. He had seen
John Winter stopped in traffic as well.
By 7:20 AM, we were ready to head out.
John Winter arrived just as we were starting to leave Orting. He said to go ahead and that he would catch
up with us.
The weather forecast was perfect – mid-50’s
when we left Orting with a high predicted to be in the 70’s and 0% chance of
rain. We headed out along the Carbon River
on the trail to South Prairie. About
half way to South Prairie, I turned around to go back and check on John
Winter. It turned out that he was just a
few minutes behind the group. John and I
rode together and found the group waiting for us in Wilkeson. After a short break for food, drink, and
bathroom in Wilkeson; we had an uneventful climb up to Carbonado. I like this climb, because it is not too
steep. It is fairly easy to maintain a
reasonable pace going up the hill without feeling like you are about to “blow
up” (the same cannot be said for the Tubbs Road Hill that we climbed near South
Prairie).
We passed Carbonado and were heading toward the
Fairfax Bridge when we saw fellow Cyclopaths Erik Barrett and Aaron Gerry
heading in the other direction. Since they
had to work later that morning, they had started considerably earlier than our
group and were on their way back to Orting.
After a brief stop and visit, we were on our way again. We headed over the Fairfax Bridge, climbed a
short distance, and took the left fork at the “Y” that leads to the Carbon
River Entrance (left) or Mowich Lake (right).
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| Fairfax Bridge |
From there, it was 7-8 miles of rolling terrain to The
Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier. We
saw another Cyclopath, Mark Delrosario, in this section. Mark had left before us
and was heading back along with quite a few other cyclists who had headed out earlier than us. Also, it was in this
section that our pace really picked up [ I blame Craig and Adam :) ], and the group with
whom I was riding was whittled down to Les, Craig, Adam, and me (there may have
been another guy or two with us, but I was a little low on oxygen and wasn’t
processing very well by the time we arrived at our destination). It was really fun, but I was privately hoping that it wouldn't make the return trip miserable - thankfully, it didn't.
Soon after our arrival, the rest or our group
rolled in. Once again; it was a short
break for food, drink, and bathroom before we headed back.
 |
| Mike, Nick, Leon, John, Craig, Martin, Les, and Adam (Kurt and Lanny not pictured) at The Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier... |
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| Heading back across the Fairfax Bridge... |
There are a number of long, gradual downhills
on the way back to the Fairfax Bridge.
It was fun flying along these sections and making our way up the gentle climbs
that are also found in this part of the route.
Once past the Fairfax Bridge, it was pretty much downhill all the way to Wilkeson. From Wilkeson; we passed
through Burnett and South Prairie on our way back to Orting.
For the riders who started in Orting, the ride
was about 51 miles long. For those of us
who started in Puyallup, it was around 70 miles long, and for Leon – who put in
extra mileage before and after the ride – it was 130 miles long!! The main thing was that everyone had smiles
on their faces at the conclusion of the ride which was the main goal.
Our next ride is in two weeks: The Alder Lake Loop (with an optional trip up
The Climb).
Can’t wait!!
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