Where in the PNW would you like ride in 2020?
 

and PLEASE come back and update this thread with pics.

For me:
1. Several days based in Port Angeles on the Strait of Juan de Fuca for roadie rides.
Olympic Discovery Trail. Out toward Neah Bay. As far up Hurricane Ridge as my body can last and cruise down.
2. A trip thru the Okanogan region with mixed surface rides encouraged.
This would be a first experience for me.
Well, almost. But I have no pics from there handy.


Would love to re-visit these memories.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...31cff710bb.jpg
Look for the murals and sculptures in Port Angeles
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4e252ee38d.jpg
Who doesn't like to watch ships transiting the Strait
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...30cc8f055f.jpg

Astoria to Crescent City, US 101, 409.7 miles. That's the dream.

If that's too crazy, then Bend to Crater Lake and back over maybe three days, with one night at the lake and a pic of Wizard Island with my bike in it.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...90de469fa7.jpg

Kettle Crest. Totes Coulee, like toward the Iron Gate trailhead. Angles Staircase. Republic Wa doesn't to Roosevelt Lake.

I don't know if any of these will happen; you asked for wishes not predictions. ;)

Seattle Forrest has been posting pics of the Mt. Baker highway, so I'd like to hit that at some point...

Places I'd like to get back to in 2020:

Road Rides: McKenzie Pass before the gate opens. Smith River Byway. Crooked River Gorge,
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/T3...I=w717-h538-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/FT...Q=w717-h538-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eF...Q=w717-h404-no


Mountainbike: Windigo Trail, Waldo Lk to Bunchgrass Trail to Oakridge, Umpqua River Trail, McKenzie Trail. (The last two pics aren't mine)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xC...Y=w717-h538-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qv...0=w717-h538-no
https://www.cycleumpqua.com/wp-conte...-Jnct-Sign.jpg
https://bendtrails.org/wp-content/up...iver-Trail.jpg

Oh man. I totally forgot about the old McKenzie hwy! I've lived in the Willamette Valley for over 11 years now, and I keep missing the opportunity to hit it while it's closed to cars. Definitely on my list this year.

Gorgeous riding. At what time of year is the road closed?

McKenzie pass is closed through the winter. They plow out a lane in the late spring and let it melt out a bit before it's open to cars. It's usually open to bikes around May and the first week or two of June. You can usually find out conditions by checking the web or called Eurosports (it's a bike shop in Sisters) Pictures from a S24O using McKenzie Pass and Hwy 20.

Not that you could go wrong or have a bad time either way, but I want to save you from a surprise.

I've posted pics of the Mt Baker Highway (532) and the North Cascades Highway (20). I think it's 20 you want to ride. It's been a few years since I've ridden around Baker, and I posted a bunch of pics from the Washington Pass section of Highway 20 last year.

Baker is a volcano like Hood, Adams, or Rainier. Massive ice cap, the volcanic soil makes it a wildflower paradise, snow lingers into early summer which all make for glorious pics. North Cascades Hwy goes by a big glacial lake, and a bunch of craggy, non-volcanic peaks, more of the shark teeth look. Also has snow until June or so, but of course they clear the road so you can ride by and get a picture of your bike leaning against it. I love them both, but I love 20 more. :)

There's a "share yer pics" thread in foo, here's a link to a page (current one right now) with lots of North Cascades Highway if you want a visual refresher.

I posted about this in the touring forum but I would LOVE to do the Selkirk Loop through E WA, N ID and BC. If anyone can share their experiences that would be much appreciated!

I am familiar with the entire area, just not on a bike.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bcbbdcf67c.jpg

I just Googled Selkirk Loop - That looks like a great ride!
I haven't ridden that loop, but I've ridden in the vicinity. I remember riding through Sandpoint. I may have ridden on more of those roads than I remember. We had no trouble with the roads or finding good places to camp. There may be some alternative routes though WA and ID. It's a sound route. I'm sure you noticed a guided trip does the same loop, so it must be a good route!

We rode by Boundary Dam, it looks like it's a side trip from the loop: (I think I remember riding across the dam - you might not be able to do that now)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZJ...=w1560-h675-no
Somewhere in Canada - might be on the loop:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iu...=w1250-h937-no
Canada: (I think Hwy 1A or 31 near Kokanee Provincial Park)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p8...=w1250-h937-no

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b14ee84e6f.jpg
This is currently my inspirational laptop background.

One place you should all check out is my town of Cottage Grove Oregon- not only do we have a great Rails to Trails but also the only covered RR bridge west of the Mississippi and a historic downtown and some great food.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...675338973e.jpg
RR Bridge looking at a covered Bridge
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...006ce8311c.jpg
Family friendly!
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f9ef2b4f6f.jpg
RR grades
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1019b74e72.jpg
Lovely scenery!

