2026 High-Lite Ride

I had some unfinished business with the Washington State High-Lite bikepacking route. In 2023 I started the Grand Depart but really underestimated how difficult the High route is from Cle Elum to Wenatchee. In 2023 I pulled the plug in Wenatchee and DNFed. After completing the St. Helens loop a few weeks earlier and feeling pretty good overall on the climbs I got to thinking about giving the High-Lite a go as it worked with my schedule. 2026 Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44333836

Loads of people gathering for the 2026 Grand Depart!!

I gathered at the Grand Depart on Friday morning around 6:30am while it was still dark. I rode down to the start with WA Triple Crown Finisher Annie from DruBru Brewery and was thinking to myself that I’m going to make it back here in a few days coming from a different direction! The weather started out nice but I knew that was going to change so my plan was to push hard from start and get through the mountains as soon as I could. It was forecast to snow up top with some high winds! I wanted to really ride hard to try and push through the weather. We started out with a group roll out on the coal mines trail. Weather was nice and my fingers were crossed that it would stay that way for a while. I made good time climbing up the first ridge out of Roslyn and then had really fun singletrack descent down into the Teanaway valley. On the descent, my crank bros multi tool loosened up and fell apart in my bag. It made for nice bear-bell type sound on the ride down but it was annoying and I didn't want to lose any tools. I stopped just after the bridge and emptied the bag and tried to reassemble the multi tool as quickly as possible. I didn't get it put back exactly right but it was good enough to keep going. In hindsight I wish I didn't have to stop here at all due to incoming weather. I made my way up the valley and then onto the next big climb up near Red top mtn. This climb has some of the steepest grades and requires significant pushing. I had benefit this year of my previous attempt on the High-Lite where I did the first section to Wenatchee so I was mentally prepared for the long struggle with climb after climb after climb. Ben and I had already yo-yo'ed a few times before the second summit. Just prior to getting the the top the rain came in pretty good. I reached the top and Ben was stopped under a tree getting his rain gear on. I also stopped to get rain pants, shell, and plastic baggies over my already wet gloves. As soon as I got everything on it started dumping rain and some hail mixed in. The descent down to hwy 97 was a sloppy mud mess and I had to go quite slow in a few spots where the mud was greasy and slick to keep from crashing. I passed Ben again on this downhill and eventually made it across hwy 97. Once across, I filtered water and filled my bottles. It was a constant flux of adding or subtracting layers all day long. Ben and I yo-yo'ed quite a few more times due to all these layer change stops. I settled in for the long climb up to the ridge and the weather kept getting colder and more windy. Once on top there were times when snow flurries were mixed in the rain. One large chunk of a dead tree broke off pretty close to me from the wind and it scared me a bit. I just kept pushing forward knowing that I could get down off the mountain before dark. Rolling along the upper ridge I could see down to the area just below us and it was in full sun so I just needed to make my way down to that sun. I eventually got off the ridge taking it pretty slow in some greasy slick mud spots but thankful to drop elevation. I stopped at the beginning of the Peavine trail to take the side road to mission Creek and fill my water but the road was blocked by a ton of downed trees. I parked my bike and then headed down on foot but decided it wasn't worth it. Ben passed me while I was stopped and I was glad to see he made it down off the mountain ok. I caught back up to him and transitioned to get lights on for the night. The full moon rising over the ridge towards Wenatchee was amazing. Ben and I rode and pushed bikes together for the rest of the night until I stopped to camp about halfway up the climb to Horse Lake Mtn. Ben pushed onto Wenatchee while I setup my camp for the night in a pretty sheltered spot from the wind. Unfortunately I was out of water, with one little sip before bed, I would have to do the roughly 25mi to Wenatchee in the morning on no water. I slept good in the night but I could hear the wind really howling but my camp was well protected. Good tough day 1. Day 1: 76mi, +12,600ft of elevation gain.

