Day 7 - Ellensburg to Windy Point CG

Nice flat ride with tailwind along Yakima River Canyon, a beautiful canyon with lots of float fly fisherman on the river. We stop by the river for a break and meet "Rad  Man" a hippie-type that ties a big bungee to a tree along the river, then gets on a board and drifts downstream until he buries himself under the water and comes shooting out for a wild river ride called "rad boarding".
We have a gradual climb into Selah for burritos at Taco Bell. Leaving Selah we a cursing Adventure Cycling as they take up and down brutal climbs which could have been avoided by staying on the main road. Dick is starting to fade in the desert like heat and we stop by the only shade foe miles and a nice woman invites us to rest on her shady grass and fills our water bottles. Navigator Johnny ignores the woman's elicit directions in favor of confusing ACA ones and takes us on a unintended 5 mile round trip detour. Dick begins the Bataan Death March on a 2 mile uphill climb, where proudly he refuses a local's offer of a pick-up truck ride. Then down to Naches, where Johnny has a brief moment of panic as it is Sunday and the State Liquor store is closed.

We finally start a 3 mile route along heavily trafficked Hwy 12 w/ minimal shoulders, then head south and reach the Windy Creek Forest Service campground, a beautiful site on the Tieton River. Our total is 63 miles w/ the 5 mile screw-up. The gentleman, Brain Anderson from Sacramento, gives us homemade oatmeal cookies.

Last 2 days @ nice camps

Last 2 days @ nice remote camps w/ no service. 2nite in Randle b4 2 pass climbs 2 Cascade Locks OR next entry Portland on Fri.

Day 6 - Wenatchee to Ellensburg

This morning we opt to take a route Googled by Dick, since nothing else looked promising. We start on a beautiful bike trail along the river that's a nice city park with lots of joggers and biker out on a Saturday morning. When it's time to leave the bike trail, we head towards the mountains and are stopped by a guy with mountain bikes on the back of his car, many colored tattoos and toes painted neon yellow, asking were we are going. When we tell him he says you can't go this way because it dead ends. We tell him we are going over the mountains to Ellensburg and he says it starts out as Forest Service roads and then gets worse and that they have a big mountain bike race there every year. Since MapMyRide indicates it is an HC climb, we opt to take an alternative route. So we return by the main street back towards our hotel, which gives us an 8 mile warm up ride.
We take Route 2 and 97 west, and it is just like riding on I-10. Lots of traffic, climbs, headwinds, heat, etc. As we turn to the south up 97 we are greeted by a sign that says 51 miles to Ellensburg and we have already logged 24! We know there is a Cat 1 climb waiting but have no idea that it's the climb that wouldn't end. Finally, at about 47 miles (about 5 miles further than we estimate the summit), we crest Blewett Pass at 4,100 feet at about 3PM. (we had a picture to post but the Days Inn computer is still running IE6, so no luck. Maybe later)
After a screaming downhill made scarier by the crosswinds and heavy traffic, we make the turn east towards Ellensburg and are confronted by another 3 mile killer climb. At the crest, we see a windmill farm stretching out through the valley. Fortunately, they indicate a brisk tail wind, and we sail down the other side, not pedaling for 10 full miles! It is definitely, the longest downhill any of us had experienced. We make it to town about 5:30 after 10 hours in the saddle and opt for motel over camping (mostly because the only campground is 3 miles backtracking into a 15 mph headwind.) We find a Days Inn, load up on "muscle relaxants" (beer) and decide to continue the spirit of adventure by eating at the next door truck stop. Maybe more on that later...

Day 5 - Lake Chelan SP to Wenatchee

We are greeted right off this morning by an absolutely brutal climb of 1.5 miles out of the campground. Amazingly, 3/4 of the way up, Dick decides to walk his bike for a bit. Even more amazingly, Johnny continues to ride but cannot catch him. After cresting, we are again teased in the morning by some of the most spectacular riding through the river valley with mountains and farmland all around. It is, of course, short lived, as we are dumped again on to Highway 97 with the heat, headwinds, and traffic. Fortunately, the sholder is wide and the surface is good.

