A few years back when I was still new to the whole bike thing, I noticed a few local riders in the Seattle area pop up on Strava doing something they called the Three Volcanoes Ride. I had no idea what it was, but the stats—about 150 miles distance and 12,000 feet of elevation gain— seemed well beyond anything that at that point I considered to be “fun.” Fast forward a few years and I found out that the route is actually based on a well known randonneuring route of the same name. And that my opinion about it had changed.
The name comes from its location in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington state, framed on three sides by, well, three volcanoes: the heavily glaciated Mt. Rainier (the tallest peak in Washington), Mt. Adams, and the remnants of Mt. St. Helens, which became known worldwide after its catastrophic eruption in 1980. After trying unsuccessfully to corral a crew for a few weeks, my friend Brandon and I decide it was on us to tackle the route alone. Now or never, as they say.