If you’ve read my writeup on the Palouse To Cascades Trail, then you know that the stretch between Cle Elum and Thorp is one of my favorites. It’s a great experience for riders of all ages and skill levels, as long as they have a bike that is capable for the surface and you prepare them ahead of time for what to expect.
Category Archives: Cycling
Look Fast Ride Slow!
Stickers! Look Fast, Ride Slow is an ethos. How slow should you ride? It’s relative, and it’s entirely up to you. Can you ride fast sometimes? Yeah! It’s fun. But stop trying to race everybody all the time.
Let’s Get Low (gearing)
I want it all. I want the ability to ride miles of pavement at road speed, and then climb an 18% forest road while carrying all of the necessary supplies for an overnight trip. And I want to do all of this on the same bike.
The Love of the Ride. or: Cycling is for Everyone
There are a lot of people in the cycling world who want you to believe that if you just had that new component, shoe, or bike, all of your rides would be absolutely awesome and you’d always be happy. The industry as a whole has an awful lot to come to terms with. Cycling should be accessible and welcoming to all folks.
Project Party Bike
Get rad! 90’s rigid mountain bikes tend to make the best party bikes. They typically have massive tire clearance, they can be built with basically any components you want, and they’re pretty much indestructible. Plus, they’re cheap, easy to find, and usually come in some fun color schemes. 26 isn’t dead.
The 1000 Acre Wood
The 1000 Acre Wood is a large swath of privately owned timberland perched atop the eastern edge of Crescent Valley, just north of Gig Harbor. It contains a surprisingly large network of gravel forest roads, wide dirt trails, single track, and tight hiking trails
The Dark and Slow of Winter
As the beautiful colors of fall give way to the dark and cold days of winter, it’s difficult to stay motivated and want to go outside; The daylight hours are short, the temperatures drop, and the weather can become a larger obstacle than any hill you may encounter. Winter riding requires a mental shift, asContinue reading “The Dark and Slow of Winter”
(Don’t) Feel the Vibrations
Riding on gravel can take a serious toll on your body. You have to work harder to pedal through it, and your bike is probably heavier than a dedicated go-fast road bike. Even on flat-ish rail trails, you can’t really stop pedaling because you will almost immediately come to a stop.
Learning to Love the Path Less Paved
When I was a kid, you could ride on pavement to the outskirts of town and then go ride up into the forest, hit a few trails, and bomb a fire road back into town… and you could do all of this on the same bike… and that’s all that gravel bikes are. Riding gravel isn’t new, and technically, neither are gravel bikes.
Intro to Capitol Forest
Capitol State Forest is an absolute wonderland of gravel. The nearly one hundred thousand acres of land is managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and contains almost six hundred miles of gravel roads. It is a destination for hikers, horseback riders, campers, and dirt bike enthusiasts. It is also home to some amazing single track for mountain bikers.
How it All Began
What began as a seemingly ridiculous plan over beers at a dining room table in 2014, has grown into an annual ride across the cascades filled with gravel, good beer, and great friends.
