Text and photos by Phil Neff “A lie has speed, the truth has endurance” – Edgar J. Mohn This course winds through river valleys into the foothills of Tahoma at Carbon Glacier trailhead in Mt. Rainier National Park, diverts to a punchy climb of Mud Mountain in Enumclaw, and returns via a loop of Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. With less than 2000 meters of climbing over 300 kilometers, this is a great “season opener” longer brevet, but keep in mind that most of the elevation gain comes during the middle section of the ride and save energy for the ride back in! Start at U Village Starbucks ..read more

Text and photos by John Pearch The Spider was a permanent route created in 2011 for PBP training. A few of us in Olympia resurrected it into the new RUSA permanent program, and now we’re introducing it as a populaire. There are 9 sets of hills on this ride, and there are a lot of downhills to make up the time from the climbing, Take advantage of these descents and minimize stop time at the stores. The 5 most notable climbs are: Shaker Church/Hwy8: longest climb of the day, 546 ft gain in 5 miles. Summit Lake: 633 ft gain, 631 loss in 10.5 miles. Cedar Flats: misleading, as this is NOT flat ..read more

Starting February 1, 2024, gravel credit and timing will apply to permanents with unpaved portions! Relaxed timing should open up new terrain and gnarlier routes should become accessible to a wider variety of riders. Gravel Timing An extra minute is allowed to complete a route for every kilometer of gravel. The extra time allowance is computed by adding up all the gravel segments in a route, then dropping any fractional kilometer. (Ride with GPS displays the summary unpaved distance.) For example, at the minimum average speed of 15 kph, a 200 km route has a basic time allowance of 4 min/km, o ..read more

Photo by Shaun Ivory The Interurban bike bridge over the Green River in Kent near S 256th St appears to have been damaged by a vehicle. The bridge is just south of where the Green River Trail terminates at the Interurban Trail. Hopefully the damage is light and the bridge will not be closed for long. Detouring is not difficult – plan ahead ..read more

Very little has changed about this route from previous years. See my writeup for 2022. A small change has been made at the start due to changing traffic patterns in North Bend. The ride now accesses the trail via Ballarat Ave. (The same change has been made to the Permanent.) The start and finish will be run differently for this ride. Late starts will not be accommodated. The organizer intends to join the ride. The start will close whenever he gets all the start materials put away. Proof of finishing and proof of passage will be entirely by electronic means. The finish will not be staffed. Whe ..read more

The Seattle International Randonneurs headed to the eastern Washington city of Wenatchee to host brevet week of 2023. My name is Kiel Safstrom, or some in the club like to call me, Hand Grenade. Surprisingly, there was no self-implosion completing all four of these bombastically designed routes by Don “Shiggy” Person. Let’s pull the pin and recount the routes for those aspiring to ride amongst the tumbleweeds. Saturday May 20th – Lake Wenatchee 200K 15 registered riders gathered before the 6 am. start at the Hilton Garden Inn, the main base of this entire week’s operations. We roll out on the ..read more

400 kilometers is a long ways, and you can see a lot. This ride will keep you interested as it hits many highlights on local roads. With 12,500 ft of climbing, this 400K has a little more elevation per mile than PBP, but the sawtooth profile is similar with endless short climbs and descents. Parking Parking is pretty restricted in Mukilteo- most on-street parking is at most 4hrs with no parking 2-4am. Nobody wants to find their car towed after finishing the ride. Be sure to allow time to find parking and ride down to the ferry. By far the most convenient parking is at the pay lot across the st ..read more

A Sleepy Randonneur’s Guide The 2023 Spring 400K starts on Whidbey Island and finishes in Mukilteo. All riders will be riding the last 20K at night, many will be doing it well after midnight. There will be very little traffic because of this, but randonneurs navigating this for the first time can be confused with all the turns, one way streets, and road furniture. Becoming familiar with this beforehand will hopefully ease your way to the finish. 17K after the control in Arlington, leave the Centennial Trail by making a right on 60th St NE, one of the many cross streets on the trail. There is a ..read more

Last summer a portion of the trestle across Fidalgo Bay was burned. Reconstruction finished ahead of schedule last month. Three permanents were affected. They can be ridden now without detouring onto Hwy 20: 3040 San Juans Shuttle, 3043 Snohomish-Anacortes, 3044 Snohomish-Anacortes-Snohomish I know you all missed chancing your tires on the broken oyster shells. Thanks to Matt Kreger for alerting me to this news ..read more

313 km 14,000 ft climbing Preriders: Yonnel Gardes, Robert Giglio, Bill Gobie, Aaron Jones, Keith Moore Crashers: Bill Gobie, Keith Moore Tower Rock From foxgloves to towering cedars to enormous volcanoes, scenery abounds at all scales on this route. Waterfalls, lakes, marshes and creeks tempt you to linger, but mosquitoes and biting flies will impel you onward! Pray you don’t get a flat! Abundant also is climbing. Climbing, climbing, climbing! 14,000 feet of it in long alpine ascents plus the occasional vertical wall. Where climbing abounds so does descending. On some stretches you may reach ..read more