Volcanoes and Passes - Part 1

The Pacific Northwest sits on the Ring of Fire, and this self-guided ride follows its volcanic spine from Seattle to San Francisco. Seven nights, around 1,490 miles, and a route that passes beneath Mount Rainier, Mount St Helens, Mount Hood, Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen, with Crater Lake somewhere in the middle.

Rainier comes first, approached on Highway 410, and it sets the tone for the week: a 14,000-foot volcano that stays in view for most of a day’s riding. The White Pass Scenic Byway then leads past Mount St Helens, still visibly rearranged by its 1980 eruption, before the route crosses the Columbia River into Oregon with Mount Hood ahead.

Crater Lake is the one that stops people. It fills the collapsed caldera of a mountain that blew itself apart around 7,700 years ago, and the water in it is an unreasonable shade of blue. Beyond it the route continues south past Mount Shasta and through Lassen Volcanic National Park, where the ground still steams, before dropping to Chico and running into San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge.

EAGLERIDER provides the bike and books each night’s hotel, and the riding days are long, up to 328 miles, which suits country this empty. Fuel, meals and insurance are separate. Worth noting that the operator sells this tour to pairs only, either two riders sharing a bike or two riders with one each, so it is not currently bookable solo. Five volcanoes, one caldera lake and the whole length of the Cascades, ridden without a group.