"Tour de NCW"
By Steve Godfrey
Aug. 27, 2010
Photo by Steve Godfrey
The view of Mount Rainier is spectacular from the 3500 ft elevation on Whiskey Dick Mountain, the site of the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility's Renewable Energy Center.
For us Cashmere folks, Ellensburg and Quincy aren’t usually considered vacation destinations. However, when your vacation’s mode of transportation is a bicycle, they actually are.
We recently completed our third year of what we like to call our “Tour de NCW” – riding our bicycles from our house here in Cashmere, to Ellensburg, to Quincy, and back home. For us, it’s a fun and challenging get-away – a 3-day mini-vacation that includes long uphill and downhill grades, great scenery, and lots of sunshine.
We like to travel light, with a simple day pack loaded with bare necessities, and armed with our credit card for hotels and food.
We took the Old Blewett Pass road to avoid some traffic, and as always, it was a big relief to finally make it to the top. This year we had a great tailwind that literally pushed us the last 12 miles into Ellensburg, and it was a real treat to not have to pedal those final miles of our first day.
On Day 2 we took the Vantage highway out of Ellensburg, and decided to take an unplanned side trip up to the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility’s Renewable Energy Center, which is a steep 3-mile road off the highway, right at the top of Schnebly Coulee. Although a tough climb on a bicycle (we’re talking first gear and 4-5 mph most of the way), this was a very interesting and informative side trip. The family-oriented center is relatively new, architecturally attractive with lots of wood beams, and features informative videos and hands-on displays explaining, among other things, how all the parts of the wind turbines were transported here from various locations around the world. Truly a “must see” if you are out that way and interested in clean, renewable energy.
We crossed the Columbia on the I-90 bridge, rode on the interstate for 6 miles and exited onto a frontage road that took us into George. Here we took a nice break from the sun and enjoyed a raspberry smoothie at a roadside coffee vendor, watching the world go by while sitting on comfortable plastic chairs in the shade. Livin’ the life! We rolled in to Quincy in time for dinner.
Our third and final day found us changing flat #2 in the middle of the long downhill on Highway 28 before SunSerra at Crescent Bar. The blowout at 30 mph was a little dicey, but we changed the damaged tube in short order and were soon back on the road to Cashmere.
North Central Washington – where outdoor adventures await!
