Grand Ridge to Duthie Hill and Back - Again

This is the post with lots of pictures.  Click on them and they get bigger.  Links to the entire set of each day are in here somewhere.

This past Saturday I drove to Issaquah and hit the Grand Ridge Trail.

Over the hills and through the woods.....

Crossing wood bridges.....

Fjording boardwalks aplenty.....

Switching from this way to that way....

Until I arrived at Duthie Hill.....

There were dual slalom courses to brave.....

Camel humps, ahhhh, humping.....

And ancient maps to decipher.....

At some places the trail got skinny.....

And under the bridge trolls to be thwarted.....

Lions - apparently, Tigers - no, Bears - yep, them too.

And then it was time to drive home.  Look!  The mountain is out!

I crossed The Narrows to finally arrive home.

It was a great ride.  The trails were in excellent condition.  It was a great temptation to stay at the mountain biker's Disney World that is Duthie Hill.  But, I'd another ride lined up for Sunday.  Saturday's pictures are HERE.

Sunday a co-worker and I loaded up bikes and headed for North Bend, WA.  The game plan was to ride two rails-to-trails, trails ending up at the three mile (it might be two mile) long tunnel at Snoqualmie Pass.

First up was taking the Snoqualmie Valley Trail to Rattlesnake Lake....

This river was fairly wide and looked like a ton of fun in a kayak.

It was very slightly uphill most all the way to the lake.  Rattlesnakes spotted - zero.

After the requisite pictures we hopped on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail bound for....

The Snoqualmie tunnel.....

On mountain bikes, of course!

We saw a lot of waterfalls created by snow melt.  When we approached this one, the air temperature was easily 15 degrees cooler.  It was like standing in front of a window air conditioner.

There were about 20 climbers doing their thing, aided by.....

Those on belay.

The John Wayne Pioneer trail generally follows I-90.  In some spots you could see the poor bastards stuck in there cars.  We poor bastards had to listen to the road noise.

There were several old train trestles to go over.

As we rode we got closer and closer to snow.....

And then we started to see it by the side of the trail.

And then on the trail.....

Until it blocked the trail.  My co-worker hiked up the trail about 200 yards beyond where the bikes were stopped.  He found a sign that said the tunnel was 1.6 miles farther along.

We'd been going up in elevation until that point.  Turning around our speed easily tripled (or more) as we bombed back to Rattlesnake Lake and then North Bend.  I'd been craving fish tacos all day and we found them at the North Bend Bar and Grill.  They were an appetizer item.  I had two orders. And beer.  Of course.

I'm thinking about going back this coming weekend.  Instead of the Ellsworth, I'm thinking I might ride the Surly Moonlander.  Yes, it will be some work horsing it up the grade.  However, when the trail becomes snowbound, I can keep riding to the tunnel.  Anyway, all the pictures from this past Sunday are HERE.