FALL INTO WINTER – COLIN MEAGHER PHOTO

Words and Photos: Colin Meagher. This story originally appeared on PinkBike – Jan 22, 2015.

Every year for the past decade, I’ve traveled the globe covering the World Cup. And every time I’ve returned home, the very first place I go to get my ride back on is the trails off Washington State’s Highway 410 on the fringe of Mount Rainier National Park. There’s only a handful of trails there, but there’s just something about the place that keeps bringing me back. Maybe it’s the dirt: it seems as if it’s always good. Maybe it’s the views: being one valley away from a massive, snow capped mountain always makes for views that scream out “epic”. And maybe it’s knowing every nook and cranny of those trails: discovery is awesome, but there’s definitely a thrill to be had shredding a trail at full gas and knowing how to shake it the whole way down. 3200 vertical feet of descending per lap doesn’t suck, either.

For the past few years I’ve been lucky to share the trails here for a long weekend of shuttling with friends. Sharing these trails seems to make them that much better; the stoke factor at the end of the day is always high: the tales of crashing, the high speed drifts, the cameraderie… it seems as if everyone feeds off that buzz ’round the campfire.

Well, they feed off of that, as well as the beer and whatever bottle of the good stuff is being passed around. The next morning always comes too soon.

Can we start riding already?

The center of it all: Mt Rainier.

410… campfires… good friends… they all go together so well.

With the return of the mists, the leaves start changing… it’s always a slow process, watching the gold creep over the green, and then the leaves dropping to cover the trails.

Jill Kintner boosting into the roots on Palisades Trail.

The last golden days of fall inevitably succumb to the beauty of the gray: the fall mist and rain. There’s something so seductive about watching the “ghosts” drifting between the trees, wreathing the tops of the ancient douglas firs… and then there’s the return of the velcro dirt. The fall riding is definitely where it’s at down here.