Autumn in the Methow: Where road biking feels like hiking

Driving the wide sweeping curve below Liberty Bell, just past Washington Pass on Highway 20, I always fairly salivate as I begin the free-fall descent into the Methow Valley.

The mountain biking.

The trail-running series.

The ski trails.

The cowboy-horsey stuff that makes you feel like you stumbled onto the set of "Deadwood." (Minus all the four-letter words.)

The Sun Mountain Lodge. (Oooooh, pretty.)

And now, after an October spin through wide-open spaces and dry ponderosa forests, rolling over and around scrubby hills that look like the backs of tan elephants, I've got something else to salivate for: the road biking.

Usually by this time of year, I've hung up my skinny-tire rig for my mountain bike and trail-running shoes, trading blacktop for dirt and muck and rocks and roots. This year, however, I was intrigued by some road rides on the schedule of the recent Fall Bike Festival — the 20th annual — sponsored by the Methow Valley Sport Trails Association. So I held off on my annual roadie-to-trailie transformation. I'm glad I did.

Feels like a hike

Riding the Methow's roads

Some popular routes

The following are some routes favored by road cyclists in the Methow Valley. All distances are from Winthrop. For more information, see www.mvsta.com and click on summer, then bike page.

Chewuch Loop — This gentle meander heads north on one side of the Chewuch River and returns on the other; head out from Winthrop on either East or West Chewuch roads and return on the other (it doesn't really matter which), crossing at Eightmile Bridge. This loop is about 14 miles. For more distance continue north on West Chewuch Road for about 24 miles until the pavement finally ends at the Andrews Creek Trailhead. More strenuous, climbing options include Forest Service Roads 37, 5130 and 5140, all of which can be accessed just past Eightmile Bridge.

Mazama Ride — A great excuse to visit the Mazama Store, which amazes with its tendency to have a little bit of everything. Great river and valley views with not too many hills. Head west from Winthrop for about nine miles on Highway 20 to Goat Creek Road. Return the same way.

Washington Pass — For potential pain with lots and lots of elevation gain, head to Washington Pass via Highway 20. This 60-mile (round-trip) ride gains about 4,000 feet, with most of that in the 15-mile grind to the pass.

Biking events

Here are some Methow Valley-area road-bike events in 2007:

The second annual Methow Valley Tour stage race will be June 16-17. The event includes a time trial, criterium and a road race. For more information, call the Methow Valley Sport Trails Association at 509-996-3287 or see www.mvsta.com. Or contact race director Terry Buchanan at terry@buchanangc.com.

Also in June, the Native Planet Classic will be held for the second time. The event, which is not a race, offers three rides from 28 miles to a 126-mile test from Winthrop to Diablo and back. That's right, it climbs Washington Pass from both the east and west. The ride is a fundraiser for Native Planet, a nonprofit organization that aids indigenous peoples and helps preserve their cultures. For ride information, go to www.ride4areason.org/npclassic.

Bike rentals, service

Winthrop Mountain Sports, 257 Riverside Ave., Winthrop; rentals starting at $8 for two hours; 800-719-3826 or 509-996-2886, www.winthropmountainsports.com.

Methow Cycle and Sport, 19210 Highway 20 (a half-mile west of town), Winthrop; service and ride info, 509-996-3645 or www.methowcyclesport.com.

More information

For general information about road riding in the Methow and to potentially hook up with other riders, contact Chris Casey at gibsoncasey@centurytel.net.

"The road cycling is fantastic around here," says Scott Waichler, a Winthrop hydrologist and avid rider. "The roads are smooth, there's low traffic, and lots of them head up into the woods so there's that great conifer smell. It's the same feeling of being out there in it all that you get from hiking."

And as I found out while getting ready for a rolling 35-mile morning ride, the mornings can be chilly. Crystal clear with stunning, sweeping vistas to the Sawtooths and Mount Gardner and fields upon fields of alfalfa and hay, but durn cold.

"This time of year, it's generally still not above freezing yet when we start out at 8 o'clock," Waichler says.

Along with mountain-bike and cyclocross races, a kids' bike rodeo, and casual family rides, the festival offered road rides of 35, 70 and 100 miles, the last one called the Tour d'Okanogan, which climbed up and over Loup Loup Pass (4,020 feet) before heading south to Brewster and Pateros.

