More Porpaganda from the Washington Tourism Department

Another day trip cut short by snow. It’s only the end of May, what was I thinking? This time I was on my mountain bike and I won’t be sore as a whore on Sunday morning from this ride, like I was from hiking.

The Iron Horse trail is an old railway that has been turned into a great bike path. I don’t know where it begins but I picked it up on I-90, about 40 miles from my front door in Seattle. I go to this spot right off exit #38 to rock climb. There is a bike path right under some of the crags and I always wondered where it went. I just got around to exploring a bit of it. Follow I-90 east and take exit #38. As soon as you get off the ramp at exit #38 take a right and then pull into the first road on the right. Drive up road about 100 yards to the parking lot. Get on your bike and ride up the road that is blocked by the big iron gate.

When you get to the top of the hill this road intersects with another gravel path. One way goes east to Snoqualmie and the other goes west to Twin Falls (I think). I headed east on this trip. It was spitting a little rain but it was fairly warm. The path crosses over a few railroad trestles spanning some beautiful canyons. The road follows I-90 but you are riding several hundred feet above the din of the interstate. The area is full of snow-capped peaks, waterfalls, avalanche slides, and plenty of wilderness.

I was having a fairly hard time on the trail and I didn’t understand why until later. Even though I was struggling a little bit I decided to take a detour and rode straight up Garcia road almost to the summit. This mountain is crisscrossed with lots of fire roads. They range from fairly smooth gravel to rocky wash-outs. I noticed a couple of parties of downhill riders that go up in the back of a truck and fly down on their bikes. These guys are decked out in full body armor and wrap-around helmets. I prefer the whole experience of riding up then riding down.

This ride totally sold me on full suspension mountain bikes. I was testing out my brand new bike which has front and rear shocks and I was amazed at how fast I could descend on these rough roads. I have always been good at riding up hills but I’m not too gutsy on the break-neck descents. This new bike may make a descender out of me yet. You lose quite a lot of power on the up hill portion with full suspension, but I think that it is worth it overall. I felt totally comfortable flying down very narrow roads at 30-35 mph with a 300' drop to my immediate left.

After the detour I was back on the trail and hammering for Snoqualmie pass. The trail goes through a two mile tunnel at the summit which sounded like fun. I was looking forward to it but I was huffing and puffing the whole way. Maybe I should have had something for breakfast besides coffee.

I could feel the temperature dropping, Around a turn there was a patch of snow on the path. I passed by the remnants of an old railroad snow shed. These sheds covered the tracks through the mountains so they could keep going during the months of tremendous snowfall in the Western mountains. There was an avalanche and rock slide warning for the trail ahead. There was more and more snow on the path and then I was carrying my bike over drifts four feet high. I quickly decided that I would try for the tunnel on another day and turned around and started back.

I immediately realized that this was a fairly steep incline which explained why I was geezing on the way up. I don't know what I was thinking as this isn't even a false flat but a verifiable hill. I dropped down into my lowest gear and cranked for all I was worth. A bear popped his head over the down slope side of the road but I braked too hard and scared it off.

I was back at the parking lot in no time and the whole ride was right at three hours. I hate hiking, for the most part, but biking is great. I never have that feeling that I do when hiking that I wish it would only be over. I alwyas have fun cycling, even on the most brutal of hills. This is mountain bike heaven and I'll be back a lot this summer.

P.S. Once again, folks, leave the SUV at home. All of the rough stuff you have to negociate on your own power.