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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nThis past weekend,\u00a0I headed out over the Snoqualmie Pass area about 70 miles east of Seattle to check out the Kachess Ridge trail.\u00a0 I have passed through this area a handful of times over the years between\u00a0MTB and flyfishing trips and I had eye-balled the mountains through here on every occasion.\u00a0 The ride\u00a0is billed as dirt road climb that seems to\u00a0go on\u00a0forever followed by a singletrack that you wish would go on forever.\u00a0 It was time to find out first hand.<\/p>\n
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The first part of the ride is along a mildly undulating dirt road that heads north above the eastern shore of Kachess Lake.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The lake is quite large but its rather difficult to see the expansive view due to all the trees.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was kinda fun keeping an eye out for\u00a0the open spots in the trees here and there than offered\u00a0views of the lake.\u00a0 This was a good mellow six miles or so of\u00a0a cruising warm up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The cruise fest was soon over as I turned up onto a forest road that started working its way up onto the mountain.\u00a0\u00a0 The grade was fairly steep in places and I was reminded that my UZZI is optimized for festivities in the downhill direction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I would gain around 2,700 feet\u00a0in just under the next five miles.\u00a0 There were numerous little brooks along the climb.\u00a0\u00a0I’m nearly always\u00a0surprised at\u00a0how loud even just a little bit of moving water can be.\u00a0 I couple of times I was expecting a torrent of water ahead only to see just a little spit of water in a real hurry.<\/p>\n
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The further up the climb I went the better views kept getting and with the\u00a0lake as a reference below it was easy to\u00a0see how much elevation you were gaining.\u00a0\u00a0I’m pretty sure I was past the halfway point when the iconic Mount Rainer starting making an appearance above the far ridgeline.\u00a0\u00a0While working up the climb and stopping here and there to take some pictures, I met up with a couple\u00a0local riders, Mike and Justin, working thier way up as well.\u00a0\u00a0 I was pretty happy to see that they were also working some long-legged bikes up the ridge as well as it gave some hints that maybe the downhill had some terrain worthy of the rigs.<\/p>\n
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We would leap frog each other a couple of times before the\u00a0forest road eventually went up to a saddle on Kachess Ridge.\u00a0\u00a0 The photo above completely fails to capture the true beauty of the landscape.<\/p>\n
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From the saddle it was time to the leave the forest road behind and hit some singletrack.\u00a0 Here is where Mike and Justin’s local\u00a0knowledge came in mighty handy as the published route does not include a newer trail that is more contouring and a good bit of fun.\u00a0The kind of fun you have when narrow trails test your ability to\u00a0stay on\u00a0line while wildflowers brush your legs on both sides.\u00a0 This\u00a0first bit of trail was a sweet little descent\u00a0 that all too soon rejoined the main trail and\u00a0turned into a tough hike-a-bike over the 1\/3rd of a mile or so\u00a0up to the saddle between the spires in the photo above.<\/p>\n
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Above are some of the views along the hike a bike section.\u00a0\u00a0 The hike-a-bike was both steep and rocky with some scree to contend with.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of my best epic adventures ever have included hike-a-bike bits so I tend to view them with a sense of optimism for trail goodness to come.\u00a0 Then again I have had some nearly former friends threaten to eviscerate me on the side of the trail for some “new stuff” exploration gone wrong.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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For this SoCal boy, anytime a hike-a-bike across snow in mid-August is required, it automaticaly\u00a0puts the\u00a0ride soundly in\u00a0the cool category.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Once over the saddle, sweet trail goodness was indeed in\u00a0bountiful supply.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was good.\u00a0 Real Good.\u00a0\u00a0 So much so that I selfishly (and unapologetically) blazed past a ton of Kodiak moments as the\u00a0trail shed elevation through alpine meadows and evergreen forest goodness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u00a0For you SoCal Peeps, there were sections of rocky chunky bits that conjured up thoughts of Noble Canyon<\/a>\u00a0 while other sections would make you think of the steep hillsides of the Santa Ana River Trail <\/a>except the trail was pointed in a much more downhill direction.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course this trail had the awesome Pacific Northwest forested feel to it with lots of greenery.\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah it was good!<\/p>\n The final section of the trail gets pretty steep as it\u00a0cashes out over\u00a01,000 feet of elevation in a little over a mile.\u00a0\u00a0 There are plenty of switchbacks through this section and some of them can sneak up on you.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Additionally there are a couple of these switchbacks where you simply do not want to blow the turn due to the \u00a0exposure.\u00a0\u00a0 I wish I had more pictures of this section to share\u00a0but the\u00a0little devil on my left shoulder was whispering evil things in my\u00a0ear like\u00a0“EFFF Everyone Else –Ride You Fool, Ride!”.\u00a0\u00a0The only thing I was able to make out over all\u00a0wind noise coming from\u00a0angel on right shoulder was lots of giddy giggles and “Whaaat heeeee saaaaid!”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This was not a suckie day to be on a bike!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/41b8f3fa6a0c2ff18374e96206f252f1.jpg?resize=840%2C560\")
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