After a couple days of rain and cloudy skies, this morning started off bright and sunny, albeit a little cool. Hopped on the bike and headed down the hill only to hit a mini rainstorm about halfway down. There is still gravel on the road from the winter snow plows and when you hit a wet hairpin turn at 35mph, it’s a little sketchy, you get pretty good at even braking to prevent skidding. The road was half wet, half dry, not too bad overall. Even though the sun was out most of the time, there were scattered showers all around.
Some of the backroads are kind of rustic, lightweight racing tires do not do so well here. Most of the roads are paved, but there are sections that are not. So far, the Vittoria Zaffiro Pro 2 700×23 tires I’ve been using have held up pretty well.
This is the time of year for the Spring Classics in Europe; The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, it gets a serious bicycle rider in the spirit to ride on some “unimproved” roads.
Hey Ron – Happy 2nd year! Out of curiosity have you ridden up that particular “primitive road”? It’s my namesake!!
Take care – keep posting great photos!!
Don-You are 100% correct. Haven’t rode up there yet, looks like a few people camping off to the side.
There is a wide spot in the road just ahead of your bike about 100 yards or so where a guy from the Seattle Area parks his Toyota RV during wind surfing season. He owns the little triangle of property between Snowden Road and Cox Road – not enough space to actually build anything, but a space he can call his own to park his rig. County road (as the sign states) goes up the hill 1 1/4 miles to the house I own north of the High school in the saddle between the two hills. Take a ride up the road someday – there are some great views of Hood and the gorge from the road. Give me a call some time, we can talk about you and Don riding some of the roads further up if you’re interested. There are trails and logging roads all over up there – nice quiet place to ride. You have to watch out for the Guardian – My Uncle, though. He lives in the house and keeps a protective eye on the place for me…Call before going past the house on top!
I ride all over the place and I’ve met a lot of folks around here as well as timber company guys who are usually surprised to see anybody out there. I didn’t think there was much down the road, that’s why I never went too far on it. Lots of roads like that around here wind up ending in somebody’s driveway and I usually wind up doing a quick U-turn and haul ass out when the family dog starts after me!