Author: Ruslan

Gran Fondo Goldendale

Today I participated in my first organized cycling events since 2019 – Gran Fondo Goldendale. The route is close to the border between Washington and Oregon states and passes near the Columbia River Gorge. It is a mix of paved and gravel road with a bunch of decent climbs that add up to more than 6000 feet of elevation gain over 88 miles. Here are some pictures from the ride.

The last two pictures are from a nearby Maryhill Park that has a Stonehenge replica and great views towards Columbia River Gorge.

Iron Horse Trail gravel ride

Iron Horse Trail is a gravel trail that used to be a railroad path from 1909 till 1980. When going East it has an easy 2% grade until the Snoqualmie tunnel. It passes several trestles and has nice view of the Cascades and I-90 highway.

Looks like it got recently renamed to Palouse to Cascades trail. The parking at the beginning of the trail is closed but it is possible to park at the Tanner Landing and then ride the Snoqualmie Valley trail that leads to the Iron Horse trail.

Here are the pictures and the video from today’s ride.

Iron Horse Trail Downhill

Ride to Artist Point

Today I and my friend took a day off from work and rode to the Mount Baker Artist Point. The start of the ride at Glacier Public Service Center is a little more than 2 hours drive from Seattle. The actual ride is 48 miles round trip with 4800 feet of elevation gain. The primary reason I wanted to do this ride is the awesome scenery and the views of Mount Baker at the top of the climb.

For anyone who is thinking of doing this ride I recommend to do it on a work day in order to avoid car traffic. Also make sure to take enough water as there is no water sources after the start. In my case two 24 oz bottles were enough on a sunny morning ride where temperature ranged from 55 to 72 F.

EuroTour day 26 – trip completed

My EuroTour bike trip ends today. I am flying from Prague to my home city of Novosibirsk in Russia. I’ve mailed all my camping and biking equipment back to USA via Česká pošta and I’ve taken my bike with me on the flight to Russia as that was the most convenient option.

This tour has been an awesome experience. I really enjoyed riding through the European countryside and visiting small towns and villages along the way. I’ve met many nice and interesting people and visited places that regular tourists never get to visit. As some book about bike touring said: travelling by bicycle is slow enough to experience the local environment and fast enough to get somewhere.

In Burgundy, France

Here are some statistics:

  • Distance traveled – 1,246 miles or 2,005 kilometers
  • Elevation gain – 37,964 feet or 11,571 meters
  • Countries ridden – 5 (France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia)
  • Countries entered/exited by bike only – 3 (Switzerland, Germany, Austria)
  • Countries visited overall – 6 ( France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic)
The complete route

Thanks to all who have followed me on this blog. I hope it was interesting.

EuroTour day 25 – Prague sightseeing

Today I visited the Prague center to see all the major attractions. I rode to the center on a tram #22. There was no ticket vending machine at the station but the nearby tobacco store was selling the tickets. The tickets are based on the time duration, e.g. ticket for 30 minutes, 90 minutes, 1 day or 3 days. The ticket can be used on any mode of public transportation.

Prague is a very beautiful city. Also what is great about it is that there are so many places to eat here and the food is good and relatively cheap (especially comparing to Basel, Switzerland 🙂 ).

I was in the center early in the morning and it was raining a little. Because of that there were not too many tourists. But later in the day it got sunny and there were huge crowds of tourists everywhere.