Last weekend as part of our Whistler Gran Fondo training we planned to ride from Enumclaw to Sunrise, “the highest point that can be reached by vehicle at Mount Rainier National Park.” Except once we got to the park gate on the road up to Sunrise we found the road in the process of getting re-sealed so we turned around and hit up Chinook Pass instead. At 91 miles and ~6000 feet of climbing it was still a leg busting ride :).
The ride starts off pretty mellow out of Enumclaw up highway 410. We had our first rest stop at Greenwater where there’s a gas station and water. Only hitch was that Donald hit a rock and things got bloody.
Unfortunately Donald had to turn around, while we continued up to Silver Springs campground (just before the Crystal Mountain road turn off) where we filled up with water again. A few miles after leaving the campground is when the pain started and continued all the way to the top. The last three miles before Chinook Pass were TOUGH. But we were all smiles at the top. Up there it was pretty chilly. Fortunately McGarty had the foresight to encourage us all to pick up maps to stuff down our jerseys to stay warm on the way down.
After the ride we raced back to Seattle because Chels and I were racing in the moonlight race on Lake Washington: