Tuesday, July 27, 2010

At Home in the Mountains




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

5 comments:

Small Adventures said...

Now,I love my Appalachians where I hang my helmet...but MAN you gots a BEAUTIFUL place to call home,Kent! =D

Looks like a grand time y'all done had,Brother =)

Steve

Jaco Strydom said...

Stunning. If ever you want to come ride in Rural Africa, give me a buzz. You can see what I am riding in South Africa on my blog www.beit2cape.blogspot.com Maybe someday I will ride the GDR as well

Doctor Codfish said...

I love that glass smooth surface of a high lake early in the morning.

How many times have I awakened, stiff and chilled in a dew covered tent, to crawl out into the duff and fire up a pot of coffee.

Watching the trout rise as the sun creeps down into the holes in the moutains that makes these lakes possible. the stillness of the woods puctuated only by the yip of a chipmonk or the rat-tat-tat of a wood pecker. Peace seeps in.

Love the pics, Dr C

MELI. said...

wow what a scenery greenery! :D

luanni said...

just bump in..i like your attitude i love biking too using my e-bike it helps me going up and down the hill safely, it's nice to have a green living scenery too, so refreshing and clean.