Saturday, August 17, 2013

Sierra Cascades – 8/17/2013 – Eatonville to Packard, Wa

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Patrice took the following photos at the first night’s dinner, a great place on the shore with a spectacular sunset.

John and me at Crater Lake (1)

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Photo above of Mt Rainier was taken last night from out motel.

TODAY'S RIDE was wonderful.  Well I guess I need to explain that we had a choice of two rides today a 47 mile ride with 2,500 feet of climbing or a 76 mile ride with 5,100 feet of climbing.  We choose the easier ride.  After all, we have two 80 mile days each with 4,700 feet of climbing ahead of us.

On the first seven miles out of Eatonville we had lots of traffic and no shoulder.  But then we turned left on Highway 7 and found a wide shoulder.  Also at this junction was a beautiful Adler Lake created by La Grande Dam.

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At mile 15 we stopped by “Recycled Spiritf of Iron”, an artists sculpture gallery.

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After lunch we turned East on National Forest Road 52.  This is an deal cycling road. The road by-passes Mt Rainier National Park and thus it’s not heavily used by automobiles.  We felt we had the road to ourselves.  It’s heavily forested; in fact my GPS continually lost satellite contact. The climb to Bear Prairie Pass was gradual, except for a short and steep section.  There was no marker for the pass;  you just realized that you’re now going downhill so you must have crested the pass.

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We thought Eatonville was small with one stop sign and 4 cafes.  Well Packwood only has one café.

Other sites today

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Tomorrow is going to be a hard day, 80 miles and 4,700 feet of climbing.

Miles today = 47, Elevation gain = 2,508. Total miles = 91, Tot Elevation gain = 3,673

1 comment:

  1. Looks like a great trip! Looking forward to more pics and posts. Enjoy and stay safe!

    ReplyDelete