The plan for today was to take an afternoon ride from our rv park (far right) along US 101 the red road (top of the map) to Deer Park Road, running through the first green rectangle to the little black dot (right of the second green triangle).
The road was paved until it reached the National Park boundary where it turned to gravel. Because we don't ride the bikes on gravel Brock (and Leola) drove us in their truck.
The paved road up was nice--paved with graceful rolls and curves and not much grade.
The gravel road was a real test of Brock's driving skill--one lane hugging the mountain on one side and falling away to the valley bottom on the other with a few wide spots for two vehicles to pass.
With an elevation change of 6000' bottom to top, the grade grew steeper. Leola in the front passenger seat
was careful not to look to the right, but I enjoyed the view. Duane was very glad to be next to the mountain, while Brock would have had a "WOW" for the view if he hadn't had to keep his eyes on the road.
Up, up, up we went. The road became a series of steep switchbacks with blind corners. In other words, it was perfect for duel sport motorcycle riders.
Smoke blowing over the Cascade Mountains from wildfires burning in east Washington piled up against the Olympia Mountains
growing thicker and darker as we gained altitude.
Brock's truck was getting a real workout. The further up we went, the more the engine temp went up. We started taking short stops to let it cool a bit before we went on.
When we reached a fork in the road, we went right toward the ranger station to reconnoiter
and managed to find a parking spot among the hikers' cars and by a restroom. t
We walked to the ranger station (closed, ranger out on patrol but apparently not in need of the toboggan or skis)
and found this trail map. We discovered that we still had a couple of miles and another 1000' to climb to the top.
After considering the steeper grade and the dense smoke obscuring the view, the comfort level of Duane and Leola, and the lateness of the afternoon, we decided to turn around and head for home. Duane and I traded places so that he could stay on the mountain side of the road and I could take pictures.
As is often the case, we had better views going down.
Gradually our view of the trees went from the tops to the middles to the trunks, the road smoothed out and the mountain gave way to trees on both sides of the road. Our afternoon "Sunday drive" totaled 120 miles round trip, and took 4 hours.
To top of the day we joined other Escapees at the activity center for Ice Cream Social. The four open seats at our table were filled by a couple who arrived this afternoon and parked next to us, and by snowbirds who use Evergreen Coho as their summer residence and North Ranch Escapees RV Park as their winter residence. We all enjoyed interesting conversation while we stuffed face with our favorite flavor(s).
Duane and I had failed again to reach a tall mountain top (see May 27 blog, Buns Of Steel), but that doesn't mean we won't try again!
No plans for the next couple of days,
Louise and Duane
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