June S24O
Mark Vande Kamp, Kent Peterson, and I met with plans to camp at a lake that Mark had visited a decade ago. We had a low quality map, camping stuff for one night, and a desire for some nice riding, camping, socializing, maybe with a little adventure.
In 45 miles of riding, largely on trails, I went from my backyard to mature second growth forest. The roads that we were on were at the outer suburbs of Seattle. Those houses along thoseroads absorbed cars like a sponge and the last few miles of pavement were enjoyable and empty. Then we hit the logging roads, a maze of gates, roads,clearcuts and signage that didn’t agree with our map. Wandering up and down the same road three times we decided that we were a little lost and just started exploring. Kent said something like “anywhere around here would be great if there was water”.Seconds later we rounded a corner and heard a waterfall.A turnoff showed us the perfect camping spot. Mark remarked that it was better than his memory of the lakeside camping. We weren’t the first people to camp there (judging by the remains of a campfire),but felt like we had discovered it.
In our evening there we ate a camping feast, explored the remains of a trail next to the creek, talked about books, bikes, camping gear, work, travel, the gdr, and other good stuff and just enjoyed the woods. In the morning I woke up at 7ish (that is sleeping in for me when camping) and found that Kent and Mark were already up. We ate a quick hot breakfast, packed up, and explored another loop of the forest. On it we found great views (sadly created by clear cutting), perfect logging roads for riding, and no people. Kent remarked that we were no farther from Seattle than Mount Si, but Si was likely already teaming with people. We were alone.
As we descended out of the forest we quickly reached civilization again. Kent turned left towards his home, Mark and I headed right towards ours. 35 miles later and just after noon I was back at home.
I love the S24O formatand this was my favorite of them so far. I can’t wait for the next one.
Selected Photos
Mark wonders “is that the lake down there?”
Kent and his cool “Kelly Kettle”:
Twin Hennessey Hammocks:
Riding through fresh cuts:
And the views that they afforded:
Links:
Yeah, but Alex, who won?
Kent won “bike most likely to belong to a hobo”.
Mark won first up heart attack hill.
I won the broken rack award.
All in a good 24 hours.
I am interested in your multispeed hub. I mostly do touring off road and deraileur is weak link. how do you like yours? what range gears?
The hub is a Rohloff Speedhub. I think it is great, it is efficient, shifts well, and is quiet in most gears. They have a range of about 500% and 14 speeds.
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