Mary’s Peak

Kyle Banerjee and I took a trip to Mary’s Peak this weekend to get a bit of a hill workout. This is the largest mountain in the Coast Range in Oregon (about 4000+ feet) — not terribly large, but pretty constant climb. Reaching the summit is very worth it. On a clear day, you can see the Ocean, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainer, etc. I really haven’t had a climbing workout this year, so I thought this would be a good first run. I’ve mostly been riding in the valley and getting pretty good speed on my 25 mile commute (I average about 20-23 mph) but I found that I’m definitely not in climbing shape. Sunday was hot (96 degrees) and clear and after an inital 4 or so miles up the base, Kyle flat out left me up the hill. I think I burned myself on the bottom — but I definitely wasn’t expecting the climb to be as difficult as it ended up being. Looks like I’ll have to get more climbing in my life.