When you are given lemons, make lemonaide would summarize my ride to Paradise via the Stevens Canyon park entrance. It's open now but only Fri-Sun and with a warning that there is a lot of construction going on with one lane traffic. So my plan was to start from Packwood before the Friday traffic gets bad and work my way thru the construction to Paradise, descend to Ashford for blackberry pie and then bike the 21 miles to Packwood to get my car. It would be a 84 mile day with a lot of elevation so be prepared.
Got to Packwood at 8:30 for coffee and a roll from a local baker, unloaded my bike and headed out. Overcast but forecast was that it would burn off. 100 yards into the ride I notice my battery light is red and that I only have 26% battery left when it should be 100% in case it is needed. Crap and double crap. So I loaded the bike (forgot to turn off the Garmin) and drove up to Box Canyon where the construction starts. With only 26% battery, I actually biked to Paradise with no assist. Rainier was absolutely socked in so Reflection Lake reflected nothing. Heading down, the clouds lifted and Rainier was spectaculor. The ride thru the construction was a nightmare while trying to check the downhill speed. Dropped clothes at my car and headed down to the park entrance so I could say I biked the whole route. Weird results from my Garmin because of the start and it died on the way back. Near as I can figure it was an additional 2 miles in length but elevation gained is off by 2,162'. Had to drive Skate creek road and it is almost as bad in a car as on a bike. No center line and no shouldiers due to no maintenace.
Data: My error in not charging the battery. On final hills to my car, drained the battery down to 8%