Tag: Cascades

The First Real Hike

by Mountainstroh (Tony), posted in Memories

One of the things I have learned over the last few years of writing this blog is to never get in the way of a new post. There are just too many days when the blog fodder just does NOT happen. So, today as I was eating dinner and sipping a glass of wine in Spokane, my mind started thinking back to what I consider my fist ‘real’ hike of the Mountainstroh era.

The more I thought, the more I decided it was blog worthy, so here we go! Yall can let me know if I was correct! Continue reading “The First Real Hike” →

The world at 7 mph

by Mountainstroh (Tony), posted in General, Rides and Workouts

I have had many posts about the name Mountainstroh (as in my web page Mountainstroh.com) so I won’t get into detail here of its origin.  Suffice it to say, the name was inspired by Mt. Rainier, a place I have gone to since I was in grade schoolKids rainier

Thursday, I took the day off, threw the bike on the back of the car, and headed up there again. It was the perfect day.

Continue reading “The world at 7 mph” →

There are some places you can only get to on foot.

by Mountainstroh (Tony), posted in General

As planned, today, instead of saddling up and going for a bike ride, I went hiking in the Cascades for the first time in a VERY long time,  The Alarm went off at 5, but it was 5:30 before I got out of bed (Curse you Snooze button!)  Thanks to having everything gathered the night before, I was out the door a little after 6.

At 7:30, after one wrong turn in Granite Falls, I was passing this sign.

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It was feeling good to be back in the mountains. Continue reading “There are some places you can only get to on foot.” →

The worst climb I ever had!

by Mountainstroh (Tony), posted in Adventure

I was doing my lunch time walk on a sunny day in Seattle. Just kind of cruising along, not thinking anything in particular, when suddenly a past climb popped into my head. For some reason, I started thinking about my climb on Mt Adams in 2001.

I was fresh off my 2nd unsuccessful climb of Rainier the year before, so I decided to climb the 12,000 foot second highest peak in the state.

This will go down in history as the worst guided climb I have ever been on…. Continue reading “The worst climb I ever had!” →

Sometimes the bike trip comes in handy

by Mountainstroh (Tony), posted in Cycling, General

There are times, when I have a big ride, that I go out of my way to drive the route with the car.  I did this with the High Pass Challenge, I drove it twice.  And I swear it saved my butt.  I was able to count down the miles on the longest hill, so when the legs were fried, I knew there was only a mile left.  I made it and enjoyed the first downhill in 2 hours!

This last summer, Michelle and I drove the Crater Lake Century route.  It gave me a better idea where the worst hills were and when I was close to being done.  It was very much appreciated during the long hard ride.

This weekend though, the opposite came true, having ridden the route made it a better drive! Continue reading “Sometimes the bike trip comes in handy” →