First let me say that I never had any intention of riding this particular route. Randy wanted to because it's the highest place you can get with a mountain bike. Which is a fine ambition. For him. However, he was having trouble getting anyone to go with him. And I just happened to have a last minute cancellation on a trip I was going to take to visit my grandmother. Because my mom had to cancel the trip because she had a bad cold. I told Randy I would be around for the weekend after all. He immediately asked if I wanted to ride Pyramid Mountain with him. Without even really thinking about it I said sure. I'm certain I can blame my mother, or at least her cold, for this.
Pyramid Mountain is 8243' and is just west of Lake Chelan. We have a truck and camper and thankfully they were still attached to each other so we could make a fast plan. We decided to each leave work at 3:30 on Friday, meet at home for final preparations and make the drive to the trailhead, which is a darn long ways a way after a workday/work week.
We got out of the house no later than 4:30, which is somewhat of a miracle but we do have a rather well-oiled routine as far as camping goes. It helps that the portable bbq and lawn chairs happen to live in the back seat of the truck and certain other things live in the camper. It was really just a matter of loading clothes and bicycles.
Monroe on a Friday evening is no fun at all. Even after Monroe, Highway 2 was surprisingly crowded but when you drive a camper, eventually you end up in front without being able to see traffic behind you very well. Take note, those of you who like to tail campers — we can't see you so are oblivious.
We ate dinner at Ixtapa in Sultan. They have the best pollo en mole EVER! The Chevron next door got nearly $100 for fuel from us. Ouch. One more stop at the grocery store in Leavenworth before the remaining long haul skirting Wenatchee, up the Alt 97 to Entiat then a long 40 miles or so up the Entiat River Road. Except by then it was getting late so we opted to spend the night at Nason Creek State Park just over Stevens Pass. Seems to me we were cozy in our sleeping bags by 8:30 that night.
At 6:00 the next morning we were up. Randy claims I snored (I'm shocked!) so I must've slept pretty well. After bad coffee and instant oatmeal we were on our way again. We were at the Leavenworth Safeway by 7:00 to get supplies — sandwiches for the ride, dinner on the bbq, refreshing beverages, and eggs and ham for breakfast the following morning.
The drive from Leavenworth all the way up the Entiat River Road is still long. At one point Randy said he thought we wouldn't be able to finish the ride. However we arrived at the trailhead before 10:00 and were dressed and ready fairly quickly. The sun was shining but th emorning was rather brisk, especially in the shade.
The ride starts at the North Fork (Green Trails Map Lucerne #114), which is trail number 1437, at 3900' in elevation. Remember that Pyramid Mountain summit is 8243' but don't think about it. After about 1.2 miles take trail number 1439, which is Pyramid Creek. These trails are well groomed and fun riding but there are a few creek crossing that you can either ride or walk. I often walk them because I prefer wet feet over wet body should I not make the crossing on my bike. After two miles stay left. You can go right and still meet Pyramid Mountain trail. But that's not the way we went. After 2 more miles, go right on trail 1433, which is Pyramid Mountain Trail. This is the steepest most awful part of the trail. In one mile it gains 1000' of elevation. We hiked and pushed almost all of this part.
Then I abandoned my bike in the trees just before making the left on Trail 1441, which is the 3-mile trail up to the summit of Pyramid. I had my doubts about abandoning my bike because the summit trail is actually 3 miles with 1000' of gain so there are probably lots of places that are rideable. However, I am much faster on my feet than pushing my bike and I wasn't sure how much of the summit route I'd actually be able to ride, in part because of terrain and also because of elevation. I am not a very good bike rider over 6000', unless it is downhill.
Immediately I regretted abandoning my bike after the final steep pitch up to the summit trail because the trail levels out and is quite rideable. But then there were places that would've required walking and I would've been much slower pushing rather than walking. Randy rode at least half the summit trail by pushing for a while then riding for a while. He really wanted his bike on the summit. I was quite content hiking.
We finished the last three miles to the summit in about 90 minutes — at 3:00 p.m. sharp, which was 30 minutes ahead of our turn-around time. It was very cold and windy at the top so we both made entries in the summit log, snapped pictures, put on jackets then descended. Since Randy was riding he was way ahead. But I half jogged down and sang "Dreamboat Annie" outloud. If you hear someone singing on a trail, it could be me. The views of Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak were beautiful. It was so warm and sunny. The larches were turning gold and lit up in the sun.
We met back down at the trail junction 3 miles down an hour later. Then it was a short distance to my bike. There were some parts that were too steep for Randy to ride without sliding. I would've walked them anyway. Even after I got my bike I walked most of that steep section — this was the part that was 1000' in a mile.
At close to 5:00 p.m. we were at the junction of trail 1439. Only 5.5 miles to go. This was the fun riding part. However, I admit that I was quite tired by then and didn't feel like taking any chances. If any part of the trail looked remotely threatening I got off and walked around. For the most part I rode and for the most part the trail was really fun to ride. Any small uphill sections were exhausting but mercifully they were short. And finally we were at the last creek crossing and back at the camper. At 6:00 p.m., which was dusk.
The final tally was 20 miles and 4300' of elevation gain, approximately 8 hours. Here are the pictures.