We Didn't Get To Rattlesnake Ridge

Today Joe "that's rando" Platzner, Michael "the Guth" Guthrie, and Matt "I bought a boat and damn near forgot how to ride a bike" Newlin learn that while Kent "the Mountain Turtle" Peterson can usually manage to navigate his way back home from the wilderness, getting to the chunk of intended wilderness is not a sure thing. I completely zone out once we hit the freeway shoulder and instead of turning off at the Hwy 18 exit for our intended climb up Rattlesnake Ridge, I drag my buddies east for an extra eleven miles of climbing along the freeway shoulder. Fortunately my friends are good natured and there are lots of mountains and trails around here. Eventually we hook right near Olallie State Park, scramble up to the Iron Horse Trail and enjoy a well-deserved downhill run to Rattlesnake Lake. We're on the wrong side of the ridge now, the side that can only be hiked and not ridden up so we riff a new plan, one that involves the trail back to North Bend. 

We are having oddly good luck today. The promised rain somehow doesn't come and the bakery in North Bend that is supposed to be closed on Mondays is open on this Monday. We pause for coffee and pastry and conversation is constant whether we are stopped or rolling. The last miles back to Issaquah, from Tradition Lake along the power line and then the trail behind the high school explain better than my words ever could why I've wound up living where I live.

We'll get to Rattlesnake Ridge next time, or the time after that. Today we roll a bit over fifty miles, some of it on roaring roads but the bulk of it in the quieter, rougher, greener places.

Joe's take on the day can be read on his blog.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent