I’d been meaning to ride my bike over Highway 20 in the North Cascades for years, but hadn’t yet made it happen. My friend Will was a very effective instigator and, after a summer plagued with wildfires and heat waves, fall seemed like a pretty good option.
On Saturday, October 2, I drove up early we started our ride from Newhalem at about 8:30am. It was 45 degrees and a little humid, which made the air feel especially chilly. We didn’t expect it to warm up much over the course of our ride since we’d be at a higher elevation during the warmest part of the day.
Having driven the road so many times, it was really nice to slow down and experience the nuances of the road as well as the views and surroundings in much more detail. We tried to set off at a pace we could maintain for ~8 hours and were still moving at a decent clip, reaching Colonial Creek Campground in a little under 40 minutes at about 15 miles per hour. From here, we kept up a reasonable pace, chatting side-by-side when we could and ground out the climb up to Rainy Pass in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. The grade was really nice for keeping up momentum.
We descended from Rainy Pass, climbed up to Washington Pass, and then bombed down to the Mazama Store for lunch. This took a little over an hour and we were really cold by the time we made it into the Methow Valley. Thankfully some mochas, lunch, confectionaries, and sugary beverages lifted us back up.
From Mazama up to Washington Pass was definitely the toughest part of the ride. It’s a much steeper grade and it’s always tougher to get going again after a rest. After about 20 minutes, I thankfully felt back in the groove. This climb of 3,300 feet took us about 1 hour 50 minutes and we spent a lot of it marveling at the beautiful landscape and the yellow larches coloring the hillsides. After descending and then climbing again to crest Rainy Pass, it was (mostly) downhill from there. Will took some hero pulls on the descent. From WA Pass down was just over 2 hours averaging over 20 miles per hour.