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highway 20 (May 2023)

i woke the day before this ride and wanted to take the dawggies to discovery park. we meandered around for a while and as we were trying to exit the beach, dave demanded some extra suntime and plopped himself in the sand refusing to budge. so we obliged... we climbed up the hill, and started making our way back to the car. on our way out i saw a familiar bike in the distance and the rider began wave me down. low and behold, it was mariano who i just met the weekend before at the cascadia super gravel ride. we talked for a bit and he let me know he was thinking of riding the hwy 20 route tomorrow, which was the last day before it opens back up to cars for summer. the stars aligned on this one, so had to jump on this ride.

i managed to fuck up my mappinng of the route so i pulled someone else's. we started at the ross damn trail head, rather than the colonel creek campgrounnd like these folks. this is an out and back ride, so check out that oddly satisfying symmetry in the elevation mapping (づ￣ ³￣)づ.

I got jaytee to join us at the buzzer. he decided to go unicycle mode for hwy 20. maybe a first.

i've never been to the swiss alps, but dang we might as well be in the swiss alps. a lil wine to celebrate new friends and gettin our arses out here. then we were off. it was a trippy first few miles. we all found ourselves periodically looking over our shoulders to see if there were cars eagerly waiting to pass us. without the cars, this hwy turns into the reason why i like riding gravel. escaping the big metal box scramble and into the trees.

no cars meant we could easily maintain conversations about skate trips, future randoneurring, and other hijinks. a rarity for a road ride.

with the climb being so gradual, you forget that your even climbing. we made it to washington pass, and our reward was bombing hills for 30 miles back to the cars.

befriended a homie with a drone on the way up. always share your snacks with fellow riders in need.

rando wheelie

we'll end with this example shifter madness. you gotta play both side so you always come out on top.

c r a w d a d c o l l e c t i v e