Day 2 of High-Lite. I woke up around 4am and started packing up camp in the dark. I actually got packed pretty quickly and I think I was riding a little after 4:30am. It was not too cold out but I had some more climb left until the huge singletrack descent into Wenatchee. I also had zero water but I figured I was mostly going downhill so I could survive. I continued the climb in the dark and then started the descent still in the dark on the first bit of fire road. Every little valley I rolled slow listening to see if there was water to filter but no such luck. The dawn was starting to break just as I was hitting the long singletrack section and it was a glorious sunrise over Wenatchee. I eventually got back on pavement and dropped down to the river where I found a park with water. I filled up all my bottles and drank a ton as I was pretty dehydrated. I then continued on to East Wenatchee across the river and made my way to McDonald's for a breakfast and hot coffee. It was a nice break but my goal was a lot more miles for the day. I got rolling on the bike and made good time on the pavement to rock Island grade. During my XWA in 2022 I pushed up pretty much the whole Rock Island Grade (RIG) climb. My goal this time was to ride a bit more of the climb. I pushed a lot but I did ride some of it. It was a great day and it was nice to enjoy the views and settle into riding.

The high-lite drops into Douglas Creek canyon on the old rail trail and is different route than the XWA. I was warned that it was tough and it was. Most of the trail was slightly overgrown with bushes and there were many short steep banks to climb up with the loaded bike where the trestles are removed and many creek bed crossing (no water this time of year though). The result is a lot of off and on the bike.

I eventually got down to the main jeep road in the canyon and then had several water crossings and one final steep long push uphill near the Douglas Creek falls. I watched a rock crawler guy drive ride up this beside me and it was crazy that he could drive up it! He joked with me that it takes less calories his way :) Finally I bombed down the final downhill out of the canyon and onto farm roads to cruise onto Ephrata. On my 2022 XWA, one of my least favorite stretches was the long straight road (~6mi dead straight) after climbing out of Palisades, but this time around I was mentally prepared and it wasn't too bad. I saw a badger here on this stretch right by the road and that was pretty cool.

I kept plugging away riding to Ephrata and had a couple of farm dogs to deal with but they were pretty friendly. I got my lights on and added clothes for the descent into Ephrata as the full moon was coming up (another amazing moonrise!). I wanted to make a quick gas station stop in town because I was planning on a longer stop in Moses Lake for food. I did a quick stop at the gas station directly on the route and then got going after drinking a frap and eating some chips. Leaving town I got messed up trying to follow the route on a closed road and it took me over 15min to dink around with nav and get back on the route. From there it was pretty quick night riding along the farm roads to Moses Lake and I dealt with a few more farm dogs (some not as friendly) but no dog-bites. I was a little worried about traffic seeing me from behind on the shoulders but it wasn't too busy. Once I got to the overpass at I-90 in Moses Lake my heart sunk as I saw that it was closed for construction and the Loves truck stop was just across the interstate. It was not a fun way to end the day when all I wanted was warm food and a place to get inside for warmth. I pulled out my phone and seemed to recall a pedestrian bridge over I-90 over at the park. I decided to ride down that way to see if it was there and if I could use it. I rolled into the park and it was quite busy as there were people playing full moon disc golf, but I found the bridge and lifted my heavy bike up the steps to cross safely over the freeway and into a private RV park on the other side (since when does a public pedestrian bridge go from a public park to private RV park?). Once on the other side I quickly made my way to Love's to refuel and get warm. After eating and stocking up for tomorrow I rolled a bit further towards the sand dunes to find a place to camp for the night. As I got further down the road I could still hear ORVs ripping around at 10:30-11pm at night and folks partying. I decided to make my camp before I got to the main dunes so I could be away from some noise. There was still a bunch of traffic on the road and I doubt they were expecting a bike in the middle of the night so I'm glad I stopped before I got hit. I tried to pitch my tent without headlamp in the full moon so I wouldn't give my camp away to folks who could probably still see me from the road. It took a while to get the tent up and camp laid out due to my tiredness, but I eventually crashed out after a hard day riding. Day 2: 120mi and +8000ft elevation gain.

