My partner and I had originally planned to ride the Snoqualmie Tunnel together, but she was too afraid of it. However, I was still able to follow our original plan and meet her in North Bend after riding the length of Iron Horse State Park.
Albums from past rides on the trail:
More after the break…
Part 1: Tunnel Round Trip
After loading up our bikes in the back of our tiny car, we arrived in Issaquah by car at about 9 AM to get breakfast and Coffee in Issaquah. About an hour later, we got to the Hyak Trailhead. As I told my partner about the Snoqualmie Tunnel, she became less enthused about the whole thing.
I'm at @PaneraBread in Issaquah, WA https://t.co/9U1LhWFGpz pic.twitter.com/VX28pkP5vr
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) July 30, 2022
I'm at @IssaquahCoffee Company in Issaquah, WA https://t.co/5nJgDMsd9l
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) July 30, 2022
I'm at Hyak Trailhead - Iron Horse Trail https://t.co/1IcCCNVBYJ
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) July 30, 2022
After unloading my partner's bike, I told her to ride around the parking lot a bit to reacquaint herself with it. (Prior to this ride, her bike had been sitting on the wall for the entirety of the COVID pandemic, so I had to clear out all of the dust stuck in it.) While she did that, I unloaded my bike and got ready.
After making use of the facilities, we headed over to the trail and the tunnel. We both loved the feeling of the cold air blowing out of the tunnel on this hot day, but as we got closer, she realized that she couldn't do it. The fact we forgot to pack her helmet certainly didn't help her confidence here, either. Thus, I headed through the tunnel solo.
The Snoqualmie Tunnel is always quite an experience. You have to keep an eye out for anyone walking or riding through it since it's pretty much pitch black for much of its length, with only carried lighting illuminating the way.
Once I reached the west portal, I realized that I had my partner's car keys and thus had to head back. When I saw her again, she was hanging out beside the restrooms, waiting for me. She said she had fun riding around in the parking lot for the 20 minutes or so we were apart.
Before we parted ways for a while again, I loaded up her bike and told her where we would be meeting in North Bend. I didn't have a good idea on how long it would take, a fact I kept reminding her of.
Part 2: Main Leg
Once back through the tunnel, I started on my way down the trail. Every mile or so, there were remnants of support stations for a running event, including restrooms and stacks of water bottles.
There were a lot of people when I went through the tunnel at the beginning of all this, but I saw almost nobody on the main section of the trail. Mostly cyclists heading uphill towards Hyak. One group was a bunch of older men who we saw eating at Panera earlier in our day.
It was honestly pretty fun riding my road-biased Soma Stanyan at 19-23 MPH with these 38mm tubeless tires set at 40 psi, despite the headwind at many points. The only hiccup I ran into was when some of my tools leaped out of their pocket on my handlebar bag while crossing the Boetzke Creek Trestle, but I managed to gather them all up.
When I got to the Cedar Falls Trailhead, I saw some barriers directing people towards the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, but no signage on them. Was this also for the running event? In any case, managed my way to the trail, only stopping to photograph a downed tree.
And photograph the South Fork Snoqualmie River at the bottom of the descent.
At the Tanner Road trailhead, there was even more stuff leftover from that run, but I didn't bother to stop there. I didn't want to waste any more time: without the aid of the downhill grade, the wind slowed me down to a mere 13-14 MPH on the entire flat section of the trail.
When I finally got to our meeting point, my partner was pretty mad at me because it took me two hours to cover the ~30 miles. She was very bored, and even looked into heading to a local shopping center to kill time, only to be stopped by the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad crossing the road. Also, the inside of the car was pretty hot during this heatwave afternoon.
After I loaded up my bike, we headed into town for lunch. We were both starving since it had been a while. Thus ended our cycling for the day.
I'm at The Iron Duck Public House in North Bend, WA https://t.co/SixXx8dLA2 pic.twitter.com/obLA24F8Yv
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) July 30, 2022
I'm at The North Bend Bakery in North Bend, WA https://t.co/08beJGvtC2
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) July 30, 2022
No comments:
Post a Comment