Saturday, July 3, 2021

6-19-2021 Riding South of Olympia with Tom, Les, Dwaine & Mike (aka "Dwaine's Double Lollipop Ride")

 Author:  Mike Hassur


On Saturday, June 19th; Les B., Dwaine T., Tom P. and I (Mike H.) did a memorable ride together.  I forgot my camera, so I'm planning to supplement my descriptions of the ride with short "snippets" of video taken with my GoPro at various portions of the ride.  The genesis of this adventure was Dwaine contacting us mid-week about the possibility of going for a ride sometime on Saturday or Sunday of the following weekend.  The weather forecast looked good; and Dwaine had a route in mind that started in Olympia and used portions of the Chehalis-Western and Yelm-Tenino Trails as well as quiet country roads to take us to Skookumchuck Reservoir, Bucoda, Tono, Centralia, Tenino, McIntosh Lake and back to Olympia.  This route was approximately 80 miles in length with about 3,000' of climbing.

The four of us met at the Park-N-Ride adjacent to McDonalds at the junction of Hwy 512 and I-5.  Tom threw his gear in my van and Les and Dwaine rode together in Les' van.  We "caravanned" down to our starting point in Olympia - a big empty parking lot - and were on our bikes heading out at about 7:00 AM.  The Chehalis-Western Trail ran along the western border of this parking lot.  We made our way across the parking lot and headed south on the trail.

Click on map for an enlarged view...












** Click on this link to view a 50-second video of this portion of the ride **

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We followed the Chehalis Western Trail through the southern parts of Olympia and into the countryside (chatting all the way - there was no shortage of conversation amongst this group)...

Our location shortly after leaving Olympia...












** Click on this link to view a 55-second video of this portion of the ride **

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The Chehalis Western Trail is really nice.  It is smooth, flat and the scenery varies between forested sections and areas of open fields - perfect for maintaining a comfortable pace and still visiting...

Our location as we progressed further south on the CW Trail...












** Click on this link to view a 60-second video of this portion of the ride **

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After traveling approximately 15 miles south from Olympia on the Chehalis Western Trail, we turned right (west) onto the Yelm-Tenino Trail as show on the following map and video...

Map showing our location at junction
of CW Trail & Yelm-Tenino Trail...









** Click on this link to view a 25-second video of this portion of the ride **

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We travelled west on the Yelm-Tenino Trail for just a few miles before turning left onto Johnson Creek Road which took us south toward the Skookumchuck Reservoir as shown on the map and in the photos below...

Map showing our location at the Skookumchuck Reservoir...






































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After checking out the Skookumchuck Dam and Reservoir area, we headed west on Skookumchuck Road SE - eventually, arriving at the small community of Bucoda.  As we were cycling through Bucoda, we passed a baseball field which had a dugout with the name "Bucoda" on it.  A brief conversation led to us turning around to get a photo that had "Bucoda" in it (see video).

Passing through Bucoda as shown on this map...





















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After leaving Bucoda, we followed Tono Road SE.  Apparently, we passed the town of Tono; but I don't really think that any of us were aware of it.  This portion of the trip took us through rolling, forested hills with some pretty decent climbs and fast, curvy descents...

Beautiful, forested hills in this portion of the ride...






















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Eventually, we found ourselves on Hanaford Valley Road which gradually curved in a westerly direction and took us by the huge, coal-fired Centralia Power Station which is slowly being phased out in favor of natural gas, solar and wind energy sources.  The power station is an imposing structure with a huge pile of coal sitting next to it.

Riding on Hanaford Valley Rd passing the Centralia Power Station...





















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After passing the power station, we headed southwest toward the town of Centralia.  We were just cruising along on the gentle, rolling hills of Hanaford Valley Road when Dwaine suddenly said "take a left up ahead".  We took a quick left turn and - almost immediately - found ourselves on a hill that seemed as though it would never end (at least, that was my impression).  Obviously, the hill did end - FINALLY; but OMG...





















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By this point in the ride, I had no idea exactly where we were (in fact, I was pretty clueless as to our location well before this).  Pretty soon, we were rolling into the outskirts of a town that I figured might be Tenino - until I saw the sign that said "Entering Centralia".  That's when I thought to myself "I'd better not lose these guys, or I'll never make it back to the vehicles"!!

We've made it to Centralia at this point...





















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We were still riding through Centralia when we had a mishap.  Tom's rear tire blew out, and it was impressive.  If you watch the video closely, you will hear what sounded like a shotgun blast and see an accompanying cloud of (vapor??) emitted from the back tire.  This incident, also, ended our videos for the trip.  My GoPro battery died as we were fixing Tom's flat, and I was so focused on what had happened that I forgot to replace it with a fresh battery...👎👎

** Note: make sure that your sound is turned on for this video... **


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After we got the tire fixed and headed out of Centralia, our return path took us through Tenino,  on up passed McIntosh Lake and back to Olympia via the Tenino-Yelm Trail and the Chehalis Western Trail.

Map of the final leg of our trip from Centralia back to our "Starting Point" in Olympia...

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Summary:

This probably turned out to be my favorite ride of 2021 thus far.  The weather was good, the scenery was excellent (and new to me), the places along the way on this trip were surprisingly interesting to me (e.g. parts of Centralia that I'd never seen, the Centralia Power Station, BUCODA, Tono, McIntosh Lake, Skookumchuck Dam, etc.) and - finally - our group of riders was awesome (if you are looking for a good group of guys with whom to ride, make sure that Les, Dwaine and Tom are in it)… 👍👍

The snippets of video that I used in this blog post came from a 70 minute video that I made from this trip.  I can't imagine that anyone wants to watch a 70 minute cycling video (except in "spinning class"), but here's the link just in case:



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1 comment:

  1. VelobeckJuly 5, 2021 at 10:00 PM

    Fun to watch the videos of this ride. Thanks Mike for the post.
    ~Les

    ReplyDelete

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