Day 3 of the High-Lite: I woke to my alarm at 4am and got out of bed and worked to get packed up quickly and rolling. There was frost on the ground and I don't think I was quite as fast or efficient packing everything as night 1 (probably due to cold and fatigue). I think I was finally rolling in the dark around 4:45am and cruised through the next section and covered some miles on the fast gravel and paved roads. As I made my way closer to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge dawn was beginning to break and I would soon get to put away the lights for the day. It was still chilly so I was eager for the sun to get up and start warming things up. While I was riding on Hwy 262 just south of the Potholes reservoir I caught a glimpse of an animal on the shoulder of the highway with my lights and noticed that it started running really fast ahead of me along the shoulder. I turned on my brighter helmet light and tried to get a good look at it but it was too fast. I kept riding and then a bit further down the highway I saw the animal again running ahead of me on the shoulder. It kept staying too far in front of me to see it up close. Finally right before I was coming up on my left turn into the refuge I saw it again and it was a little dog out here in the middle of nowhere! It probably went along with me for several miles! I turned off the highway and the little dog didn't follow. The gravel in the wildlife refuge was pretty rough and washboarded but I kept plugging away and was riding on a new section of roads to me as the XWA route follows a slightly different route through here. It was really pretty in the sunrise to see the lakes and canal carved out in a man-made canyon of rock but the air temperature was still cold. Eventually I made it off the gravel and then cruised up the paved roads to Othello to get some hot coffee and breakfast at McDonalds. It was nice to warmup and I took my bottle of chain lube inside with me to warm it up so I could get the chain lubed for the rest of the trip (when the lube was cold it is hard to squeeze the thick fluid onto the chain). After getting the chain lubed and fueled up with full water I set off on the long stretch to Beverly. I had a bit of a headwind starting out but it was not terrible and then it did switch to tailwind. I finally got to shed some layers of clothing about 10mi after Othello as I was starting to finally warmup. From then on it was enjoyable riding to the Beverly bridge and I pushed pretty steady with not much stop time. I saw a porcupine in this section. When I finally made it to the bridge I rolled across and planned to stop and sit on one of the benches to have my lunch. While I was eating I was having a terrible dilemma on what to do about my water situation. I really had three options: 1) ride backwards across the bridge and a bit off route to go get water at the store in Schawana 2) Continue on the trail a few more miles in hopes that the Doris water tank was still on. 3) make my way down the steep bank on foot down to the river and grab some water to filter. My option 2 would be the fastest if water was on, but if not, I would need to turn around and backtrack. I sat for a while trying to decide and eventually continued on the trail to Doris where I was able to thankfully fill my water! After Doris it was a long slog up the trail to the summit in the afternoon sun. I was still happy that the grade is mild and it's easily ridable, but just needed to be patient. This section was also new to me as I've somehow never rode it before this trip. It was quite lonely out there, but I was pleased to see many bike tracks on the trail (meaning bikes are using it!). I finally made it up to the tunnel detour and had some pushing to do on the chunky rock detour road. Once I crested the summit it was fun cruising down the trail all the way into Kittitas. I did one final resupply stop here in town for water, ice cream and gatorade and then I pushed on to the finish. It was a very enjoyable evening to ride the trail onto Ellensburg and I saw lots of quail and a few bucks were silhouetted against the sunset right after Thorp. I got my lights ready and added layers of clothes right before Thorp. It was another spectacular moonrise in the Thorp canyon and it was nice night riding. I kept plugging away as I knew the finish kept getting closer. I was starting to bonk since I had not eaten in a while so I pushed until just after the I-90 crossing and then stopped to get a quick snack. Then it was a steady push into the finish at around 9:15pm to finish by myself at the brewery (No fans, No open Brewery, just me and my trusty bike). I’m super glad to complete this loop especially with the really hard weather conditions on the first day. Probably one of my longest mileage days on the MTB ever. Day 3: 137mi, +4300ft elevation gain

Finish Time: 2d:14h:18m

Additional write-ups from 2026 Grand Depart Riders:

I hope you can get outside and enjoy some of the fall season. If you have any questions related to bikepacking and/or bikerafting in the PNW feel free to Contact Us. Thanks for following along!

If you enjoy this site and want to contribute please consider a donation.

Fall Bikepacking

BikeraftPNW