The Rise Up Ride: Day 61, Climbing Mt. Baker with Duncan
Date: 22 June 2021
Start Location: Glacier, WA
End Location: Glacier, WA
Distance: 46 km
Time: 3:11
Total elapsed: 3:56
Elevation: 920 m
What do you do on a day off after schlepping 50 kg of bike and gear across the country? Duncan suggested that we should climb the highest, steepest cycling road to the top of a local ski mountain, of course.
Duncan and I met more than twenty years ago when he was at the US State Department, negotiating the intricacies of climate change policy for the Clinton Administration. I was organizing reports on the negotiations. Over the decades, as he moved from government to non-government with the UN Foundation and the Nature Conservancy, we stayed in touch, more often recently on social media around our shared interests in cycling and climate change. A couple of months ago he offered to host me in my swing through Seattle and suggested that we climb Mt. Baker, a mountain that towers over Bellingham, where the ferry would take me north to Alaska.
Duncan was at the train station yesterday with an SUV, which was to become our bikemobile for the trip today up to the feet of Mt. Baker, near the town of Glacier. The snow pack here each winter is the deepest in the US and as we climbed we passed streams with fresh melt roaring down the canyons. Freed from the weight of my panniers, the Seven soared. Duncan was patient, waiting for me to ascend somewhat slower than he did on his lightweight carbon bike. We were stopped just short of the summit by unplowed piles of snow, but got in a decent climb and a more-than-decent descent. It was the perfectly organized ride in excellent conditions from a great trailhead parking lot. Thanks, Duncan!
One of the legacy benefits of having traveled almost constantly for three decades is my "Titanium Elite for Life" status at Marriott hotels. Till I check-out for good, I'll always be able to check-in to places like the Sheraton Bellingham and get all the benefits, like a room upgrade, breakfast coupons and a late checkout (so I can head straight from here to board the ferry in the late afternoon.) Tonight, we met up with some of Duncan's friends and ate great Mexican food from a taco truck in a beer garden. I like Bellingham.
Tomorrow is errand day, hunting down Gorilla Tape (for anchoring my tent on the deck of the ferry to Alaska), shopping for a pair of binoculars to better see whales and orcas on the Inside Passage, as well as to get some food for the three-day sea voyage. Onwards.
