Washington Cascades Three Pass Gravel Loop

The ride: three mountain passes, ridden as much off-pavement as possible.

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The suspects: Johnny D on Sybil, GregS on Sybils younger sister, Dan on the 1150GS, Roland on a 640 KaTuM, Chad on the DRZ400, Davor and my older brother Dan on a couple of XR650L’s, and Tony, John and myself on KLR650’s.

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Met up at Issaquah Denny’s at O-bright-thirty.

Just don't eat the Ham & Cheeze omelette! Right Chad?


After grease and more grease and some caffeine to wash the grease down, we scooted up I-90 to Tinkham rd and gravel. Crossed I-90 and took Denny Creek rd to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Snoqualmie</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Pass.</st1laceType></st1lace>
<st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">Denny Creek Rd just before the summit.</st1laceType></st1lace>
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<st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">At the Summit</st1laceType></st1lace>
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<st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">Two fun gravel sections, one even had our one water crossing of the day.

I think this is Greg on his DL650.


And on into <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Easton</st1lace></st1:City> for food and liquids.



Heading towards Cle Elum, a fun little gravel following train tracks.



Some meandering along the Yakima River, and running through farmlands between Cle Elum and Elensburg got us up onto <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Table</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Mtn.</st1laceType></st1lace>
The view looking south – Mt Rainier in the distance.



Stopped for lunch on top of Table Mtn, looking east towards Mt Stuart.
The <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Lick</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Creek</st1laceType> <st1laceType w:st="on">Forest</st1laceType></st1lace> fire just visible between the ridges.


Ran north on FR-35, then west on FR 9712 to <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Blewitt</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Pass.</st1laceType></st1lace>
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<st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">FR 9712 looking west, downhill. Dan on the 1150.</st1laceType></st1lace>
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<st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">FR 9712 looking back east, uphill. Dan on the XR650. </st1laceType></st1lace>
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<st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">From Blewitt Pass we headed north on I-97 and took <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Mountain Home Road</st1:address></st1:Street> over to <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Leavenworth</st1lace></st1:City>. Dust was fairly prevalent. Waiting for riders in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Leavenworth</st1lace></st1:City> – how many bikes can ya fit under the shade of a tree?
I think the temps were almost triple digit.


We stopped in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Leavenworth</st1lace></st1:City> for gas and more food. Air Conditioning in the restaurant was very welcome.
Ran up Chumstick valley, out through Plain, and crossed the Snowmobile & Motorcycle bridge.


And on up to <st1laceType w:st="on">Lake</st1laceType> <st1laceName w:st="on">Wenatchee</st1laceName> where we got a glimpse of what’s left of the Dirtyface fire, still burning up on <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Dirtyface</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Mountain</st1laceType></st1lace>.
Dan and Johnny watchin' her smoke.


</st1laceType></st1lace>From the Little Wenatchee river, we took Smith-Brook over to Hwy 2.
Johnny summiting Smith Brook.


At the top of <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Stevens</st1laceName> <st1laceName w:st="on">Pass</st1laceName></st1lace>, we jumped on the <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Old Cascade Highway</st1:address></st1:Street>, which is degrading into a gravel road.
About as much snow on the slopes in August as there was last January.


Five or six miles down the <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Old Cascade Highway</st1:address></st1:Street>, the automobile bridge was washed out.
They rebuilt a pedestrian bridge, which you can cross by bike.


We stopped to check out the Cascade Tunnel. Something to see.
Supposedly the longest train tunnel in the western hemisphere.




And as we sat there “I heard a train a-comin”… and Amtrack showed up.






We hit slab down through Goldbar, Sultan, and on into <st1:City w:st="on">Monroe</st1:City> (passed on <st1laceName w:st="on">Jacks</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Pass</st1laceType> this time) and had $1.00 taco’s from a taco-truck in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Monroe</st1lace></st1:City>. No Tenemos Cerveza, but all in all, it was still a good way to end a great day ride.


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Looks like you guys had a great day, long ride and some nice views. How many miles did you log for the day? Wish I coulda joined ya.. Nice report.

Dave, Thanks again for a great ride. Great riding companions as well.

Chad, Hope you're feeling much better by now.

Cheers,
Dan

I think I put 300 miles on the odo for the day. Probably a 50/50 mix of gravel/pavement, give or take.

How'd youze get from Easton to Cle Elum? Slab?

There are a couple of ways - one I haven't tried yet on the north side of I-90. We took an access road that parallels the train tracks which gets you about half-way to Cle Elum, then took Nelson Siding Rd, and West Side Road on into Cle Elum. It'd be fun to run up over Taneum ridge, and follow Taneum Creek on into Elensburg, then head north. Next time.

Youger sister? Talk about your anthropomorphizing...

I've never named a bike before (thought I have called them choice names at times). I did name a car once, just because it was so darn appropriate: a mid-late-80's Chevy Nova, which was really a rebranded Toyota Tercel, was dubbed "Zippy the wonder turtle".

During our ride I wondered what one would call a DL650, and the word "Delores" came to mind. Not sure it quite sticks yet.

BTW, I just got back from registering it, so I guess I'm keeping it for a little while. Not sure the KLR is leaving either, but the KDX might be going -- of all things...

I wanna go next time!

That's awesome! Can't wait for my ADV bike to get here. I do have access to a DR250... would this loop be a little much for a micro-thumper that tops out around 65 MPH?!?! :) Could you possibly shoot me some sort of route map or maybe GPS wayports? I'd love to give this a try!!

If you took back roads to North Bend and jumped on Tinkham, and did the Jacks pass-Index-Goldbar section, then jumped off 2 at Sultan and got on Ben Howard, you'd only do about 30 miles total on interstates - 90/97/2. Think the DR250 could do 30 minutes at 60mph? I'll bet it could.

No gps routes from me. My GPS was stowed. Saw a couple other GPS's though. Maybe someone else has the route.

Nice pix David! Looks like you guys had a good ride. Some of those routes look somehow familiar


Recognize that KLR?
-=Clif

Yeah, I seem to recall my rear wheel getting a little squirelly not too long after that pic was taken!

Oh yeah, I remember...mighta had something to do with this...

Great ride thanks Dave.

The New Cascade tunnel is the longest train tunnel in the US. It's about 8 miles long. For some history http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r004.html.

I will post my pictures soon.

-JohnD