Cycling Stevens Pass
Last weekend two good friends got married in Leavenworth. To be exact, Wes and Laura were married at Mountain Springs Lodge, about 14 miles due north from Leavenworth WA, 110-120 miles from Seattle. Since I’m training for the STP I figured why not ride it, from home in Seattle. The more I thought about it the more it appealed to me. With the STP only 2 weeks away it would be a great final training ride to prove I’m in better shape than last year. That or blow out my knee on the way there or pass out from heat stroke somewhere along the 4000 pass. With that I was committed.
Planning for the ride was easy. I knew it was one way, had driven the route many times and knew I had people driving to the wedding along my route. What else could I ask for at this point? A partner in crime, that’s what. Another wedding attendee, Rene, was flying up from San Francisco Thursday night before the ride. He landed at 10, called me to announce his intention to ride at 10:05 and had a bike lined up for the ride by 10:20. I offered him a place to sleep for the night so we could take off together by 7:30AM. He accepted, but first it was off to drinks for him until 1AM. Ladies, gentleman, this man is insane. Here I am trying to get some sleep and he’s out drinking in the morning hours before a 110 mile 4000 climb. He is my idol.
Though we planned on a 7:30AM start we didn’t hit the road until 8:45. It took us time to wake up, eat some food, drink some coffee, pick up the bike and give it a tune. Overplanner I am, I packed 8 Cliff Bars and 8 Gus plus 3 bottles of Cytomax and one bottle of water. In looking at the map there’s no services from Skykomish over Stevens Pass to the first state rest stop, a total of 36 miles. The thing is, it’s 2500+ feet of elevation from Skykomish to Steven’s pass over 16 or so miles. If temperatures got hot we would need all the water we could get. Since Rene’s bike only had 2 bottle cages that meant 3 bottles each, barely enough in good conditions. Toss in some spare tubes and a pump and you’ve got the bill of materials for the ride.
8:45 – Off we go.
The first 12 miles were slow and easy up to Kennmore where we stopped at McDonalds for some heart burn. Cereal and toast just wasn’t enough, our bodies knew it. Did you know that the McDonalds drive through will serve bikes? We ate our fine breakfast of Egg McMuffins and OJ sitting next to two baby pugs. They are just too cute, someone should start a pug rental service. After breakfast we put on the speed and headed up to Woodinville, now at mile 19, roughly. From here we hit our first hill, the Woodinville Duval road. The hill isn’t bad, maybe 1-1.5 miles of gradual incline. After that it’s a fast set of rolling twists for about 8. Too bad you’re amongst lots of big fast trucks with the occasional disappearing shoulder, this could be a fast fast riding road. The road finishes with a fast downhilll to the West Snoqualmie Valley Rd where we turned left, heading north. This put us back on the Flying Wheels route from the prior weekend.
Cruising along you hit one dairy after another, stinky stinky, until the Crescent Lake Road, taking a right and heading over High Bridge. From there’s it an easy ride up to Monroe via Tualco Rd through some flat lands but with some head winds. Next up was Highway 203 but for just a 1/2 mile until Ben Howard road, taking a right turn and heading east. This is a GREAT alternate to Highway 2 as it’s a country road all the way to Sultan. The scenery is outstanding and we saved tons of pain from super boring US-2. Note to the weary, there’s a small but intensely steep hill on this route. It must rise 200-300 feet from the river at a 10%+ grade. Rene, being smart, stood up and cranked. I, on the other hand, Mr. Spin, tried to sit and crank. Bad news, should have stood, he left me at a stand still until I stood up.
Heading east towards Sultan it’s a one rolling, twisty country lane of sweetness. We were flying and Rene was punishing me with his leg power. When I hit a hill I save cadence by down shifting, he just applies leg power. Trying to keep up with him was a great exercise, one roller after another.
Just before Sultan, about 2 miles or so, you come out of the rolling hills, going through a hair pin lefty at a pretty good clip back into the flat lands. Beware, I hit a big rock with my front tire, almost taking out my entire left side’s epidermous. It was one of those instant terrifying moments that turns out ok, somehow, leaving you with a mixed grin of shock and awe. My front wheel first came off the ground, then landed at an angle to the left, skipped, turned right, then skipped and turned straight all at 30mph. Catching back up with Rene I shook it off and pulled hard into Sultan to forget what almost happened.
Arriving in Sultan around mile 45 we stopped in at Sultan’s saving grace, the bakery, whose Turkey sandwiches are huge gut bombs on thick white bread. We chowed a big lunch, hoping to fuel up for the big climb ahead. Leaving Sultan you’re on Highway 2 for the next 55 miles, shoulder or no shoulder. The ride from here was remarkably smooth, the road being wide and fast with a good shoulder. The weather was still overcast and we settled into a quick 20mph pace. Cars were good about passing, usually taking a wide birth. Just watch out for trailers, anyone dragging a trailer tends to forget that their trailer is usually about 2 feet wider than their truck.
