Friday, December 7, 2007

Tiger Mountain, Squawk Mountain, and THEN Cougar Mountain

Tomorrow I hope to tackle three relatively big climbs in the Cascade foothills. Two climbs I've done before, and one new one. For now I'm calling it the Three Mountain Slog.

The route will be starting at the bottom of Tiger Mtn (Mirrormont area), then doing that clockwise climb/loop that'll take us to a max elevation of about 750 ft. Then it's off to Squawk Mountain, one I haven't tackled yet, but I figured out how to get there from a route I found on veloroutes (~1100 ft). And after that we're gonna tackle Cougar Mountain, which puts us up to a whopping ~1300 ft max elevation! I won't be surprised if we encounter some chilly friggin' weather up there..

Here's the elevation graph to give you an idea of what we'll be up against:


Just this portion of the ride will give us ~3600 feet of total elevation gain over about 23 miles. Sweet!

How are we getting out there, you ask? By riding our bikes, of course! I'm thinking of taking Lake Wa Blvd down to Renton and then jumping on Highway 900/May Valley Rd to get us to Mirrormont. When it's all said and done it should be about 50-60 miles to do this route starting from Seattle.

It's gonna be cold ride too - forecast for tomorrow is a high of 41* F, with a low of 28 degrees! Ouch.

Edit: Also check out this route in Google Earth, and turn on "elevation exaggeration" to see what it looks like in 3D! Here's Squawk Mountain in 3D, for instance (w/ Tiger in the background):


7 comments:

Eric Thrasher Troili.. said...

Try this Squawk Route (includes "secret" may creek park/abandoned road cut through).. I use this one all the time to add some interest to an otherwise boring Lk Wash ride..

Eric Thrasher Troili.. said...

http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=6368

Eric Thrasher Troili.. said...

Uh.. Cougar - Not Squawk.. Never mind..

matt m said...

looks like a cool way to get up cougar, i'll have to check that out.

btw we bailed after doing cougar mtn, didn't make it to the other two. it was so fucking cold!

40 mph downhill in 32 degrees + i'm from florida = ouch.

Anonymous said...

Bicycles not welcome on Tiger Mt Road

Anonymous said...

not welcome eh?

that's total bullshit.

any public road is welcoming bicycles just by existing!

Anonymous said...

It is not that they are not welcome; but more it is not a bicycle friendly road. There are no shoulders in several places, including a norrow steep crooked uphill section.