With Tuesday's news from Paris that the Tour de France would pay homage to the Alps in 2011, it occurred to me that I should pay a visit to our very own second cousin to that famous European mountain chain.
As soon as the fog lifted, I saddled up and headed out for a bike ride up Tiger Mountain, the centerpiece of the Issaquah Alps.
These “Alps” are a chain of foothills west of the Cascades that overlook the sprawling suburbs on the eastside of Seattle. From West to East, they're comprised of Cougar Mountain, Squak Mountain, the various summits of Tiger Mountain and Rattlesnake Ridge. You can also throw in Taylor Mountain and Grand Ridge.
Conservation
That stretches all the way between Bellevue and North Bend, with Issaquah nestled in between. Large portions of these mountains are protected by state and county parks.
And that gets around to the story about how they got their collective name, Issaquah Alps.
Harvey Manning was a conservationist and hiking-book author who lived in the area from 1925 to 2006. In one of his books printed in the 1970s, he referred to the group of mountains as the Issaquah Alps. The collective name stuck and gave a bump to efforts to preserve the forested slopes.
He also helped create the Issaquah Alps Trails Club, which creates trails, gets hiking parties into the woods and advocates for preservation of these wild spaces.
New route
This was an adventure for me, because it involved using a new route — an unsigned access to the system of old logging roads in the park. In the past, I'd have to drive over to the trailhead on Route 18 on the eastside of the mountain, but this entry point is on the westside of the mountain, only 13 miles by bike from my home.
I biked that easily, but struggled once I got onto the steep gravel and dirt roads of Tiger Mountain. My destination was Poo Poo Point, the launching site for countless hang-gliders on summer weekends.
When I crossed the Grand Canyon of Fifteenmile Creek, I had about 1,200 feet to climb in 4 miles. I had to hoof it up several stretches. But that was just another way to honor the first cyclists to race over the Alps in the 1911 Tour de France; many of them had to walk up the slopes of the Col du Galibier.
Grand view
At about 2,000 feet, Poo Poo Point is not at the summit of Tiger Mountain, which soars to 3,000 feet. But the promontory has a grand view of the surrounding countryside.
With a light breeze out of the north, it was a clear day. Across the valley I could see Squak Mountain (2,024 feet) and Cougar Mountain (1,500 feet). Past that, I could make the outline of the Olympic Mountains across Puget Sound.
Below I saw the sprawl of downtown Bellevue and Issaquah, with the sparkling Sammamish Lake in between. Far to the north stood snow-covered Mt. Baker.
With the downhill run off Tiger Mountain, I made the return trip a lot faster and completed the round-trip in under 4 hours.
I'm already looking forward to honoring the Issaquah Alps again, soon.
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