Issaquah Washington, the town in which I've chosen to live, is located in a valley at the base of the Cascade foothills. Tiger Mountain dominates the view from my kitchen window and when I ride east, I ride up, into the high country. Over the years my friends and I have explored a few of the tiny dirt roads that ultimately dead-end high on some impassable peak. I always think that dead-end is the wrong term, for these are the places where the wild still lives. When we get the chance, we go there.
On my big trip in June, the ride to Banff and then south along the Great Divide, I found myself telling people about my local mountains, the Cascades. The Divide is wonderful and amazing and I know I will return there again, but at a slower pace. Back home in Issaquah I can only rest for so long before I become restless. Fortunately, I am blessed with friends willing to wander with me, slowly up the steep mountains, to climb into and ultimately past the clouds, to camp beside a small lake.
Early in July Mark Canizaro and Mark Vande Kamp joined me for such a trip, a quick overnight trip to visit lakes SMC, Nadeau and Moolock. Our friend Brad Hawkins and his children accompanied us out of town. My Monocog was still enroute from Wyoming so on this day I rode my fixed gear Stumpjumper. I rode very slowly and the route was steep enough that we all wound up walking for at least a bit.
The pictures tell the story. It's a beautiful world and wild places are only a bike ride away.
Keep 'em rolling,
Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA
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