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After consuming our share of breakfast burritos and apple fritters at the Cle Elum Bakery, Erik, Steve and I continued driving east to the Thorp Fruit stand where we followed the brown signs to the nearby Ironhorse State Park trailhead. We rolled a quarter of a mile on the Ironhorse and then turned south onto some smooth, nearly zero car traffic tarmac. Had I been riding my race bike with 25mm tires at 90 psi I might have found the chip seal a bit rough, but with the high volume tires inflated to 35 psi on my gravel rig the road felt as smooth as a velodrome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At six miles we turned west onto Manstash Road and continued past some well-maintained homes and ranches. At just about the time I was starting to wonder how much of this is going to be tarmac the pavement ended and up we went on some respectable gravel. There a quite a few campgrounds and trailheads along this road, but the vehicle traffic was minimal. This route is one long up and one long down with transport stages at the front and back, so I settled into a twenty-mile climb pace and gradually made my way upward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The road did pitch upwards and become rocky in a few places (prompting Erik to say \u201cit\u2019s steep but at least the road sucks\u201d), but for the most part the route was descent gravel at a moderate grade. The Taneum is a beautiful region \u2013 green mountains, deep ravines and mountain meadows \u2013 and we were especially lucky to be rolling through during the wildflower bloom. The sun was out, but it wasn\u2019t what I\u2019d consider warm. Despite being the eve of Independence Day I wore a thermal jersey and didn\u2019t overheat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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After a false summit, we crested the top and started the long downhill. My downhill gravel skills are improving and I learned that washboard is often better taken at high speed \u2013 unless it isn\u2019t \u2013 and that I could reliably predict upcoming potholes by observing where the road went from gray to brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We hit pavement on the Taneum Creek Road, and with gravity and wind assist we coasted eastbound at over thirty miles per hour. The easterly wind was so strong that I scarcely pedaled for over three miles. The turn north back to Thorpe revealed just how strong the wind had been. Steve and Erik had to lean about twenty degrees into the wind simply to stay upright. Fortunately, it was a short trip back to the cars where we tailgated with some orange Fanta and salty chips before heading home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n