Five days in and feeling like a pro. Well not pro, an amateur who eats a lot of Snickers while on a bike for many hours. Here’s a short summary of the last few days.
Sunday – This was the first big test. We set ourselves up for success by slightly miscalculating how far we made it on Saturday, by one 1000 foot elevation gain and drop. By the time we had started to figure this out on Sunday during our ride, I found myself hoping at every turn that it was more uphill. This ultimately would mean we were on the big hill climbing already. We were halfway up Rainy Pass when we were confident in our previous day’s miscalculation, and I’ve never been so happy to be wrong. After Rainy came Washington Pass, which was beautiful with several feet of snow still around. The descent was easy, albeit cold. I am the first to admit, I didn’t feel that I trained enough for this ride, but I was pleasantly surprised by my state at the top. It’s been awhile since I’ve had this feeling of perseverance; I recommend it. I also recommend having an excellent pit crew, without which this would clearly be a much less enjoyable experience. We met up with the girls (Lauren, Mom, and Peach) in Mazama and had a small lunch. We ended the day with hot showers at a nice RV park (Riverbend RV) at Twisp, WA. Great day.
Monday – Yay, I’m not working! (much) We started in the cold morning out of Twisp, up Loup Loup Pass. It was a nice ride with not much traffic. We are clearly in eastern Washington now; I associate the smells with hunting and fishing in this neck of the woods. Sage, dykes, timber and, aside from the rivers, creeks and ponds, it’s all dry dry dry. While in the middle of that thought, my dad circles back and tells me to keep riding. If you’ve been around my dad for more than a day or two, you know he’s a collector. Old shoe strings, bits of wire, flat rocks, nice driftwood, roadkill. I guess we could be here awhile. Well today’s haul was a questionably functional box cutter, complete with razor blade. He’ll tinker with it later and if he doesn’t get it to work, I imagine it’ll show up as a fishing lure or weight later.
Tuesday – Dad told me day 3 (today is day 5) would be the hardest day. It was my own fault; trust but verify. Tuesday would have been 5700 feet of elevation gain, but dad rode 17 miles up from Tonasket at the end of the day Monday to get us a head start. For context, Rainy and Washington Passes on day 3 were roughly 4000 feet of elevation gain. With the head start, we were again in for a roughly 4000 foot day, this time finishing Wauconda Pass then Sherman Pass with Republic in the middle. It was hard to start the day riding up a steep grade, but after an hour, roughly when we passed through Republic, I started to feel like I was getting in a rhythm. Sherman Pass was unrelenting but after summitting, we got a 20 mile descent payoff. Near the bottom of the descent, Lauren caught us and dropped Mom off to finish the ride with Dad. I decided to take the car back with my new wife and puppy. I grabbed a quick shower and we all met in Colville at a brewery before backtracking slightly to our campground. All in all lovely day.
Cycling with Kevin & Suzi 