Recommended Routes: Hoh Rainforest Route

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砾石骑自行车的世界正在爆炸。越来越多的人冒险超越停机坪，寻找更安静，更安全的道路，在此过程中探索周围的世界。但是，如果您以前从未骑过砾石，那么很难找到探索这项运动的纪律的理想之路和道路。

Enter our推荐路线系列。与Continental合作，我们汇集了美国各地最好的砾石自行车路线。在未来几周和几个月内保持发布的未来情节。并前往拖车to see the routes themselves.

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Words by Emily Alexander and Rachel Wills|Ben Groenhout的照片

The weekend we choose to ride through the rainforest, it doesn’t rain.

It’s the first weekend of May, which means the only predictable thing about the weather is its unpredictability. In the days leading up to this weekend the forecast has changed almost hourly. Even on the drive out, there is a quintessentially Pacific Northwest moody mist that hangs in the air almost the entire way to Kalaloch, where bluebird skies await.

我们在华盛顿暮色鲜明的叉子以南20分钟的Hoh-oxbow露营地抓住了一个露营地。雷切尔（Rachel）和本（Ben）通过渡轮和美国101西部（Us-101 West）采取了更直接的路线，而我决定沿着风景秀丽的路线，沿着I-5向南行驶至US-101 North。无论哪种方式，我们花了大约四个小时才能到达这里。我们带着满载的供应，套件和齿轮的汽车到达。我们绝不打算或需要完全自支撑，但是即使在路上，我们也非常孤立。

Forks is a struggling former lumber town that received a breath of new life from cashing in on the influx in tourism thanks to the Twilight books and movies. With its population of roughy 3,800 people, it boasts an assortment of greasy spoon cafes, burger and barbeque shacks, local bars that serve food, and bare necessities in the form of a single grocery store that’s connected to the single hardware store, a couple of gas stations and motels, and a Tesla charging station that looks like an alien installation.

在该州的这一地区，除非您在开车出门的乘客座位上睡着了，否则您不会错过为什么华盛顿州是美国第二大木材生产商。有一条近乎恒定的木材卡车，拖着雏菊链的拖车，满载沿着101沿线隆隆的原木并经过“托管”的森林。近在咫尺的树木高40英尺，旁边有一片清晰的树木，随后是一个重新植入的架子，似乎已经成熟了。它给山坡带来了收到糟糕而斑驳的嗡嗡声的感觉。

None of us have done much exploring of the gravel offerings this far west on the Olympic Peninsula. Rachel has the most experience having completed the Gravel Circumnavigation of the Olympic Range (GCOR) gravel route last summer. But with the carrot of a gravel event, Peninsula Adventure Sport’sHoh-ly Roller, we decide to make a weekend of it.

We are planning to take part in the Gran Fondo on Saturday, and then a route Rachel has pieced together on Sunday. Combining some of the GCOR route with a few adventurous off chutes to trails that might offer some views of the Pacific and a stop at Rialto Beach.

The forests in this area of the state are a mix of public, state, and federally owned, and private property. On Saturday, we ride on publicly owned land. No worries of needing a permit to be there, no gates to hop or skirt under. We only occasionally happen upon very active logging sites that are blissfully dormant for the day. We can’t help but feel a little conflicted at the amazing views offered by the clear-cuts, while wondering at the reasoning behind trying to “manage” nature.

With most of the gravel roads out here being originally built to allow access for logging, they follow the flow of the hillsides. A near constant undulation of ups and downs. Steady, gravel-packed grinds that occasionally meet a very steep rocky kick in the teeth that have us walking almost as fast as we could pedal. Then there are the rocky, loose, and rowdy descents that might or might not be a reward worthy of the climb just completed.

We never make it above 2,600 feet (790 metres) of elevation and, somehow, we climb almost 10,000 vertical feet (3,050 m) over a 66-mile (106 km) course. We know it’s the endorphins talking, but the post-ride beers and brats might be the best we’ve ever had.

On Sunday, after letting the morning light and birds of the forest wake us, we savor some camp coffee and debate whether we think the weather will hold for the day before rolling out from the campground. Descending Oil City Road we fly through tunnels of dense, delightfully mossy forest. The pavement has been broken up by packed gravel sections where washouts have occurred. Turning up into the forest we meet our first gate of the day. Today we’re riding on land managed by Rayonier, which – outside of the main gravel road that transects the property – requires a permit for accessing the side roads and trails.

“某物我一直在使用这条小径……至少定期使用。双轨砾石陷入了奇怪的，并不十分的末端，含糊不清的印象是一条通向一些非常高的草和灌木丛的小径。我们骑行，直到灌木丛迫使我们开始行走。我不确定为什么我如此坚持我们继续。我没有计划这条路线。我不知道另一端是什么 - 我们谁都没有。

我们还没有走10英里，但是我可以感觉我们遵循的那条小径 - 使用攀岩学期 - 走了。我们可以使其连接。如果不是我们想去的地方，我们想成为某个地方。“我有点希望我带斧头，”我听到本·穆尔莫尔（Ben Murmur）。

以胜利的欢呼，我们从灌木丛中出来，并与所需的砾石路重新连接，检查我们的转移，然后重返骑行。Eventually we happen on another part of the route that would send us into another vague foot trail, and after a few minutes of consulting TrailForks, find a workaround that will still take us to one of Rachel’s favorite remembered parts of the GCOR route, a massive bridge that crosses the Bogachiel River before we connect with the pavement of La Push Road.

我们在三河度假村便利店的零食停留，就在暮光之城的吸血鬼和狼人之间的“条约线”的一侧。在童年梦dream以求的薯片，糖果和苏打水中，我们收拾好赏金，然后前往里亚托海滩。

Almost a mile away, the saltwater air hits us and we seem to all sigh together. Coming around a bend we are greeted by the sight of the Quileute Tribe’sA-Ka-Latrising high out of the ocean, and the waves rolling. If we didn’t need to ride back to the campsite, we could stay here for hours. Lounging in the sunshine, listening to the waves, and letting the saltwater air flow over and around us.

We take a lush, loamy escape route on the way back to the main gravel road that will return us to Oil City and the campsite. The steep ascent – it is a tsunami evacuation route after all – from La Push Road is tempered by the almost magic-carpet-like vibe of the road. It’s rugged but maintained. Electric green stripes of grass running along the sides and in between the tire tracks blend into the tunnel of trees draped with hanging moss.

当我们回到主要的碎石路时，干燥的棕色污垢以及树木均匀性的几乎魔力效果使我的眼睛震惊。

On the flat grind back to Oil City Rachel begins to slowly ramp up the pace, and the bike racer in me can’t help but egg her on. It has warmed up enough to shed our layers. We welcome the sunshine on our pale PNW winter skin with open, and bare, arms. “I think we killed Ben!” I yell, after noticing he is no longer on either of our wheels.

Coming to the end of the gravel road, and the conclusion of this weekend’s adventure, we stop, soaking in the views of the snow-capped Olympic mountains in the distance and the river below as we wait for our faithful photographer and adventure partner.

对于本周末的开始，出乎意料的是，它的经历近乎完美，只会随着冒险而改善。一切都很熟悉，但很新。没有公寓，没有机械，没有撞车，没有雨。取而代之的；笑，喊叫，叹了口气。

None of us quite knew what we were doing when we agreed to this weekend, other than going to ride in a place that feels so naturally magical – a rainforest in the mountains. And what better place to remember that even when you know exactly where you’re going, the adventure comes from embracing all the things that happen in between.

Photo gallery

The route