We had to sit out a day or two of heavy rain, but there was more great MTB riding in the Cascade Mountains when the rain stopped.
With the July 4th weekend coming up, one of the big summer holidays here in the PacNW, more people would be showing up for sure, but this place is pretty remote. Usually, you don’t see too many people at all.
We had some great singletrack riding last trip, this time I was hoping to ride in an area that was better for training to get into shape. There are forest service roads up, down and all around these mountains that are great riding.
The forest service roads and mountain trails are mostly linked together. Even though we were riding mostly on forest service roads, which can be rough, but usually fairly wide, we found time to hit some rarely ridden trails.
This is a cool little trail, mainly an overgrown logging road from years past. It’s an exposed part of the mountain so you can see a long way on a clear day. On this ride, we could see Mt. Hood
and the unmistakable flat top of the distant Mt. St. Helens.
The following day we headed out on the roads up to Mt. Adams. It was a good day to get some nice photos of the mountain, so we rode up and around the mountain to get the perfect shot.
Some of the mountain roads are pretty long and some have some steep sections. After an hour or so of pedaling a heavy mountain bike up the mountain roads, it’s time for a break.
Higher and higher up the mountains until you start to ride around and between the smaller volcanic mountain peaks.
The higher you go, the more desolate it gets. In these volcanic mountains, the flowers stand out among the black and dark red lava rocks.
The road goes higher and gets steeper, much steeper. We are saving that long, steep mountain ride through the lava fields as a season goal. Today, we are turning around and headed home on the five mile downhill ride back to camp.
The next day was heavy rain all day. The following day was the last day of this mountain bike adventure, so rain or not, we ride. Turned out it was raining off and on all day. If you ride in the PacNW, sooner or later you ride in the rain. It wasn’t very cold, but the clouds were only a couple thousand feet overhead so it was pretty moist.
Taking care of business and back to the mountains in a day or two, so check back soon.