Or, the tour of the Horse Haven Hills!
This ride in eastern Washington appealed to me although I have never ridden in this region before. I’ve wanted to try a brevet which involved some dirt road riding and this one offered a little over seven miles of dirt in its route. This ride also had a good deal of climbing in it and while there were no major passes to climb, a couple of moderate climbs and the endless rollers of the Horse Haven Hills added up to a significant amount of uphill.
In Europe there’s an informal tradition of naming particularly hilly randoneés as grimpeur (“gram-purr”) routes, referring to french translation as “climbers routes.” Although this route might not measure up to other great climbers routes it is not easy.
Overall the route is remarkably traffic free and with the exception of the dirt road section the pavement and road shoulders are in great condition for bicycling. The weather was also better than it could have been with generally light winds and temperatures topping out in the mid 80’s. Out of seven pre-registered riders, four showed up to ride that day. Our small group started out together but after 10 miles or so we split up as we each tended to our own needs. During the day riders were often not that far apart and we overlapped at some of the controls but in the end we finished an hour or more apart.
The Utah Randonneur 
