Early last week as I was riding my usual route in to work, I ran into one of my fellow Seattle randonneurs, Gary Prince. We rolled through the downtown traffic talking about upcoming rides and the fact that neither of us really had the time to drive all the way up to Bellingham for this weekend's scheduled 400k brevet. I had been thinking of doing a 200k permanent closer to home and Gary liked the sounds of that so we made plans to do the Mountain Loop Highway permanent on Saturday.
I've wanted to do the Mountain Loop Highway permanent for quite a while. I was intrigued by 14 miles of unpaved and seldom traveled road. Somehow the lack of pavement translated to adventure in my mind; not exactly exploring-the-upper-Amazon adventure, but still something more interesting than just another lap around Lake Washington.
So I picked Gary up early Saturday morning and we drove up to Snohomish for the start of our little adventure. The route starts in downtown Snohomish and heads up the Centennial trail for a bit until it jumps off and follows bucolic backroads to Arlington. From Arlington the route heads east on highway 530 to Darrington, then turns right and follows the Mountain Loop Highway over Barlow pass and on down to Granite Falls. Some more back roads from Granite Falls get you back to Snohomish, but not before doing a few odd twists and turns to make sure you don't miss any of steep hills along the way. The 14 miles leading up to Barlow Pass are all unpaved and make the gradual climb a little more challenging.
We parked in front of the antique store where I eyed the selection of cowboy boots, contemplating whether I was properly outfitted for our little adventure. Gary was hoping to hit the bakery across the street before we got started, but they weren't open yet so we opted for stale donuts at the 7-11 and had a nice chat with the guy working there before taking off just after 7 AM.
The first 25 miles to Arlington were about as pleasant as a ride can be. The temperature was upper 50s and the scattered clouds were getting more scattered by the minute. I mentioned the bucolic back roads, right?
We took our time at the first control in Arlington and sat down with a cup of coffee and my second donut of the day (chocolate old-fashioned this time). Gary made some comments about the way I eat on Rando rides. Ok, generally I'm a pretty healthy eater, but for some reason when I'm on a long ride good nutrition and all that great food culture stuff that Michael Pollan writes about get tossed out like some wilted organic lettuce that's been hiding out for too long in the crisper drawer. For me, ride food is not really food, it's fuel. My body doesn't seem to be too picky about fuel. It has simple needs. Sugar for energy. Salt to replace the lost electrolytes. Fat... um, because it tastes good.
So, after a nice leisurely breakfast stop we headed east on highway 530 toward Darrington. This stretch of highway isn't bad, but it's the busiest road on the route. Cars and trucks whiz by pretty consistently at 50 mph and keep you focused on that fog line.
In Darrington, again we took some time to sit and relax and enjoy a bite too eat, this time I had a relatively healthy sandwich. Apparently Gary had made me self-conscious about my eating habits.
As soon as we left Darrington the road became much quieter and started tilting upward ever so slightly. A few more miles out of town the pavement ends. The road has a pot hole here and there and some washboard and loose gravel now and then, but for the most part it's pretty pleasant riding.
We stopped at a nice view point for wardrobe changes and other important business. The scenery was gorgeous, but of course I chose to take a picture of my bike instead. That's my converted single speed Bianchi Volpe. The climbing as we approached Barlow pass never got so steep that I regretted having only one gear.
In 14 miles of road leading up to the pass there are about 200' of pavement if you count the two bridges along the way.
After Barlow Pass, the highway heads slightly downhill for 30 miles on wonderful smooth pavement. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the unpaved section, but after an hour of bumping along in the dirt, pavement feels like you're riding on a pool table.
Since we had already blown any chances for a speedy time by enjoying leisurely stops at the first two controls, we figured we may as well see the sights on this second half of the ride. First we stopped at the Big 4 picnic area to soak in the tourist thing. We had a nice chat with an old Italian guy there who seemed to know a thing or two about bikes. He asked if we had ever heard of "Campagnolo". Yep, we had both heard of the brand before.
We stopped again not long after Big 4 at the Verlot Ranger station to refill water bottles (for those of you planning to do this ride, make sure you fill up a couple of bottles in Darrington as it's the last chance for water until Verlot, 43 miles down the road). At the ranger station a guy approached us and asked if we were riding a permanent. This isn't the kind of question a normal person would ask. Then we noticed he was wearing a Cascade 1200 T-shirt from a few years ago. Nope, definitely not a normal person. His name was Dave Johnson and he said he used to ride the ML Highway back before it was a permanent. Apparently he's not riding much with SIR these days since neither Gary nor I knew him, but obviously he's spent a few hours on a bike in the past.
As we continued on toward Granite Falls, we passed a 70s (?) Rolls Royce Silver Shadow going the other direction. Apparently this would be a day for rare sitings, Randonneurs, British luxury cars... later we saw a cocky coyote trotting down the road looking like perhaps he had just eaten someone's cat.
In the final few kilometers of the route it does some odd twists and turns for no apparent purpose other than to send you up a hill that climbs a couple hundred feet in less than a half mile, the last part being probably a 10% - 12% grade. Gary grumbled about the hill being "completely gratuitous" and I shifted into my granny gear (i.e. I got off and walked). I'm pretty sure the course designer was just thinking it was a funny joke. But, the payoff was a screaming fast descent down into Snohomish which put a nice cherry on top of what was already a beauty of a ride.
Back at the Bakery in Snohomish ice cream seemed like just the thing. "This is about one hour of cycling" said Gary as he held up his generous scoop. Indeed, this is a big part of why I ride. Two donuts, two sandwiches, two bananas, two Starbucks Frappuccinos, a cookie and an ice cream cone, and it wasn't even dinner time yet.
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