I finally got out for a reasonable ride again, this last Sunday. I joined a few other riders from sport-touring.net on an excursion to Mount Baker, a suitably awesome ride. The plan was to meet up at the crack of dawn (well, 7:45) in Arlington, and then follow Hwy 9 up to Mount Baker; I realized halfway to Arlington that I'd taken my registration out of its underseat home when I was cleaning up the bike the day before, and went back to get it. That cost me 15 minutes, and when I reached the meetup spot, the other riders had left.

I decided to press on and hope to catch up, and luckily I recognized the somewhat-unusual Triumph Speed Triple piloted by one of my fellow riders parked outside a little cafe in the town of Acme, Washington. Fritz, Damon, and Danny were inside getting breakfast, and I gladly joined them; I'd an energy bar in my tankbag but hadn't had a chance to eat anything reasonable that morning.

From Acme we headed straight on up the mountain. Hwy 9, especially north of its junction with the North Cascades Highway (Hwy 20), is a ton of fun; not technical, per se, but a lot of nice easy corners and plenty of space to go fast. There were tons of other riders on the road, various packs of cruisers and sportbikers, most of whom we jumped past as soon as we got the chance.

The final ascent towards the summit and Artist's Ridge was significantly more challenging. Lots of switchbacks and hairpins marked at 15mph, some of which really meant exactly 15. The tightness of the turns, combined with the steep uphill grade, often meant taking them in 1st gear; most of the last few miles was in 1st and 2nd. Some gravel and small rocks on the road at times, and snow on both sides even in August. Good practice with looking clear through the turns, as the penalty for failure was made abundantly clear by the large dropoff on one side of the road.

Great fun times. I find I'm still a little more cautious than necessary when passing, and that hampers my ability to keep up with my fellow riders on occasion, but I was very comfortable at this group's pace when traffic wasn't heavy. The cornering experience I got through the Great West Coast Trip has apparently paid off, and I feel quite at home in the more technical parts of the road. All in all, a great time.

Here's the route:

a shot of the nice road leading up to the summit:

and a shot of Zoë and Fritz' Speed Triple at the top:

I also brought the camera setup along, and made a quick little movie. Here 'tis:

In other news, Zoë is on the market. More to come on that in a few.