Known far and wide as a destination spot for mountain bikers and cross-country skiers, the Methow generally isn't known for its road-biking heritage. (The festival began offering road rides only a couple years ago.) In terms of numbers, there was no danger of confusing this year's Methow road rides with STP; there were maybe 30 of us altogether.

But that just meant more road for each of us. My 35-mile route followed what the locals call the Chewuch Loop: north out of town on East Chewuch Road, past the turnoff for Pearrygin Lake State Park, to Eightmile Bridge and back via West Chewuch. It traversed rolling hills through pine forest — Waichler was right, it did feel like we were hiking, if at a rather energetic 15 mph — with moderate climbs and speedy descents past spread-out farms and horse ranches.

Here and there were splashes of golds, reds and oranges — deciduous trees donning their autumnal duds. We followed a ribbon of road that curved and swerved, meandering 'twixt bare mountain and forested ridge, below rocky bluff and beside the gurgling Chewuch. It was glorious in that way that only the Methow Valley is.

The Methow look

"Did you see Godzilla back there tied to the front of a barn?" a rider asked me as she pedaled past.

Why no, I didn't, but oddly enough the question was perfectly reasonable. When she asked, I had been eyeing a 6-foot-high dinosaur tipped over on its side in someone's field. Not advertising anything, not decorated for a holiday, just kind of standing — or for the moment, at least, lying — in a field. More evidence, like the many elaborate mailbox ornaments we passed (old chainsaws, lawnmowers, bicycles and anything else that didn't seem to work anymore) that things are different in the Methow Valley.

At Eightmile Bridge, our route turned around and headed south back into town. The road continues north for many miles of good riding including several paved Forest Service roads that, though they boast their share of potholes, offer some killer climbs for those who want it. (It just so happened that this day we didn't.)

In town, we regrouped at the Winthrop Barn — the hub for all the weekend's bike-festival activities — before heading east on a loop toward Twisp.

"We love riding over here this time of year, especially later in the day when it warms up," Melissa Merickel, 53, of Oak Harbor, said. She rode a tandem with her husband, Mike. "You can ride here when it's raining on the other side."

Rather than pedal Highway 20 for the nine miles to Twisp, we rode the Twisp-Winthrop Eastside Road (also called the East County Road) past the North Cascades Smokejumper Base. It's a pleasant back road that parallels Highway 20 and the Methow River.

As on the Chewuch roads, we passed wide open fields below rocky and forested ridges, and perhaps best of all in terms of riding, we came across even fewer cars. Where was the endless line of SUVs I kept expecting to come across?

For a while, I spun alongside Winthrop's Chris Casey, who heads up a loose-knit group of local riders who get together in summer and fall for group rides and bi-weekly time trials.

"Everyone who lives over here has such crazy schedules that it's hard to have a true, organized club," said Casey, 38, a physician's assistant at Winthrop's Country Clinic. "We do our best to ride together when we can."

Road riding the Methow might not be as well-known as mountain biking but it's catching on. Last April's first-ever Methow Valley Tour, which boasted a time trial, criterium and a road race, had 170 participants, a great turnout for an inaugural event.

"Everyone loved it; we're hoping for more next year," said race director Terry Buchanan, who lives in Seattle but has a cabin in the Methow.

Food break

Information

More maps: For detailed maps of these routes,

see www.mvsta.com/rdbike.html"

At a rest stop in Twisp where East County Road intersects with Highway 20, riders noshed from a table of bagels, fruit and Gatorade. By then, about 10 a.m., it was downright warm. Many peeled off jackets and handed them to the sag wagon (a couple of nice volunteers in a Subaru Outback) who would take them back to the Winthrop Barn.

Most riders headed south from there to Carlton, about 10 miles away. They'd return via the rural Twisp-Carlton Road, then head back to Winthrop with a detour climb up to Sun Mountain Lodge. Seventy miles in all.

Not me. I was the only one who signed up for the 35-miler.

My route map told me to head back to Winthrop via Highway 20 but why the heck would I do that? From where I was I could see cars and traffic lights and a "Road Work" sign with a line of glowing taillights stacking up behind it.

So I turned around and returned the way I came, on the East County Road. The road far, far less-traveled. All to myself.

Mike McQuaide is a Bellingham freelance writer and author of several guidebooks including "Insiders' Guide to Bellingham and Mount Baker" (Globe-Pequot) and "Day Hike! Central Cascades" (Sasquatch Books). See his blog at www.mcqview.blogspot.com