Sunrise MT Rainier

 After a long spell of poor weather we started getting some sun. I spend a week staining my decks and doing other items on my "Honey Do" list and today was a day for riding. The weather brought us low morning clouds that were destined to burn off and unleash a sunny day in the low 70's. Today was "Me" time and I decided for a solo ride.

After throwing a couple of pork butts on my smoker and putting it on auto pilot I packed and saddled up my Suzuki B-king. I departed Tacoma at 8:30 AM riding down along the Ruston Way water front and on to hwy 705. I decided to take the Puyallup River Rd. into Puyallup where I turned left crossing the main street bridge and the I took the on ramp onto Hwy 167. The air was feeling a bit cooler and I was wearing a air jacket in hopes for the sun to appear. I took the SR 410 exit and road 13.3 miles to Enumclaw where I fueled up my B-King and let blood flow back into my backside.

Once back on SR 410 I rode 17.8 miles of SR-410 most of which we paralleled the White River and brought me through the Federation Forest into Green water. The sun burned through the clouds and it was sunny skies. Before entering Greenwater I made a stop along the river to enjoy the scenery. If you have not ridden through this area I always recommend making stops to enjoy the surroundings and maybe get a peak at some of the wildlife lurking in the area. There was allot of flow to the river and in some areas they were not allowing swimming and tubing due to the heavy flow and cold water temperatures. Green Water is a good place to stop and rest as well as grab anything you may wish to eat or drink along the way.

The next 25.6 miles I rode paralleling the White River and into the MT. Rainier National Forest. The Roads ere better this year. They had done a pretty good job of repairs and patches. Once in the forest I enjoyed the twists and turns as I made my way past Ghost lake and up towards the pass.

The turn off to Sunrise Rd. was a welcome site. It's been a year since I have ridden it. This rode was 15.3 miles of riding bliss! There were a great mix of tree lined straits, twisties, hair pin turns and switchbacks. Some of these turns are extreme hair pin turns. Every time I ride this I'm blown away by the beautiful scenery. Every time I know we are lucky to be living in Washington state as it's loaded with this kind of riding opportunities. While carving my way through the turns I was very please with the handling of my B-king. These bikes didn't take off in the US as most are into the Cruisers, Full touring or sport bikes. There wasn't a big following of naked street fighter bikes. This is not the case in Europe where the bulk of the B-king's were sold. All I know is it's a force to be reckoned with and aint no slouch boasting 165 HP at the rear wheel. I kept it humble most of the way but gave it a couple of bursts of throttle that reminded me just how hard the thing pulls. I was smiling ear to ear too!

Not far from Sunrise is the Sunrise view point. There is a parking lot and some trails to walk. This is an interesting view point as you get two perspectives. There is a view south over the peaks of the foot hills with MT St. Helens perched up just above them. Pretty cool! To the north, Sunrise Lake is nestled down in the valley ringed by a tree lined ridge. The water has an aluminous green color to it which gives it an amazing look. Bring your camera!

From this point it was just a few more miles to Sunrise Visitor Center. I was starting to encounter a bit more snow on the roadside but not huge walls of snow like when they first open this. I was surprised that it wasn't that busy for a weekend. I took the opportunity to poke around and take some pictures. Allot of folks were up there to day hike. After a very enjoyable visit, I headed back down the mountain and was treated to some more amazing views of the mountain as it was at my back on the ride up. When I reached the end of the Sunrise Rd. I decided to ride on up to Chinook pass just to see how much snow was on the ground. There was till a fair amount as you will see in the pictures but not allot.

The ride home was relaxing as I carved my way through the twists and turns and left the National Forest. I took SR 410 and then the Auburn Enumclaw Rd through Auburn then Hwy 18 to I5 and then 509 to 705. Not much to tell you here except as always, the ride along the Tacoma Water front was very nice. When I pulled into my driveway I could smell the aroma of pork smoking out back. After a couple more hours of smoking and 1 hour of cooling off I pulled some amazing pork! Some onions buns, beans and BBQ sauce and we enjoyed one hell of a dinner.

Total miles riding was 201 miles in roughly 5 hours. I highly recommend this ride. Bring a camera! Hope you enjoyed this trip report, pictures and the video.

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