Courage Classic 2016

Courage Classic 2016
I originally did not intend to this years Courage Classic, but the appeal of the fat tire option, and encouragement of a few friends, it seemed like the reasonable thing to do. I was riding as a part of the Auburn Cycling team. I did not take many photographs since I had done this twice before, and did not carry my camera on the bicycle except for the fat tire option of the first day.
Saturday 06AUG — Snoqualmie Pass.  I woke up at 4 am, quickly loaded the bikes, and took off to North Bend. The first day, I was riding my mountain bike, and it followed the Iron Horse trail all the way from North Bend to Cle Elum. I had ridden up to the Snoqualmie Pass tunnel many times, but had not done anything east of the tunnel, so it had a great appeal to me. The start of the ride was very strange, in that it made you ride in reverse to the town of Snoqualmie Falls in order to get out the trail, a distraction of about 3 miles. Getting up to the pass was fairly easy with a steady 3-4% grade, but it was only a very slight descent to Cle Elum on the other side, making riding easy. My only problem was my legs cramping up, and I should have taken in more electrolytes. There was a small amount of road once one entered Cle Elum, and then the fat tire riders were again directed to a gravel road, the Coal Miner’s trail, bringing me into camp. I was anticipating by my Garmin about 10 miles more riding than I actually did , but was grateful to be done with the trip. Oddly, my Garmin read about 56 miles, but others had up to 67 miles on the fat tire option. I was sort of wasted, got my tent set up, and then met a number of friends at dinner. Bedtime was 8 pm, and I slept like a baby.

Sherri Olson and husband in excellent form.
At the start
Ready to roll
Iron Horse trail, east of Snoqualmie Pass
Sunday 07AUG — Blewett Pass. I woke up at 5:30, got my tent down, had a cup of coffee, and took off. The morning was downright cold this am, and had to keep cycling to stay warm. Most of the ride up Blewett Pass was 2-4% grade, but the last few miles were 4-6% grade. They had a great lunch on top, and the descent was awesome. Oddly, they had a very convoluted path to the finish line once in the town of Levenworth. We were back in camp before noon. Much of the last half of the ride was with Ronn Goodnough. It was a lazy afternoon in town, and dinner was as usual at Lion’s Park, with one beer in the beer garden afterwards.
Monday 08AUG — Stevens Pass. Today, I was up at 5:15, and able to get on the road by 6 am. It was cool, with rain anticipated. I was well up Steven’s Pass when the rain started at precisely 9 am. It was another couple hours to the top, which was then in heavy rain and quite cold. I was in a cluster of about 8 loosely spaced riders that were the head of the pack, wanting to get over the pass before the rains became too bad. I had a very quick lunch, and then bolted down the west side of the pass to Snohomish. The route along the old Steven’s Pass highway for about 4.5 miles was the most delightful part of the whole trip. I was able to catch the first shuttle bus back to North Bend, and got home about 5 pm.