A few weeks ago Patrick, Jon, and I took a ride in the Colville National Forest and slept under the stars on the Kettle River. I kept thinking back on my favorite piece of that ride, which was S. Boulder Creek Road, and I wanted to figure out a loop where I could run the lengthof that road and pop back out on the Kettle River at Barstow.
Yesterday, Patrick and I rode it. Wedging the ride into our busy lives required leaving Spokane at 6 am, driving for 2 hours, doing the ride, then driving back. I was home by 5 pm.
For me, it’s just about a perfect day ride. Patrick was tired and feeling a bit sick so he wasn’t raving about it like I was when we finished.
The elevation profile provides a good description of the nature of the ride.
Though the profile makes it look steep, check out the mileage: the climb is about 27 miles, so it’s moderate. It’s the perfect kind of climb in my mind: steady, moderate, smooth forest roads with great scenery. You can get into a good rhythm and just zen your way up the hill.
There were a couple sweeping big views, but mostly, this ride is through the forest and doesn’t have any huge-see-forever-views.
Except for about 8 miles of S. Boulder Creek road, which is closed to cars, the entirety of the route is well-used forest roads. There were a number of hunters and firewood gatherers up there. There’s enough use to keep the roads clear but not torn up.
The majority of the descent was smooth with mostly gentle curves. Lots of good sections where you can build up speed and see the long run outs ahead.
If you go:
Bring a GPS and follow the track to make it easy. Especially on the descent, where there are more established roads that will slow you down if you’re not following a track.
Bring proper clothes. You go from about 1500 feet to 5400 feet. We were lucky not to get rained on, but it was chilly, and you’re climbing into the cold. So make sure you are happy with your sweating climbing vs cold descenting layering system
Bring a filter. There’s lots of water on the climb up until about the last 5 miles or so.
Huge fatty tires are not required for this loop. Next time I ride it, I may ride my cyclocross bike. There’s no technical stuff. The hardest part is the last 6 miles of the descent where the road is graded, graveled, and washboardy — you don’t want to approach corners too hot on this section.
This loop is a great backbone for exploring the area. I plan on spending a lot of time up there next summer. That gives me all winter to obsess over maps.
I’ve had this loop mapped out for about a year, and was finally able to ride it this weekend with my friends Andrew, Mark, and Rory. I’ve been wanting to find a ~50 mile loop with some high passes and good views that is pretty close to Seattle, and this one delivers. The weather forecast was close to perfect, with clear skies and a high in the mid-60s.
The route is so easy that it can be summed up to a few numbers: 54, 52, 41. Those are the uncreative names that the Forest Service has given to the roads in this area. You can also give it a couple of names: Iron Horse Trail, Stampede Pass, Lester, Tacoma Pass, and back to the Iron Horse Trail.
The 4 of us met at my house at 7:30, loaded up the car, and headed east on I90. Some unfortunate highway traffic gave us a good excuse to park and start the ride at Hyak instead of Crystal Springs Campground. The 9 flat miles were a nice warmup before starting the steep but fairly short climb up Stampede Pass. The climb wasn’t too remarkable as it weaves under the powerlines and gives occasional views of the I90 corridor. This part of the road is used pretty heavily and has some big washboard. As we approached the top we almost instantly moved from clear blue skies into thick fog that was rolling over the top of the pass. The ride down Stampede Pass felt very different from the climb as traffic died down and the tight switchbacks and steep descent provided for some exciting riding. The descent goes on for longer than the climb because the west side of Stampede Pass is about 1000′ lower than the I90 corridor that we started from.
The bottom of Stampede Pass is a fairly busy place for being pretty remote. Hunting season was starting soon, so trucks and RVs and campers were moving in with lots of provisions. A ranger was out making sure that everyone was following the rules and behaving properly. Roads head in many directions, some open to the public and some leading into closed watersheds. The ghost town of Lester is beyond one of those gates and you are allowed to walk into it, but not bike. It makes a nice diversion if you have the extra time.
We rode down a corridor of yellow trees and turned left onto FR52. We were immediately presented with a fork in the road and took the little used option to the right (our Garmin GPS indicated that they both lead back to the same place). Our fork dead ended at an old washout, but it made for a nice lunch spot next to a creek and by a railroad trestle. Rory went to explore beyond the washout to see if we could link back to the main road while the rest of us enjoyed a leisurely lunch. It turns out that he was a mere 20 feet or so from finding the shortcut to the road, but when you are bushwacking it can be hard to see thingseven when they are that close. We went back down our little spur and got back onto FR52.
FR52 one of the highlights of the day for me. This part of the forest has fewer users and we saw almost no traffic (a closed road sign and easily passed washout helped a bit with that too). The roads were in good condition and the turning color of the trees provided a nice backdrop. The fog had lifted over lunch and we just had pure blue skies above us. The road is pretty flat for a few miles, then started to climb back up to Tacoma Pass. On the climb up we ran into a couple of guys on motorcycles and one or two cars, but had most of it to ourselves. The valley that we climbed through was wide enough for great views, but narrow enough to feel quite and isolated. We took our time going up to Tacoma Pass, partially because I was feeling slow and partially because the views were so great that we all enjoyed the breaks.
Just after Tacoma Pass FR52 intersects FR41. Going left follows a ridgeline and another small pass that connects back to FR54 and Stampede Pass. Going right gives a long descent down to Easton, where we could take the Iron Horse Trail back to Hyak (adding about 15 miles to the route). We chose to go left, and that was the correct choice. For a little more climbing we got some great views looking north into the I90 corridor and a couple of nice views south looking at Mt Rainier. I love riding on ridgelines were you can look across and see the road that you’ll be riding on next. FR41 provided plenty of that.
Just as the traffic started to pick up again we found ourselves at the intersection to FR54, the Stampede Pass road. The descent down went very quickly and then we had the relaxing 9 miles flat miles back to Hyak and the car.
By 5:30 we were back in Seattle with the car unloaded and going our own ways. This was a great 10 hour way to say goodbye to summer and welcome in autumn.
If you’d like to go
Getting there is easy. The Hyak trailhead for Iron Horse State Park is located just past Snoqualmie Pass on I90. There is plenty of parking at this free trailhead. The drive takes about an hour from downtown Seattle.
A GPX file for loading the route onto your GPS is located here: GPX
I’d suggest bringing a water filter. There are no sources of potable water on the ride, but many streams and creeks.
The route is about 50 miles and has a little over 5000′ of climbing. Plan on most of a day to complete the loop. You can make the ride almost 20 miles shorter by parking at Crystal Springs Campground (exit 62 of I90), but that doesn’t remove any of the climbing.
A few weeks ago Patrick, Jon, and I took a ride in the Colville National Forest and slept under the stars on the Kettle River. I kept thinking back on my favorite piece of that ride, which was S. Boulder Creek Road, and I wanted to figure out a loop where I could run the lengthof that road and pop back out on the Kettle River at Barstow.
