Mt. Rainier & Mt. St. Helens Route:
This week we wanted to introduce everybody to another one of our new routes, the Mt. Rainier & Mt. St. Helens Route.
This was a great ride that we took with our oldest son and his wife and we wanted to share it with everyone. Overall, the riding and the scenery are incredible. Visits to Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens are icing on the cake!
This ride is broken into 3 segments that can each be completed easily in a single day. The first day starts in Covington, WA and circles around to the South side of Mt. Rainier and into Mt Rainier National Park. The ride follows Stevens Canyon to a big visitor center near the Paradise Inn where you can stretch your legs and get some refreshments. After this stop, the route curves back to the southeast and ends in Packwood.
The 2nd day is an out and back trip to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint for a view into the blown out cone of Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake. It's hard to imagine that the major eruption in 1980 was over 30 years ago. You can still see the destruction and the direction of the blast in all of the downed trees.
We wanted to let everyone know that the road to Windy Ridge is paved, but it is a National Forest road and therefore is not maintained to the same standard as national or state highways. Be ready to avoid potholes and dips.
On the return ride from Windy Ridge, we have identified the entrance to NF-26. This is an alternative route back towards Packwood, but it may have some short stretches of gravel, so be aware of that if you choose to take that road.
The 3rd day takes riders to the North side of Mt. Rainier and the Sunrise Visitor Center. The ride up to the visitor center, like the ride to Windy Ridge, is fun and challenging with switchbacks and great altitude changes. After the visitor center, the ride backtracks to the starting point but takes a little different route and follows part of the Green River before ending back in Covington.
During our trip we had bad weather and fog during our visits to Windy Ridge and the Sunrise Visitor Center, so we didn't get any great pictures of either mountain. This just means we have to take another trip back to see what we missed.
To get an idea of the fog check out this short video.
Happy New Year!!
We are a few days early but we want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! 2021 was another challenging year in many ways and brought many changes for us as we are sure it did for many of you.
We are really looking forward to the new year and excited about the new routes we are adding. We already have 7 more routes completed that we will be releasing soon!
Most of all, we are excited to ride some new rides and we are already making plans for where we will be riding. On the top of our list is Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. We also have a standing invitation to South Carolina, so we might be going back to the Smokeys again. And of course, we will be spending more time in the Driftless Area as well.
Who is starting to plan rides for next year and where are you going? Send us a note and let us know what your riding plans are!
Ride Safe!!
Dale and Renee