| Volcanoes of Washington Bike TourSeptember 10 - September 23, 2003 |
At breakfast Harry “#1 Dishwasher” Cooper stopped by our table to mention that it was snowing at 4500 feet. Syd thanked him for the good news, and we didn't think much about it. I assumed that it would probably melt by the time we reached Chinook Pass at around 5400 feet. I was wrong.
We started off in cool weather under cloudy skies. Kerie and I started out last once again. We proceeded to climb along Hwy 410 toward Chinook Pass and on to Mt. Rainier National Park. We gradually peeled off a few layers, but then it started to rain, so the layers went back on. Kerie and I just made it to the lunch spot near the top of the pass as it started to snow hard.
Several of us huddled under the impromptu kitchen behind the van drinking hot tea that Mark had whipped up. Kerie immediately jumped in the van and put on all the extra layers of clothes she had stashed in her daypack. Mark told the rest of us and those arriving to get into the van before we froze completely. The van windows gradually steamed up and the van and bikes got covered with snow. Lunch was almost done tortellini but we weren't complaining.
Mark and Kate decided that it wasn't safe to descend on bikes from the pass, so they put all of the bikes on top the van as we tried not to breath too much of the funky, body-odor air inside the van. Then Mark drove us off the mountain.
As we descended, the snow and rain stopped and the sun even emerged for a few minutes. Kerie and I asked to get out and ride as we were approaching the park entrance. The van went on ahead as we rode along Chinook Creek past a forest crew working on the remnants of a recent forest fire.
From the Stevens Canyon park entrance the road gradually climbed toward Mt. Rainier and Paradise Lodge. Kerie wanted to ride at least to Box Canyon, then look for the van because she was cold and wet. The canyon is very narrow and over 100 feet deep where the Muddy Fork of the Cowlitz River has cut into the rocks.
Just after leaving the Box Canyon parking lot we passed Mark in the van. He turned around and Kerie hopped in for a ride to the top, thankful that she would not croak from hypothermia. I trudged on, determined to ride to the lodge. I was lucky in that it did not rain or snow until just before getting to the top. It was a tough climb, I not having eaten enough food earlier in the day, I started to bonk.
I choked down two energy bars in about 5 minutes, which was enough to allow me to keep pedaling up the steep ascent. I stopped several times along the way. On a couple of occasions the clouds parted and there were fantastic views of the zig-zagging road above and Mt. Rainier in the distance and a rainbow appeared briefly. Gradually I made my way to the lodge and was ready to collapse at the entrance. I let Mark know that I had arrived, then stumbled up to our micro-room. A hot shower has never felt so good.
Paradise Lodge was built back in 1917. Since the rooms are so small, most people congregate in the main lobby, a large room filled with sofas and chairs. Nearly everyone was crowded around the huge fireplaces at either end of the room. The large dining area is next to the lobby, where we had an OK dinner that night while listening to John Denver muzak that annoyed Debbie to no end.