You get the sense that Washington State alone contains a lifetime of riding. Road. Trail. Everything in between. Thousands and thousands of miles of it. Here, Seven Ambassador Jeremy Kampp shares another little slice of his home state with us:
Seven months and over forty inches of rain might have been a dream as I awake to a spectacular 5:20am sunrise in May. A weather window with the temperature in the 70’s leaves me thinking about an adventure combining riding and fishing rather than riding and layering against the dampness.
Have I told you about the enormous brown trout that I hooked but got away? Oh yeah, that fishing story has been told before. This story involves my Mudhoney SL bike and tenkara fly rod to explore along the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River and the fishing holes yet unseen.
Scattered white cumulus clouds sail above the snowy peaks. Deciduous trees reach for space between the towering evergreens with their apical buds of light green yielding little. At the trailhead I can hear the river rapids running over the cobbles before I can see the green flow. Water, food and rod on my back I accelerate up the road on my bike, ecstatic to be riding in the sun. The thrill of riding is timeless and the freedom to roam is cherished.
Through the forest on a trail and over a suspension bridge reveals a swollen snowmelt river. Sandbars to fish from won’t be available for two more months. I fish eddies on the main river, make a note of holes that will be prime for trout in 1-2 months, and then seek smaller tributary creeks to fish.
Riding a winding singletrack trail with blue butterflies flitting near the drying mud I cross several streams along the way. Rock hopping is easy. Wading is cold and sometimes necessary. In the end the fish swim free, I am energized by the day of exploration and the dream of the next trip forms as I ride down the long tree shaded road towards home.
Fog swirls through the cedar trees in the fading light of dusk as frogs croak somewhere near the flowing river in the darkness beyond. I’m in Olympic National Park nestled in the Sol Duc valley anticipating the next days mixed terrain ride. An early spring adventure to mark the return of soft light giving way to vibrant sunshine that had retreated to the South for the winter.
