We woke up with a not so pleasant surprise on Saturday morning. The plan was to get up early and get going soon thereafter in order to try to avoid the forecasted heat for the day. We had a long day in the saddle and also had a long 2K foot climb towards the end of the day.
The surprise was as soon as we stepped outside, a thick smoke filled the air. Until now, we had had beautiful clear skies with views for miles and miles. This morning we woke up to thick smoke and could smell fire in the air. We all felt pretty vulnerable in that we were tucked away deep in the woods and could not help but think there was a certain urgency to get out of dodge. We speculated that there must have been a fire nearby as the stench in the air was thick with burning forest.
After a quick breakfast of instant oatmeal, Erin and I did not waste much time in getting moving. The route took us up and over Barlow Pass where we continued to smell and see the smoke in the air. There was a breeze that was moving the trees and helping them shed their needles. Erin had a slight moment of panic thinking it was ash until she realized what was going on. The mind starts to jump to conclusions in these moments so I could empathize with the thought process! The dirt road up Barlow Pass was chunky but fortunately not too steep.
We reached a clearing with a couple of campsites and felt a little surprised to see and hear people again. The funny thing is that we say a Harley parked in one of the campsites and I thought to myself how that must not have been a fun ride in on the dirt roads we were riding through.
After a couple of weird head scratchers of managing the fire whereabouts concerns, we peaked Barlow Pass and crossed over the PCT where the dirt road T'd into a paved road. The lighting was slightly weird...there was a red haze in the air that once again felt slightly apocalyptic.
We were relieved to be on a paved road thinking that we at least felt a little closer to civilization and safety relative to the unknown fire.
The route took us downhill on the paved road where we would pass the Women's Pioneer Grave. We stopped for a brief moment and thought about how challenging that trek must have been many moons ago. It was at the moment that I realized we were just on a pretty historic route that we had just climbed up. I guess fear of fire will pretty much make a dude forget about a lot of stuff...
We carried on with out descent and eventually ended up hitting a major freeway for a couple miles to connect to Trillium lake. This was another rude awakening as cars zoomed by us at highways speeds. The mind quickly adjusted to civilization again as we took our turn to Trillium Lake. We wound our way around the lake with campsites and people galore (or so it seemed given the recent solitude we had just recently treasured). We did not even bother to stop at the viewpoint where Mt Hood looms at the end of the lake...it was smoked in and we could barely see the other side of the lake. I took a picture anyways and we kept plodding along.
The GPS file for this day was also a little shaky...it did not pick up the route until an hour into the ride and some of the directions and lack of signs on roads made for some interesting navigational trial and error. The intent was to catch single track trail from Trillium and ride it into the town Rhododendron. We took the right at the fork where that option was supposed to unveil itself...after a quick descent we reached an opening where we saw several signs that said Private Property, No Trespassing, etc...There was no sign of a trailhead anywhere so we deduced we took a wrong turn...we climbed back up and retraced our steps...back to descending on the dirt road.
I referenced a fold out map of local trails that we took with us and we noticed we were originally in the right place to connect to the trail but unfortunately the signage and lack of better detail on our directions led us astray...After studying the map a little longer, we saw we could hook into another trail (Still Creek) and connect that to the original trail we had missed. Unfortunately we missed several miles of downhill single track but again made a mental note to remember the opportunity for the future.
The Still Creek trail was a very very pleasant surprise. It started off with a few punches to the gut...a steepish (with all our gear) climb that took us to the ridge line where we traversed and then dropped into the campground where we could connect to the 'ghost' trail we missed. That section of trail was perhaps the best part of the day...it was prime! Unfortunately, it was only about a mile of smiles until we dropped back into the campground.
We meandered through the campground looking for the connecting trailhead to our 'ghost' trail. While riding through the campground we saw several fires blazing...Somehow it irked me to see the fires given there were strict no campfire signs everywhere you looked. Apparently the camp host was turning a blind eye and apparently we were also a little sensitive given the panicky tone of the start of the day due to fire.
The trailhead was found and soon enough we were back on our merry way descending through some super mellow double-track that occasionally turned to single. In a short spurt we were in the town of Rhododendron and once again saw cars and people galore. We stopped at the local food store...precious purchases included a couple of adult beverages to be enjoyed later! mmm mmm!
We were now approaching the queen climb of the day...ahead of us was a 2,000 ft climb up to Lolo Pass. I figured it had to be better than some of the dirt climbs we had done prior. My reasoning was that it was 2K over about 12 miles so the grade couldn't be too unreasonable...plus, we were on pavement!
The route took us up Road 18 where the 2 lane road did not have much of a shoulder to ride on. Cars zoomed by us and we were happy to get off the main road after several miles. We still had about 1,400 ft of climbing to do and I kept thinking the grade was very manageable!
After turning on to the alternate road up to Lolo Pass, we continued to go up up up...after a couple of turns, the grade kicked up and un-relented! The road stayed steep with no let up for miles...I monitored my Garmin closely as I watched the ft tick away as we climbed. I was out of my saddle doing the single speed side to side slow grind and it was kicking my ass! In my mind, I had made a mental note that this climb was a 2K ft climb...after some groveling and continued butt whoopin', I hit that magic 2K mark and son of a bitch, the road continued to climb! The extra 200 ft of 'bonus' climbing was enough to shatter my fragile state of mind at the time...Eventually, we made it to the top and it was time to connect to Lolo Pass. I could not help but wonder about the judgement of buying and humping the 22oz brew up during the grunt of climb.
At this point we had about 2 miles left to the cabin and we knew the worst was over. We turned onto a dirt road where we rapidly descent for a quick 1/2 mile...and then there it was...another friggin' climb! We had to climb what we had just descended. We found our next turn off and all I could think about was we had about a mile to go, and the hut would be in sight! As we made our last turn, we stared up at some eroded steepness...I took about 5 pedal strokes, thought better of it and then dismounted and took my bike for a walk. Shortly after, we got back on our bikes and Erin mentioned how they really seemed to make a person work for that last mile. It was probably more a function of our fragile psyches at that moment but I fully concurred!
Alas, the hut came into view and we saw that we arrived as they were re-stocking. We hung out for a little while and talked to our hero of the day who was re-stocking the hut with food. We walked around to the backside of the hut and stared in the direction where Mt Hood should be...he pointed in the direction and all we could was haze. This was supposed to be the best view of the trip! It turned out to be a bit of a bust.
In short order, we rummaged through food and filled our bellies. Erin had picked up some green curry mix while at the store earlier in the day and the idea was to make some green curry and rice later that evening. As the day progressed, the skies seemed to clear just enough to see the outline of Mt Hood...a little while later, you could actually start to see features on the mountain. It was far from clear but it let the imagination run wild in a smoke free world...
Our hut-mates rolled in and we reminisced about the climbs and suffering of the day...it was sort of a ritual at this point. A couple of hours later we were inhaling our green chicken curry and all felt very satisfied. We kept going in / out of the hut and checking to see if the views of Hood were getting any better...only slightly.
It was sort of neat to think that just a day prior, we were on the other side of Mt Hood with a totally different view of the majestic peak.
Day 3...in the bag baby! It was a big day but we had the bulk of the difficult days behind us and day 4 was supposed to be the pay-off day with lots of descending! Now that was a nice thought....
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