After a brief stop in Entiat for refreshments, Dick gains the benefit of his candy bar and surges ahead on a pull. As you may know, sugar energy is short lived and he eventually returns to the group. Being a short day of only 37 miles (this now constitutes a rest day for Jerry), we check into a motel in Wenatchee and head out for some burgers, fries and cokes. Johnny is having some mechanical issues with is bike (no surprise there) and there happens to be a bike shop about 2 blocks away. They think it is a freewheel hub issue estimating it will be about $25 to remove, clean and lube. A couple hours later after Johnny hits the hot tub and Jerry hits the treadmill (seriously!), Johnny gets the call that the rear hub is trashed and will require a new wheel since there is no time to rebuild the exiating wheel, to the tune of about $150. After some concerted complaining over the phone, Johnny walks down to get his bike and finds they have installed a new hub and an upscale Cervelo wheel and want no payment for it. They insist they are cyclists and want to help another one on long trek like ours. This is how it goes on the road sometimes and we are all humbled by there generosity. BTW the shop is VIM Sports in Wenatchee and I will be doing all I can to promote them. I pass on some of my good fortune by buying the boys' dinner.

Day 4 - Winthrop to Lake Chelan

Today we left Winthrop on a nice downhill run to Twisp and Hank's Country Store for more great breakfast sandwiches and coffee. We also loaded up on lunch supplies and followed the Twipd-Carlton Road along the Methow River to Carlton where we are dumped back on to Highway 153 to Methow and Pateros where we find a nice little country store for some refreshments and rest. There we meet a motorcyclist heading back to Seattle who gives us some great information about the road ahead. We also meet a retired serviceman who got tireed of hiking the Pacific Coast Trail and decided to take our same Sierra Cascades route from Canada all the way to Mexico. Of course, being 47 and carring 22 lbs (as opposed to our 40) he blows by us latter at one of our many rest stops, never to be seen again.

Now we follow Highway 97 and the Columbia River south towards Chelan and the traffic and heat pick up considerably. To add to the misery, there are some long, gradual climbs and some afternoon headwinds. We finally make the city of Chelan and resupply fro dinner and tomorrow's breakfast and then it is on for 10 more miles to Lake Chelan State Park. This is complicated by the fact that the closest beer stop is 6 miles from the park so we must add some weight to a beautiful rolling ride along the south coast of Celan. We make the park about 5 and, lucky for us, had reservations as the campground is jammed full. We end up camped closer to our neighbors than to each other but, amazingly, the campground falls dead silient a 10 and we retire after what was supposed to be an "easy" 72 miles. It turned out to be an excellant decision to push on te extra 14 miles the day before, as we would have never made it 86 miles.

Day 3 - Diablo Lake to Winthrop

The climbs begin! Got an early start and had a monster climb right off. Nice views of the lake and the mountains but only able to enjoy on the frequent rest stops. At one of the stops a motorcyclist coming the other way stopped to talk and give us some info about what was to come. He told us they were working on the roads at the passes and there was 30 miles of chipseal (kind of gravel that the prees into fresh tar). So some of the most spectatcular riding in Washington is lessened by the road surface. Turns out to be not so bad as they had closed off several miles of the road and we got to ride in the middle of the road with no traffic.
Started some brutal climbing up the first pass (Rainy) at 4,800 feet. It was great to finally make it to the top, but we knew we had some downhill before climping up to Washington Pass at 5,400. As we got towards the top, our motorcyle friend came back by with some cold Coke for us! Boy, did that help. Finally crested Washington and had a long, screaming downhill to Mazama, our intended destination. On the way down, were held up briefly by a wreck between a motorcycle and a bicycle. It did not look good and made us all think it could have easily been one of us.
When we got to Mazama, there was a great little county store there with excellent sandwiches and cold gatoraid. Not many places to stay though, and since we had a planned 88 mile day for tomorrow, we decided to press on to Winthrop. Got a nice motel on the river and managed to hook up with Dan Kuperberg and his wife Sally, who run a B & B in Winthrop. They treated us at the local Mexican Resturant, and, amazingly, Dan was going out for a 15 mile training run in the dark after dinner since he is training for a 100 mile run in Europe.

Day 2 - Rockport to Diablo Lake

Left Rockport campground and followed the Sagit River some more. Jerry kept wishing for a breakfast sandwich and, lo and behold, in Marblemount the two restaurants were closed, but the convenience store sold some killer breakfast sandwiches. Road on to the North Cascades National Park Visitors Center and checked the topos for the rest of the ride. Started climbing up US 20 (North Cascades Highway) and had to go through a couple of tunnels, the first of which had a push button to warn motorists that there we bicycles in the tunnel. Nice view of Diablo Dam as we finish the ride to Colonial Creek campground at the bottom of Diablo Lake. Beautiful campsite close to the lake and we got to see an osprey catch a fish. Had the usual freeze dried (except Dick who is a more adventurous backwoods gourmet) and turned in early which is becoming the routine.