Aneel's trip report.
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 23:45:41 -0700
Subject: Progress report
Finally back on the road after a week in Seattle and
Vancouver (the
150mi each way on US-5/BC-99 doesn't really count. It
does get a little
more interesting when the road dwindles to two lanes
outside of the
metro areas, but it's still just straightforward
highway riding).
I was hoping to be in Bend OR tonight, but that turned
out to be too
much for one day, at least with all of the curves and
stops along the
way. I wanted to visit both Mt Rainier and Mt St
Helens, which,
surprisingly, is sort-of reasonable. Both deserve more
attention than
just a visit, but that'll have to wait for another
trip.
Getting to Rainier was easier than I though it would
be when I looked at
the map. From Seattle, it's a short way down I-5 and
then a succession
of State Roads (164, 410, 123, all well paved, and
mostly quick, fun
roads to ride). Happily, all of the turns are well
marked.
Rainier is... um... Big. I went about 15mi in from 410
to the Sunrise
Lodge visitor center. It's at 6400ft, up a
switchback-filled road that
would be fun, if not for the RVs and minivans. Even at
that altitude,
Rainier towers over you. The views along the way are
amazing.
I headed south from there, stopping for gas and a late
lunch in
Packwood. The best food option seemed to be a Subway
inside a gas
station. Sad.
Paranoia about gas usage was the theme for the day. My
bike has no gas
gauge, just a low fuel light. This is fine in the
city, because I know
that I get about 110mi between fill-ups, so I can tell
how soon I'll
need gas from just the mileage. However, I've been
getting much better
mileage on this trip, I presume because I'm not
stopping and starting
all the time. It's been common for me to get more like
150mi on a tank.
*Of course* the backcountry legs of today's trip were
less than 150mi
and more than 110. And the riding has been a lot more
like city riding.
I stop frequently for viewpoints and drive slowly
behind RVs. And there
are no gas stations in these National Parks.
I was worried that I wouldn't make it to Packwood (or
that Packwood
wouldn't have a station). Of course it would have been
no problem. I
only needed about 2/3 tank when I got there, so I
probably had a 40-60mi
margin of safety. Sadly, I inherited the gene for
worrying, so I was
running through worst-case scenarios for the last 20mi
or so.
From Packwood, I took RT-12 down to Forestry Service
Road 25, which is
the access road for the west side of Mt St Helens.
From there, I took
FS-99 in to the Windy Ridge viewpoint.
It's impressive to see the devastation that still
remains from the
eruption. There's a strong contrast between the
National Forest where
the Forestry Service has cleared the deadwood and
replanted trees, and
the National Monument, where it's been left to re-grow
naturally.
Oddly, the replanted part looks a lot creepier than
the blasted,
slowly-recovering area. There's something about the
way that the trees
are in straight rows and all the same height that
creates subtly
disturbing visual rhythms. Heading in (west), I saw
stands of trees lit
from the far side, making a weird striped halo
pattern. I suspect that
the pictures won't do the effect justice.
I was worried about gas leaving Rainier, but that was
nothing compared
to my worry after St Helens. I was heading south from
there, and not
towards any settlement marked on my map. To make
things extra-fun, the
AAA map of Washington is less than totally clear about
which number a
given road has at various junctions. At one point, I
thought I should
have been on FS-30 to Carson, but the signs all said
FS-90 (which leads
deep into the Mt Adams Wilderness). It turned out that
I had to take 90
a little way to 30, but I couldn't see that on the
map.
Just after passing the 110mi barrier from Packwood, I
saw an
above-ground gas tank and pump, and shelled out the
$2.99/gal the
attached general store was charging. I was annoyed to
find that I'd only
used 2/3 of the tank again, but it turned out for the
best. I'm pretty
sure that, had I missed that pump (I didn't see any
more on the way),
I'd have made it to Carson, but my fuel light would
definitely have been
on, and I'd've been pretty close to the end of the
fuel reserve.
Carson is on the Columbia, so I took the nearest
bridge to Oregon, still
thinking I'd stay in The Dalles. It was "The Bridge of
the Gods" at
Cascade Locks. Who knew that the Gods were fans of
steel grid decks?
Ugh. I decided to stop in Hood River rather than The
Dalles because the
Lonely Planet listed a decent-sounding cajun
restaurant. Of course, it's
been closed for years, so a local pointed me to a
reasonably good
taqueria.
I hope to see both Stonehenge and Crater Lake
tomorrow, which will mean
going briefly back into Washington and then crossing
the entire state of
Oregon. Maybe I'll be back in California tomorrow
night. If I don't run
out of gas on RT-97.
Miles: 315ish
Hours: 10, with lots of viewpoint stops
-- aneel's phone