Mt Baker Hill Climb (epic)

[sherritran]

Hello all TSers,

I'm planning on heading over to Washington via Vancouver to climb Mt. Baker Sat Sept 13. I'll be joining one of the local racing/riding clubs (Atomic cycling) from Vancouver who are the ones planning the ride, but I'm sure all are welcome.

Their start time is 8:30 AM at the Sumas border.

The ride is 160 km and will be about 6-7 hours, so it'll be a full day or weekend commitment.

Here's how the day will look like:

- US border (Sumas) to Glacier general store (and public washrooms) - 40 km rolling terrain, relatively quiet roads
- Glacier to Artist's Point parking lot on top - 40 km mostly climbing (about 10 km is flat and even a bit of downhill)
- Artist's Point to Glacier - descending, with the second half feeling harder than it should
- Glacier back to the US border (i.e. post-ride beer and burgers)

It's a hard and long ride, but absolutely stunning at the top once you're there (think Hurricane Ridge but higher elevation and better). Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s something like 3000m of elevation gain. In other words, a great way to cap off the road season.

Now, September's starting to get a little chilly, so the club over in Vancouver will be watching the weather that week and will make the final call sometime Friday Sept 12th before whether it's still on or not. I’ll post as soon as I hear whether it’s a go or not.

I am planning on heading over on Friday Sept 12th and overnighting in Vancouver and can take one more with bike. Planning on coming back to Victoria at the end of the day.

Now, if there is a large-ish group of committed riders from Victoria, we can organize our own thing and carpool ourselves over.

Let me know if anyone is interested.

[Stéphane Tran]

Definitely interested, but need to get the green light from home. It would be great to get a good sized group from Vic.

[sherritran]

Definitely have my fingers crossed for good weather.

[Julie]

Is there a support vehicle?

[sherritran]

No support. Just some riders going up on our own. So we'll need to bring and carry all our own gear.

[Julie]

I'm definitely interested, weather permitting.

[Stéphane Tran]

I can't go this weekend. We should organize a group to go over next summer.

[Julie]

I want to go, but I think I need a group to keep cost down. Are you driving over or parking at the ferry?