It has been a long time waiting for this trip, 3 years maybe, so even I was a bit surprised when the weather, timing, and snow cooperated. Sunrise is the name of a visitor center in Mt. Rainier NP. I am not a fan of National Parks in general since they usually throw bikes in the same category as motorcycles. (Oh, the horrors of a mountain bike on a trail. The world will never recover, but why not pave roads up the mountain. That’s somehow less destructive. But, I digress.) In winter, bikes are still allowed on all roads, even when the roads are closed to motorized things, except snowmobiles up to certain places.
Getting up at 4 am wasn’t easy, and I started riding at 6:45 am from Silver Springs SnoPark. I hadn’t planned the trip much, didn’t even know the basic stats of miles and elevation (it’s 40 miles and 4000 ft vert). Years ago, I had read a blog of people who skied to Sunrise and back; took them 3 days. With the motto “go light and fast”, I left my bike light in the car. That clever decision ended up making my return trip quite slow and scary.
There were patches of no snow on Hwy 410, so that reduced the number of snowmobilers to 0. And I knew I would have the entire mountain to myself, today. Beautiful – I really needed to get away from all the craziness of Putin and suffering he’s bringing every day.
The real test of whether this trip was going to fly was at the White River campground turn-off. Beyond that, no snowmobiles go. Just the naturally-compacted snow.


I had hoped that the snow would be frozen hard on the surface so I could ride on top. BTW: The scariest part of this trip was getting past this barricade – especially on the way down when the snow had gotten softer. There’s a creek flowing beneath the sign and so there is this big ditch about 6 feet deep right here. There was a very steep inclined way around on the north side of the gate, that lead 6 feet down should one be unlucky and fall through the thin snow bridge over it. Once across, I was delighted – hard frozen snow. Easy peazy to ride on. Steep, but rideable. -10 C will do that.

I walked a few times just to do something different than ride up in the granny gear while balancing over bumps.

I thought I was getting closer, but there are a few switchbacks along the road. Call me surprised. After a while, the snow was getting soft on top and wobbly underfoot. Finally, I decided to just ditch my bike and hike since I wouldn’t be able to ride down on that snow in any case. I thought maybe another mile or 2, but after checking the map (finally!), I saw that it was still 4.5 miles to Sunrise. Ouch. I figured, I might as well try, I could always turn around by 3 pm and still be down before nightfall.

Of course, it pays to turn around and check out the view just in case.

And just keep stumbling up the wobbly, slick snow mess.

How peaceful everything looks. Whipped cream.

Snowshoes would have been grand. But, “light and fast” precludes such conveniences.

Stump, stump, stump. I was getting pretty beat and tired and hungry. A chair would have been nice. Or a big tire to sit on. But, “light and fast” doesn’t allow for such niceties.

I did finally decide that a) I was cold, b) I was hungry, and c) I was tired. After having taken care of a) – b) with some white chocolate with strawberries, I decided to turn around and go back down. I had tortured myself enough.
But, my feet were not cooperating. They turn uphill, which was mostly flat at this point. By golly, I just had to see what the next 1.5 miles would bring. Stump, stump, stump. The wind really picked up near Sourdough Ridge and it got cloudy and cold. I was trying to hurry so I would be able to see a little of Mt. Rainier before the afternoon storm clouds enveloped it.

Definitely getting closer, but still not NP lodge in sight. It was now 14:10 and I had set myself a bail-out time of 15:00. A bit more time, so to say, to dig my hole deeper. And yes, it was worth it. I savored 15 minutes of snacks and inhaled the views before 15:00. What a cloud show. If anyone ever asks me if I could spend an entire winter up here, let it be known that the answer is YES. What a place.

A long trek back, stumbling through the slick bumpy snow.

It was a race against time to get down before dark. To my dismay, the daily melt had softened the crust so that I had to push the pedals hard just to get down in quite a few places. The last 5 miles were ridden past twilight under big trees; it was dark and I was so lucky that I didn’t hit anything too big.