The Puyallup Cyclopaths Blog: 2018_08_23 "Rainiering" Ride (Adam, Les, Leon, Scott, and Mike)

Author: Mike Hassur

For anyone who isn't familiar with the term, "Rainiering" (at least for our cycling group) means to do a one day ride that includes an elevation gain equal to or greater than the height of Mt. Rainier (i.e. 14,411'). The ride does not have to involve Mt. Rainier. It can be done anywhere.

The plan for this year's Rainiering Ride evolved to include every "road cycling" climb on Mt. Rainier thanks to Adam's suggestion that we add the climb to Paradise from the Longmire side of the mountain. Les, then, suggested that we do the "Paradise Leg" first to reduce our exposure to traffic on the portion from Cougar Campground to Paradise which can be quite busy. Both suggestions proved to be worthwhile. I had always wanted to do all of the climbs on Mt. Rainier in one ride, and doing the potentially busiest portion early in the day really decreased the volume of traffic with which we had to deal.

Our ride started at Grove of the Patriarchs on the east side of Mt. Rainier and consisted of two legs:

Leg #1: Grove of the Patriarchs (GoP) --> up Backbone Ridge --> up through Stevens Canyon and above to Reflection Lake --> up to Paradise --> descend the west side of the mountain to Cougar Rock Campground (near Longmire) --> turn around and retrace our steps back up the west side of the mountain to Reflection Lake and down the east side of the mountain through Stevens Canyon and up and over Backbone Ridge back to our vehicles to restock with food and drink...
Leg #2: Grove of the Patriarchs (GoP) --> up the south side of Cayuse Pass --> up Chinook Pass --> back down to Cayuse Pass and over to the climb to Sunrise Visitor Center --> climb up to Sunrise Visitor Center --> retrace our steps back down Sunrise climb and up north side of Cayuse Pass --> descend back to vehicles

The week or two preceding this ride had seen a lot of smoke move into our region from forest fires located in British Columbia. There was enough smoke that health alerts had been issued for our area, and people were advised not to over-exert themselves... this did not seem to be in keeping with our plan to ride 127 miles or so on the climbs of Mt. Rainier!! We simply agreed that, if the smoke seemed to cause a problem for any of us on the ride, we would discontinue the ride.

Les showed up threatening to wear this "apparatus" as protection from the smoke...

Our starting point, The Grove of the Patriarchs Parking Lot, is about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive from our homes. Our plan was to be on our bikes by around 6:30 AM (sunrise was around 6:15 AM that morning) which meant that most of the drive to the starting point was in the dark. As I got up into the mountains, I noted that the smoke was worse than I had anticipated - the valleys were full of smoke. I wondered if the smoke might actually cause us problems.

I arrived at GoP about 30 minutes early - AND FOUND THAT ADAM, SCOTT AND LEON WERE ALREADY THERE!! Geez guys... did you spend the night there??!! Soon, Les arrived as well; and we were leaving on our bikes by around 6:40 AM.

6:40 AM; ready to go...

Our first climb was up the east side of Backbone Ridge. There are usually some great views of the valleys near the top of this climb - but not today. The smoke was so thick that you couldn't see the valleys. Luckily, none of our group seemed to be affected by the smoke. Whether this was strictly smoke or smoke mixed with fog was hard to tell. I suspect that there was some fog as well, because my glasses "fogged up" slightly on the way down the west side of Backbone Ridge.

Next up, the climb up through Stevens Canyon and above to get us to Reflection Lake. The road through Stevens Canyon is perpendicular to the mountain's "fall line" which means there is a cliff on your left and rock faces on your right. We came upon an area where boulders from the cliff face to our right had fallen on the road and shattered. Interestingly, when we returned through this area a few hours later, more rocks had fallen onto the road. Glad we weren't there when it happened!! Again, the valleys were filled with smoke; but it wasn't as thick, and you could begin to see patches of blue sky ahead.

Boulders that fell from the cliff above and smashed into our road...

Stevens Canyon ascent... still lots of smoke, but starting to clear a bit...

By the time that we were nearing Reflection Lake, we had ridden up out of the smoke. There was still some haze but not nearly as bad. We paused at the lake to take some photos; and, then, proceeded past Inspiration Point and on up to Paradise.

Adam nearing Reflection Lake with a slightly hazy Mt. Rainier in the background...

Scott near Reflection Lake...

From front to back: Adam, Scott, Les, & Leon near Reflection Lake...

Reflection Lake...

Leon, Scott, Adam, and Mike at Reflection Lake...

Between Reflection Lake and Inspiration Point: Mt. Rainier looms large...

We stopped, briefly, at Paradise to fuel up with food and drink and hit the bathrooms. After that, we started down the 9.5 mile descent of the west side of the mountain to Cougar Rock Campground (just above Longmire). The descent was fast, fun, and is shown in the video that was made from this ride. At Cougar Rock, we turned around and began the ascent that would retrace our steps back up the mountain to Inspiration Point and Reflection Lake, back down the east side of the mountain, up and over Backbone Ridge, and back to our vehicles (the end of Leg #1).

We have now climbed back up the west side of the mountain and are preparing to head east to Inspiration Point, Reflection Lake, etc....

Les and Leon near Inspiration Point...

View from Inspiration Point...

Narada Falls as seen from Inspiration Point...

View of Mt. Rainier from Inspiration Point...

We are just past Reflection Lake and beginning down the east side of the mountain (and back into the smoke... though it was dissipating)...

Leon and Mike cresting Backbone Ridge as we near the conclusion of Leg #1 of our ride...

Leon decided not to do Leg #2 of our ride. He had just returned from a trip to Africa where he gained 10 pounds and hadn't had much of a chance to train for the previous 2-3 weeks. He opted to head back up Backbone Ridge a few times and ended up with over 9,000' of climbing. Not bad for someone who considered himself "out of shape"!!

After refueling at the vehicles, we began Leg #2 by ascending the south side of Cayuse Pass and west side of Chinook Pass. It seemed that all of us were still feeling fairly strong at this point of the ride.

Les and Scott heading up the climb to Chinook Pass...

Adam, Scott, and Les with the top of Chinook Pass in sight...

Mike, Les, Adam, and Scott at the top of Chinook Pass...

From Chinook Pass, our route took us back down to Cayuse Pass and down the north side of Cayuse Pass to the road to Sunrise (and the 14-15 mile climb from the ranger station to the Sunrise Visitor Center). There are no photos from this climb, because we were starting to feel fatigued and didn't have the energy (or will-power) to pull our cameras out for photos. This climb is difficult anyway, and doing it when you are already tired is a grind. At the visitor center, we stopped for gel packs and Gatorade.

Adam, Scott, and Les at Sunrise...

Sunrise Visitor Center "Snack Bar"...

After retracing our path back down the Sunrise Climb, we had one final climb to negotiate - the 3-4 miles up the north side of Cayuse Pass. Ordinarily, this is an easy climb; but we were tired. Fortunately, we made it up pretty easily and faced only twelve or so miles (all downhill) to get back to our vehicles - awesome!!