Cycling the Cougar-Squak Suburbs

As most cyclists in the greater Seattle area know, if you feel like getting serious about hills - head to the Cougar Mountain area. There are lots of great climbs on mostly light traffic roads. This weekend I tackled them both days. Saturday morning Kevin joined up with me and we slogged through a non-stop downpour for more than 50 miles and about 5,500 feet. It was not cold, and we had a lot of fun discovering new climbs and getting turned around. The cue sheet I'd made in advance was mostly correct, but had several problems that caused us to circle around a few times in a couple places. After a few hours, we headed back home and included M.I. on the way back.

Last night I studied the maps more closely and made some modifications to my cue sheet, and added in some more hills. Today I waited till noon for the showers to end (no rain all afternoon!) then tackled the hills again. This time things went quite a bit better - though I still had to make an extra loop or two - and I added in Squak Mountain and Lakemont climbs for a total of about 70 miles and 7,500 feet. Have now studied the maps more, and have updated the cue sheet again to make things even more interesting the next time.