Cruising along and just outside Gold Bar we were met by a gleaming silver 356 Porsche Speedster. It was Dave! The night before I sent out an email asking if anyone going over the pass to the wedding wouldn’t mind bringing along some Gatorade and water bottles to refill us along the ride. I was mostly worried about the streatch after Skykomish with no services. Dave dutifully brought along all we asked for and planned to stash it for us in a small stream along the highway at the first mile marker after Steven’s Pass. We LOVE YOU DAVE!
After Dave left us it was a nice slog up to Skykomish, our last chance for services. Charging up on Gu and refilling the water, we downed Advil and prepare for the ascent. This is your last chance so take it carefully, load up on everything you need here. Elevation wise we’re at 1300′ on our way to 4000′. Just outside Skykomish Rene started getting back pain, obviously caused by his bike being too small for him to ride. What can you expect from a loaner. Thankfully he’s not riding this on the STP. That could put him at a chiropractor for weeks. Pulling over it was time for 5 minute yoga. Turns out I needed it too. After some good stretching and more water we got back on the bikes.
Within a few more miles legs began to burn, our speeds slowed tremendously and we both realized that the ascent had begun. Funny thing how you go from a cruising speed of 18 and suddenly out of nowhere get bitch slapped by a mountain pass. Roads that, to the naked eye seem flat, hold you to 12 mph no matter how hard you crank. As we both slowed down and the sun got hotter I started to look for and linger in the shadowy areas along the side of the road. Water levels also started going down faster as I was using more on my head to cool me off.
This continued on for another few miles until we came to a sharp turn north. It’s at this point that we really started climbing, almost entirely with the sun upon us. We fell in line, drank a ton of water and started cranking. The climb was awesome, the views were beautiful and the road as good as I could have wanted, with very few cars in sight. We kept at a 5mph pace from this point all the way to the summit without stopping. Slog slog slog. Rene broke into song not far from the summit, something like “Summit Tequila, Summit Tequila, its not as high or as far away as you think!” This gave me reason to finish, for there was something good ahead. A few miles later you almost smell the Gatorade as we crested the summit at just over 4000 feet and started our descent.
Dave, our savior in the 356, said he would stash the Gatorade, some water and a bag of Chex Mix at the first mile marker just over the pass. Sure enough, sitting along side the highway, in a cold cold stream was our salvation. We were down to about 1.5 bottles of water so this was perfect timing. Dumping our bikes we sat in the soft grass and starting munching, only to find the area littered with small flea like bugs. The roadway ended up making a much better place to eat. There was enough shoulder that cars didn’t bother us. Ever the observant, Rene looks at me after taking a big handful of Chex mix and says “So what are we going to do with all this garbage?” I turned to my right, looked up the pass, pointed at the car coming straight at us and said “We’ll give it to them.” Salvation part II had arrived.
If you’ve never seen Brian, Shannon, Sven and Destiny come to a rescue then you haven’t seen anything. Before the car saw us it was driving straight and easy. After we were recognized it began to shake and swerve, the driver now either having to pee badly or developing a coughing fit. The car raced past us, actually sped up, then slowed down, came to a stop and finally pulled a u-turn in the middle of the highway, coming back our way. It passed again, all passengers leaning out the left hand side trying to a get a good look at us. Another u-turn and they were upon us. From the front seat came Shannon and Brian, clutching what could only be known as The Summit Tequila. Note that the bottle was unopened, they had not been drinking, only plotting this moment for hours, possible days. From the back came Sven and Destiny, Royksopp blaring from the car stereo, doing the sacred summit tequila dance. This was possibly the best moment of my life.
3 shots and 10 minutes later our saviors roared off with the garbage and our summit tequila. On the bikes we went and up to an average speed of 35 for the next 7 plus miles. At this point we were about 35 miles from Mt Springs Lodge, 9 of those miles being almost completely down hill. Gravity was never so missed. The last 24 were actually excellent miles. The roads on the other side of the pass are wide, well maintained and fast. Rene ate up the downhills, I couldn’t even come close to his speed. I’m a weenie at speed for sure, but he’s just plain crazy fast. Once we hit the flats I caught up and we started pulling down some fine roads. The last section coming into Coolee’s Corner (sp) before heading north towards Lake Wenatchee was superb. We must have pulled at 20-22 the entire way thanks to a tail wind. The ride from Lake Wenatchee to Mt Springs Lodge took us down a 4 mile road of very coarse but still decent pavement to the town of Plain, where we found out lodge, our companions, most of whom we beat to the lodge, a hot tub and a refer filled with the most delicious tasting beer ever.
Although my CatEye was on the fritz, I came up with 111 miles from Greenlake to Plain, 8:45 total time, 7:45 on the bikes for an average of 14.3mph. Not bad. Next stop, Portland.