[TR] Washington Pass- Hwy 20 6/15/2005

[cycling_mike]

Climb: Washington Pass-Hwy 20

 

Date of Climb: 6/15/2005

 

Trip Report:

So the plan was to bike from Mt. Vernon to Washington pass and climb the slacker routes up S. Early winter and Liberty Bell... Like many a good plan this one required a big dose of overconfidence blended with blissfull ignorace. Anyway, by the time we'd climbed the 5000+ ft of elevation on the hwy (and running out of water) then a grand or so up the trail to the base of Early winter, I was so wasted and out of motivation I just sat there gazing at the gathering clouds and sinking sun. Fortunarly, my girlfriend and partner for this particular misadventure had brought along the pain meds, and after a smoke we were revived enough to bike back down to marblemount.

The cycling was truly amazing, and if we had one more day and more food we coulda actually climbed something too.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

shoulda brought liquor

 

Approach Notes:

bike up the road & get ready to suffer from colonial creek to WA pass

[Alpinfox]

 

I've often thought that long-distance cycling would be something I'd like. Then I see a cyclist sweating up a hill at 1mph staring at the ground with semi trucks blowing by six inches away from their handlebars and I think.... not so much.

[MisterMo]

Kinda right up there with endless snow slopes and scree chutes, and the approach to Midnight Rock and such, except for the semi trucks of course.

 

Actually I rode to Washington Pass about a month ago from the east and was really pleasantly suprised at the relative lack of traffic. Coming back down I was able to ride the lane instead of the shoulder (nice because the wind was batting me around quite a bit) and not piss anybody off.

[cycling_mike]

Yeah, even from the west, hwy 20 is pretty low traffic after sedro woolly or rockport... and the descent is kick ass!