2021-06-26 Puyallup Cyclopath "Sunrise Visitor Center Double/Triple Ride"

 Author:  Mike Hassur

Up at 4:00 AM to feed and water the pets (Winston and two cats), take Winston out to do his "business", clean the kitty litter, take a quick shower, do my morning exercises, put on my cycling gear and load my bike in the van - all in time to meet Les B. near the Foothills Trailhead in Puyallup at around 5:10 AM.  I was there on time and so was Les, and we were off by 5:15 AM.  After a smooth/uneventful trip, we arrived at the closed gate at the bottom of the 10-mile climb to Mt. Rainier's Sunrise Visitor Center (SVC) where we started unloading our gear.

Martin and Les preparing for our first trip up the climb to the Sunrise Visitor Center (SVC)...

Rob D. surprised us when he came down after completing his first trip up to SVC while we were still getting our gear prepared.  He had come out about an hour and and twenty minutes ahead of the rest of us to get in as much climbing as he could while it was still cool (we were in the midst of a few days of some unseasonably warm weather).  By the time that our 7:00 AM start time arrived, we had six riders ready to go (Scott J., Tom B., Les B., Martin K., Rob D. and me).  Because I was concerned about being cold on our first descent down from the SVC, I chose to wear a long sleeved t-shirt under my jersey for this first trip up and down - poor decision... as I was beginning to sweat within the first mile of the climb.  In spite of my overheating issues, we were treated to some spectacular views as we got higher on the climb...

Map of our route...

Mt. Adams in the distance...

Tom and Mike heading up...

Tom and Les in the last mile or two of the climb to the SVC...

Tom and Les arriving at the SVC parking lot (which was completely empty)...

Scott, Les and Tom in the deserted SVC parking lot (oh - and Mt. Rainier...👍👍

Since the parking lot was empty, this unknown couple decided to take a quick nap...

 

We re-grouped at the top and started the descent mostly together (Scott was ahead of us, so I didn't get any photos of him).

Martin and Rob heading down (photo slightly skewed as it was taken over my shoulder)...

Martin, Rob and Mike...

No more photos on this first descent as we were going fast which is not conducive to taking lots of photos...!!

Martin re-supplying at his vehicle before our second trip up the climb...

John W. had arrived to join us by the time that we had completed our first time up and down (John had to return home for some food that he had forgotten to pack which made him a little late).

John W. in the final portion of the climb up to SVC...

After making it up to the SVC a second time, I managed to get a few more photos on our second descent...

Les heading down toward Sunrise Point Lookout (we saw quite a few cyclists
heading up during our second descent...

View from just above Sunrise Point Lookout... across the valley you can see Hwy 410 making its way up toward Cayuse Pass...

A little further down the road, I took my camera out to get some photos of Les negotiating the hairpin turn at Sunrise Point Lookout...

Mike photographing Les as we round the hairpin at Sunrise Point Lookout...

Les approaching the Sunrise Point Lookout hairpin turn...

Les entering the turn with Rob taking a photo (crouching next to the stone wall)...

Cyclopaths descending just below Sunrise Point Lookout (with numerous other cyclists heading up)...

Well, that's the end of our pictorial blog post.  I was too tired and hot on the third time up to take any photos - except for this one at the very end...

Ugh... hot and tired AND DONE...👍👍

Looking forward to our next ride on July 10th:  "West Side of Mt. St. Helens to Johnston Ridge Observatory (Tour de Blast Route)".  Can't wait!!