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FALL 2018 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 03
A postcard view of Oregon ’ s Mount Hood from Bennet Pass Trailhead , just off State Route 35 on the Mount Hood Scenic Byway .
the town of Lone Pine , I struggle to pick out Mount Whitney — the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states — from the neighboring peaks . On the Tracer 900 GT press ride we saw several volcanic peaks , Mount Adams ( 12,281 feet ) and Mount St . Helens ( 8,363 feet — before it blew its top in 1980 , it was 1,300 feet taller ) in Washington and Mount Hood ( 11,249 feet ) in Oregon , standing head and shoulders above the landscape , easily visible from miles away . They ’ re part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc , a series of 12 volcanoes stretching from Mount Silverthrone in British Columbia to Mount Lassen in California , which is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire — more than 450 volcanoes scattered along the outer edge of the Pacific Ocean .
Like a good omen , snow-covered Mount Hood greeted me as I turned south on State Route 35 , the beginning of Mount Hood Scenic Byway , where I rode through apple farms on a sunny , cloudless July morning . The previous day topped out at 105 degrees and the heat wave wasn ’ t done with me , but early in the morning the byway along the East Fork