Skate Creek Loop Part 1

I had been waiting for this ride since last Saturday.  It is another Cyclopath ride, but was cancelled last week due to weather.  The plan was to meet up in Ashford at 7:00, drive to the start, and be on the road by 7:30.  I have to say that we did a good job, because we were on the road by 7:33! 

There were 6 of us, Jim, Jon, Dan, Mark, David, and myself, and we started with a casual pace...We only had 79 miles and 6300 ft of climbing to tackle, why hurry.  About 5 minutes into the ride Mark experienced a flat.  We all pulled over, and as cyclists do, watched as he and David changed the tube.  If you have never seen a group of cyclists, when one of their group has a flat, it is quite comical.

David and Mark made quick work of the flat and we were off in no time.  After a few miles were were at the Park entrance, and started to climb towards Longmire.  This is a pretty gradual and easy climb, but you are still gaining in elevation.  I sat on the front and was doing some good work, when I was told that we opened some gaps.

Taken with my iphone, while riding, by me...

Jim decided to pull over at Longmire, with David and Jon, to wait for Mark and Dan.  They told me to go ahead and just wait at the Paradise visitor center....So I did.  It was quite overcast, but some of the views were still amazing.  It also did not take long before I was noticing quite a bit of snow on the sides of the road.  Each vertical foot equaled more snow and cooler temperatures.

Once I was in the "clouds" I experienced quite a bit of mist and some pretty cool winds.  I was actually happy to get the cool wind, as I was getting very warm from the amount of work I was doing while climbing.

I also really enjoyed the fact that there were almost no cars on the road.  This allowed me to choose the portion of road that was smoothest.  Sometimes that was on the right, sometimes in the middle, and occasionally on the left.  I try not to make it a habit to ride anywhere other than the right side of the road, but could not resist since there was no traffic.  If I saw more than 8 cars during the 21 mile climb I would be shocked and eat Mark's bad tire (more on that later).

Once at the top I met a very nice family.  I noticed they had a Bianchi on top of their car, and made the sarcastic comment "I see you took the easy way up."  The father laughed and said no, my wife rode from the entrance and we met her hear.  We made small talk, and I found out she was training for the RAMROD.  No that has nothing to do with try to beat me up, it stands for Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day  I also learned that she was now planning on hiking up the mountain a ways with her family...More power to you!!!

Once I finished my conversation, I went back to the road to cheer on the guys. 1, 2, 3, me...Where were Dan and Mark?  We decided to get some water, use the restrooms and wait.  Still no Dan and Mark, and I was now getting VERY, VERY, VERY cold.  David, Jon, and I went to the lodge, to warm up as Jim waited, waited, and waited.

While in the Lodge, yours truly discovered there was a MONSTER fire place, AND it actually had a fire going.  (If there is one thing that all people should know, is that I LOVE fire.  In fact, if you have a fire, and are within 10 miles of me, I will probably show up at your house.  Another thing you should know is that you should have something preventing me from playing with the fire.) I immediately took up residence in front of the fire.

Evidently the people at Paradise have been warned

Soon Jim too was in the lodge saying that he still had not seen them, and then went back out to wait some more.  Once completely warm and content, Jim reappeared and said that Mark and Dan made it to Paradise, but that Mark had another flat.  As a result, Mark did not want to ride the whole route on a tire that had now flatted two times in less than 20 miles, and I could not blame him.

Once Jim was warm, we decided we should get moving, as we still had near 60 miles to ride.  We walked out to a great surprise...Sun!  I knew the next part of the ride was going to be GREAT!