The Sisters Parks & Recreation puts on a great ride the last weekend before the road opens to traffic. We've done it twice, once when it snowed a few years ago and last year when the weather was perfect. The folks that put it on are very friendly and the two bike shops in town get into the action. They had beer, wine and snacks for the packet pick up the day before and they fed us, including a beer or glass of wine, at the other bike shop. They even had live music. One of the better events I've been part of plus Sisters makes a great place to spend a couple of days. We like rides with long climbs and this has one in both directions.

Crest the Cascades

This is one of the best rides anywhere. We drove down to ride the century a decade or so ago. We also did the loop on our own from the campground. If you do go down there for the century and don't want to ride the full 100 miles don't do the 60 mile version, it doesn't go around the lake, just cut off the initial 20+ mile loop of the century and head straight to the lake from the start location. The 35 miles or so around the lake the best by far.

You should all ride the North Cascades Highway.

This one is on our every year list, often more than once. We've always done it from the eastern side since we really like being in the Methow in general. But this past year we managed to get a spot on the Mazama Ride that the Redmond Cycling Club puts on every year. They limit the number of participants to how many the can fit at the Mazama Country Inn and they get a lot of returning riders who have priority on sign up. It was a great opportunity to do the ride with support from Marblemount to Mazama one day and then the reverse the next day. I'd highly recommend it if you like organized rides that are not crowded but with a sense of comradery on the road.

Mazama

It's funny, but we don't typically do too many organized rides but this past year we managed to get on four of them including the above. We rode the Crest the Cascades over McKenzie Pass, Ride the Hurricane up to Hurricane Ridge and finished the year with the Mt. Baker Hill Climb. We obviously like climbing. We also spent a couple of days at Ashford and rode to Paradise on consecutive days, once right from our cabin and the second day from the Stevens Canyon side. We did another ride to the Washington/Rainy pass from Winthrop and managed to get down to Mt. St. Helens to ride up to Windy Ridge.

I'm not sure what this year has in store, last year was supposed to be a non-riding focused year and then it just went from ride to ride. We'd had four years in a row where we had been in training mode for riding goals we had each of those years so we were thinking a year when we didn't feel obligated to always be training would be good.

We did talk for a while about doing this ride in Montana but it filled almost immediately with returning riders and when I inquired they already had 50 folks on the waiting list.

https://bicycleridesnw.org/brnw-montana-2020/

I do have a couple of bucket list rides I'd like to do at some point, Chinook Pass from the east, Mission Ridge and a climb up a Forest Service road north of Ellensburg called Lions Rock that is supposed to be comparable to the McNeil Canyon climb that features in the Chelan Century. There are a number of climbs in the Wenatchee area to go along with the Mission Ridge ride, the only issue would be timing it to avoid snow and heat. We snowboard at Mission and I wouldn't want to be on the road when they are still open until mid April and when we rode the Wenatchee Century a few years ago the temperature hit 97F that day and hit triple digits the next.

Further afield I look at this guy's website for inspiration:

Home Page - Jay's Essential Bike Rides

He has pretty strict criteria for his rides with lack of traffic and quality scenery being near the top. He doesn't think much of rides in our state, mainly because the amount of traffic, but has a long list of rides in Oregon and California. The handful I've done are really great rides, it's just unfortunate how long the drives are. Southern Oregon and Northern California are certainly sweet spots for great rides.

mtnbud mentioned the Selkirk loop, we did then WACANID ride a few years and were pretty disappointed. There were nice stretches especially between Nelson and Creston and the layover in Nelson was probably the highlight but there are way too many miles when you are on the shoulder next to high-speed traffic. Sometimes the shoulders were very narrow and we had terrible weather during our week so it was borderline scary at times navigating a narrow wet shoulder next to heavy traffic. the people that ran it were terrific but the riding left a lot to be desired IMO.

Thanks! me and the family vacation in the Kootenays every year and I have been intrigued by the Selkirk Loop. Maybe now I'll just focus on doing a BC ride only and cut out the busy parts of US 2 and US 95 all together. I also have a VERY capable offroad touring bike so maybe I should be seeking out single lane gravel for my overnight trips!

How did you like the free ferry from Balfour to Crawford Bay, is that lake cool or what??

I would think you could find some great roads up in that area, we ran into a group of Canadians on a long tour at our hotel in Nelson and they talked about a lot of scenic climbs they had ridden. I don't mind doing out and back rides and much prefer them if they are on a great section of low traffic road(s) versus trying to make a loop that involves highway/shoulder miles.

