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| Roland's Easter Ride 04/08 Roland's Easter ride and as Roland said this is no easter egg hunt. The weather turned out nice. Perhaps not as sunny as we would like but not raining. We meet at the Smokey Point Buzz Inn. That is a good meeting spot for north end rides. It is right off the I 5 Freeway. Easy to get to and provides a start point that is out of town. Gas is across the street. |
| A short run up I 5 puts you on Hwy 530 heading west to wards Darrington & Rockport. This is a very nice (IMO) ride. It has lots of comfortable twisties with great road surface and rural scenery. There is good gas and food spots there. Turning north from there you are on your way to Rockport. This is pretty much the entry point to the hwy 20 ascent. There is a gas station at the junction. In addition to gas and snacks you can kick your own ass there? You should stop to check it out |
| This time of year the pass is closed around (according to the sign) 36 miles up the road. So traffic is very light and maybe nonexistent. Hwy 20 winds along side the Skagit River with a very nice ride. Depending on the time of year there may be some Eagle watchers on the side of the road. available early in the year. Newhalem has a store but at this time it is usually closed. The Buffalo Burger joint is in Marblemount and makes a nice lunch spot. From here we pretty much had the road to ourselves. The road was clear and dry. We had been up here a few weeks prior and the road was wet and very dirty at the end. But this time could not have been better. We wound up the mountain road to were it was closed. Seemed like a little further then the 36 miles (from Rockport) listed. We saw no snow to that point. But I guess there are some huge drifts up higher. We turned around and headed back down with a short stop at the Ross Lake overlook. We stopped at Concrete for lunch at the Cajun Grill. Then continued west on the South Skagit Hwy. You can cross the river on the west end of Concrete to the South Skagit Hwy. That is a much nice route then Hwy 20 from this point. Old Day Creek Road to Hwy 9 and then South. Taking the standard Beaver Creek Knapp rd detour around a section of Hwy 9. From Big Lake Roland lead up Little Mountain Rd toward Mount Vernon. There is a park to the left I forget the name at this point. It takes you up a single lane winding road to the top of a very high hill. There are some very nice scenic view points from there. At that point the weather appeared to be going bad and we decided on a straight shot down I 5 to return home. Around 225 miles altogether. |