Pierce County’s newest cycling event hits speed bump near Mount Rainier
Organizers of Pierce County’s canceled RAMROD cycling event announced on Monday that their newest ride, GETMAD, is in danger of suffering a similar fate.
“... we have run into an issue,” Redmond Cycling Club said in a statement.
The club, which organizes the annual Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day (also known as RAMROD), has been plagued with ride-organizing issues this year. First, with the cancellation of RAMROD due to scheduling conflicts with the National Park Service, now with WSDOT maintenance issues on a stretch of road that completes its newest Pierce County cycling adventure, GETMAD.
GETMAD, or Gravel Enumclaw To Mowich in A Day, was announced by Redmond Cycling Club on May 18 as an addition to its annual ride itinerary as opposed to a replacement for the canceled RAMROD.
“This new event is designed to challenge riders on gravel while restoring access to an area that has largely been cut off since the closure of the Fairfax Bridge,” Redmond Cycling Club said in a statement at the time.
“There’s been too many hurdles with the rides this year,” event organizer and Redmond Cycling Club president Rick Duong told The News Tribune over the phone on Tuesday.
The newest hurdle for GETMAD organizers is approval from WSDOT.
GETMAD leaves Enumclaw and rides to Mowich Lake and back in four sections. The first section rides mainly from Enumclaw to Buckley on the popular Foothills Trail. From there, the course heads over to private lands while it avoids the Fairfax Bridge closure before heading back to State Route 165. Then it heads into Mount Rainier National Park and up to Mowich Lake.
“Everything we’ve needed to set up for this ride has lined up,” said Duong. “We talked to Mount Rainier National Park, and we’re on track there. We toured the route and didn’t find any issues from a course perspective. We’ve talked to the private landowners on the route, and we’re good there. In terms of course safety requirements, we’ve arranged EMS; that’s all done. We’ve talked to Buckley and Enumclaw, securing the locations and everything with volunteer registration is going well.
“And then we get the notification from WSDOT that the corridor is unsafe.”
The corridor that Duong is speaking of is SR 165 south of the Carbon River Bridge.
Duong said members of the Redmond Cycling Club reached out to WSDOT “weeks ago” to ask if there were any conflicts with that stretch of roadway but hadn’t heard back until “a couple of days ago.”
WSDOT told Redmond Cycling Club in an email that it was “unable to approve the portion of the event South of the Fairfax Bridge on SR165 because it is currently closed and maintenance activities in the area are not up to date.”
Additionally, the email stated that maintenance was scheduled on that stretch of roadway during the week of the GETMAD ride.
“Unfortunately, this puts GETMAD 2026 in jeopardy,” Duong said in a statement. “We are currently waiting for WSDOT to respond to our request to reschedule their work to a different time.”
Duong said GETMAD cannot be rescheduled to a later date due to “fire danger season.”
The News Tribune reached out to WSDOT on Tuesday and received the following statement:
“The section of SR 165 that the ride would cover goes beyond into the closure south of the Carbon River Bridge. The group would also be accessing the route via a different private access route that WSDOT is not permitted for use. The roadway south of the Carbon River Bridge on SR 165 has also not been maintained in over a year due to the bridge closure, with unseen roadway conditions.
“Though GETMAD had been advertising this route since last month, organizers to date have not submitted a permit application for this event. WSDOT was notified just over a week ago via email with the event details. Due to limited access, unknown roadway conditions, concern over safety for those partaking in the event and inherited liability, WSDOT could not approve the use of SR 165 south of the Carbon River/Fairfax Bridge for the event.”
When asked about cycling on unknown road conditions, Duong told The News Tribune that volunteers have scouted the section in question as recently as Tuesday.
“We’ve scouted the course, and it looks good to us. We’re on gravel bikes for this ride, not road bikes,” Duong said.
GETMAD is currently sold out.
This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Pierce County’s newest cycling event hits speed bump near Mount Rainier."
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