The ride from Nelson to Creston was a pretty memorable day. I got lucky because I slept in a little knowing I could cover the 20 odd miles from Nelson the ferry terminal a lot quicker than the organizers suggested. I got some concerned looks the first time I was spotted by the SAG vehicle but by the second time they saw me I was already passing stragglers and got to the terminal with plenty of time to spare, plus I avoided the deluge that everyone else got caught in. The bakery that I hope is still there is almost destination worthy in itself, got a big cookie to eat during the ferry ride which was pretty cool. The climb from the terminal was one of the better ones on the whole ride and the road along the lake was real scenic with low traffic. This along with the section when you left the highway about 30 miles from Sandpoint and headed north to Ione for our first stop and then the part to the Canadian border the next day were the best miles of the 350+ mile loop. I don't think they go through Ione anymore due to the lack of hotels and restaurants.

Some folks on the ride didn't seem to mind the traffic like we did so that may affect how you feel about the ride. Also we had unusually cold wet weather when we did it in mid-September so going in summer would be drier and warmer but the flip side was that 2015 was a horrific year for wildfire up in the BC interior so it probably wouldn't have been feasible to do the ride while that was going on.

Having a gravel capable bike would certainly open up all sorts of terrain. I saw an article fairly recently where a pro rider got a group of friends together and rode almost exclusively on gravel across most of BC, they were really pushing their limits on how much they rode per day but the fact that they were able to link such great distances staying mostly on dirt roads was pretty cool.

I would think there are plenty of riders in that region that could help you put together some great rides.

I've never spent much time in the Kootenays and have been wanting to get back to Nelson during the winter to snowboard at Whitewater. We've hit Revelstoke and Sun Peaks on previous trips and Whitewater sounds pretty cool and low key with great snow, plus Nelson seems like a great place to spend a few days. We are heading to Apex Mountain in a few weeks because they are part of the Indy Pass that includes two days of boarding there but Whitewater is next on the list for Canadian visits.

We have also been talking about a trip to Banff/Jasper so would like to make sure we take in some of the sights along the way.

That's awesome info!! Thank you!

Could the bakery you loved so much be the Black Salt Cafe in Kootenay Bay? Just on the east side of the lake? If so, we loved it there too.

If you wish to explore near Nelson more I would suggest also Kaslo, which is north of there. Awesome little town, super relaxing. And if you do make it to Jasper/Banff we really loved Radium Hot Springs.

I know there is a really awesome cycling community up there, can't wait to see what trouble I can get in to on my new everything bike! It's got 3" wide tires, rigid-specific design, and braze ons for more packs and mounts than I know what to do with!!

I had to look it up, the bakery was right by the Balfour ferry dock and is the Old World Bakery. The cookie was so big it filled one of my jersey pockets and I regretted not being able to carry more because several pastries looked great.

Kaslo looks really cool! That lake is huge, I forget how long it is. We have the Ainsworth Hot Springs on our to-do list for our next visit.

Radium is one of those places I've never been to but remember seeing pictures of when I was a kid a wished I could go there.

You could spend a ton of time up there and not see everything there is to see, amazing how many National and Provincial Parks there are there.

It is one of the most beautiful roads I have ever ridden.

I need to get back to the PNW to get some riding in.

It's pretty vertical! I love it there as well. I remember taking youth group trips there as a teen. Would love to return as an adult and do Rainy Pass.

busygizmo can you give me some more information about your ride? For example where did you start from? How long was the ride? Was it an out and back? Did the SAG vehicle carry your bags for you from hotel to hotel? etc. Thank you.

We rode the WACANID ride.

https://www.wacanid.org/

They change the rout a little every year. It’s put on by the Rotarians.

We did in 2015. Sandpoint to Ione Day 1. Day 2 Ione to Trail. Day 3 Trail to Nelson. Rest day. Day 5 Nelson to Creston. Day 6 Creston back to Sandpoint.

Fully supported. We mostly stayed in hotels except Ione where it wasn’t an option. We were going to camp in Trail and Creston but the camp in Trail was nowhere near town and that was lucky because it rained all night. We got a room in Creston while we were in Nelson because we just didn’t want to camp in the rain.

it was around 350 miles mostly on highways. They put us on secondary roads when they were there but most stretches didn’t.

The folks that run it are great, I just am not enamored by the riding. We’ve done two big weeklong loop rides in Colorado and they were much better in terms of scenery and traffic.

One organizer BRNW did a Northern California loop a few years ago that we couldn’t do but if they do it again I want to. It started and finished in Weed.