Autumn Cascade Mountain Biking

We’ve spent a good deal of time mountain biking in the Cascade Mountains this summer. Almost everything is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. We’re lucky to have a place to ride away from the sickness and madness of civilization. The leaves are turning colors, rain is more frequent and soon the mountains will be covered with snow. This is the last mountain biking in the Cascade Mountains blog post for 2020.

The forest has been dry and dusty most of the summer. The trails are still excellent, just a bit dusty.

Early morning MTB camp in the Cascade Mountains
Cascade Mountain trail
Deep, dark forest trail

As the days get shorter and the sun is lower and lower in the sky, the shadows get longer and the forest gets darker.

Early morning mountain road
Dark Cascade Mountain trail
Dark Cascade Mountain forest service road

There was a passing, one day rain storm that knocked some of the dust down but didn’t do much for the trails except make a little mud.

Raindrops on dusty plant leaves
Muddy mountain bike

The days got cooler and the nights got cold but the riding remained excellent.

Cascade Mountain trail
Dry and dusty Mt. Adams
Cascade Mountain trail
Cascade Mountain trail

With a major storm system on the way we took one last ride on the dusty trails of summer. It will be a long time before we see dust again in this neck of the woods.

Last dry and dusty ride of the summer

We were hoping the rain would get rid of some fire smoke as well as trail dust.

Fire smoke in the Cascade Mountains

Then came five days of heavy rain which announced the end of summer but left the trails in absolutely perfect condition.

Perfect trail conditions after rain storm
Perfect trail conditions after rain storm

The short PacNW “nice weather” season is just about over. With more rain in the forecast and the desert southwest calling us, we may have ridden our last Cascade Mountain trail of what has been a fantastic summer of mountain bike riding.

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