Tour de Peaks cyclists tour de valleys

The mostly quiet rural roads of the Snoqualmie Valley were busy with hundreds of bicyclists riding the North Bend-based Tour de Peaks bike ride on Sunday.

The bike ride features routes that criss-cross the Snoqualmie and Tolt river valleys. Above, cyclists pass each other on the Tolt River Bridge near Carnation.

It great to see so many people out enjoying the clear skies and summer temperatures on Sunday.

As warm as it was, the only time I felt hot was when I had to stop to take some photos.

The bike ride bills itself as the valley ride with a mountain view. Of course, the cyclists on the longer rides did have the challenge of returning to North Bend via the climb bordering the picturesque Snoqualmie Falls.

The bike ride dates back to 1988 as part of the celebration of Snoqualmie’s centennial. Now it’s a fund-raiser for the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital District.

If you do the math, next year will be the 25th anniversary of the bike ride. It’s surely one of the oldest ongoing rides in the Pacific Northwest.

Camp Challenge

One of the routes pass the former Nestle dairy facility out on Carnation Farm Road. Here, a couple of cyclists check out the statue to Segis Pietertje Prospect, who earned the statue in 1920 for breaking the record for the most milk produced in one year — 37,361 pounds. Whew! That was 9 times the average.

That Nestle facility is now the home of Camp Korey, a free-of-charge summer camp where children with serious medical conditions can have fun.

The camp is sponsoring a charity bike ride — Camp Challenge — on Sept. 8 on many of the same roads featured in the Tour de Peaks.

If you’d like to join, check out the Camp Challenge website at campkorey.org/ride . If you can’t make it but would like to show your support, please visit my donation page for the ride.