Take a Cyclo-hike
I love road riding. I like mountain biking a whole lot because you’re away from cars, you’re out in the wilderness and it’s fun to ride in dirt and mud. But my MTB is heavy and getting up high can be a pain in the neck.
Enter my cyclocross bike, a cross (as it were) between a road- and a mountain bike. Road-bike light (kinda) with chunkier tires, it’s great for climbing logging and fire roads high into the hills around Bellingham. Of which there are many. It’s somewhat like hiking (only a lot faster) so I call it cyclo-hiking. (Just thought of that now.)
The Mobebecane Fantom CX was cheap–$499 through BikesDirect.com–with perhaps not the most comfortable seat I’ve ever sat upon, or the grippiest brakes my life has depended on, but other than that, it’s been truly bomber.