Day 82: Kettle Falls, WA to Republic, WA (46.5 miles)
Day 83: Republic, WA to Riverside, WA (57.9 miles)
Day 84: Riverside, WA to Twisp, WA (47.5 miles)
Day 85: Twisp, WA to Winthrop/Mazama, WA (17.2 miles)
Beautiful Okanogan valley, Washington
Ear Worms:
"Cloud Magnet Brigid" - our own composition
John Fogerty -
Centerfield
Bette Midler (and Rolling Stones, but mostly Bette) -
Beast of Burden
Martha Scanlan -
Get Right Church
The full moon is shining bright, a powerful bright orange in the smoke-tinged sky. I'm sitting here at the bike barn, a wonderful bicycle camp site that a couple have put together at their place that is specifically for cylists. Their are seven of us camped here tonight, including Abby, who turns four years old tomorrow and is already on her third tour! Just so amazing all the different people I have met on this trip. It just is such an eye opener to all the different ways that people go about their lives and all the possibilities there are out there to live a life that your envision for yourself.
Today we spent most the day hanging around Twisp, one of my favorite little towns out here on what my friend Tanya and I call "the dry side" of the mountains. We spent the hot afternoon at the local river swimming hole , going from dipping ourselves into the VERY frigid waters and lying out under shade of the trees in the sand, Pandora "Carolina Beach Party" radio setting a nice background atmosphere from my little bluetooth speaker. Finally life on the Northern Tier has delivered me my dry mountain, summer heat. I was starting to think I wouldn't get it after so many days battliing early afternoon thunderstorms and cold weather!
Twisp has become Tanya and I's annual pilgrimage, coming out here once a year for a camping trip the past few years, always stopping in at our favorite little store/cafe, "the Glover Street Market." It's so wonderful because each year we come, we walk in, Michael will be there behind the counter, we order delicious food and smoothies, and just have a great time chatting with everyone. A once a year little home for a day. And so when planning this trip, there were two little things I wanted for the end. One was to climb Washington Pass, which will be happening tomorrow, and the second was to roll into Twisp and hang out at Glover Street Market. One of those fantasies has been completed. The second one - the big one - the one that will take me up and over Washington Pass, the landscape truly like something out of a National Geographic photo shoot - well we will be doing that bright and early in the morning.
Michael prepping our lovely food - he and his girlfriend also
let us set up our tent in their backyard for the night
For the past few years I've seen the cyclists working hard to cross this big, beautiful, mountain pass and vowed that someday I would be one. It's so hard to believe that that time has come. That in just four days, if all goes as planned, I will be rolling into the west Seattle beach to dip my bicycle in the water having completed this 4000 mile bike trip. I just think back on the past almost three months and everything I've experienced. Today, down by the river, I thought back on my last river swim back in the Ozarks in Missouri, so many lifetimes ago but in the same way seems like yesterday. Funny how something can seem both so far in the past and so recent at the same time. But I do think about that first day in Yorktown, not knowing at all what to expect, and it does feel like a long time ago. I've seen so much. I've learned so much. This cycling, it has become what I know, what my body knows. Every day, for 85 days minus a few rest days, my legs have turned the pedals up and down, up and down, for miles and miles, my engine that motors me across the states, the food I eat the fuel to power those engines. And now here I am, on the cusp of crossing the last big mountain and descending into Western Washington, a whole world unto itself. It will be different after tomorrow - I can feel the end nearing and being on this side of those mountains is like being inside the "cross-country touring cyclist fence." The gate opens tomorrow and I cross over, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. In one way, I'm really ready. I've seen so much, formed incredible friendships, overcome obstacles, made in the moment decisions, and it's enough. I'm satisfied. In another way, I am like a small child stomping her feet and crossing her hands shouting, "I don't want to go!" And so I'm just trying to stay as present as possible, soaking in every last bit of this time. And reminding myself that if there's one thing I've learned on this trip, is that there are so many ways to experience life. There are so many "adventures" and it doesn't have to be a big one like this. It can be as simple as making a little fire in your backyard and roasting smores. Or jumping in a little lake nearby. Or watching a hawk soar in the sky. These opportunities are all around us!
The Twisp river swimming hole. So good. So cold!
Anyway.... the last few days have been one big climb after another. Schurman, Waconda, and Loup Loup. Three passes in three days! And they have been pretty darn substantial climbs too. Loup Loup - wow, the first part of that was like Appalachian style cycling right there! Plus earlier that day, after not having one dog bother me for several states, all the sudden I felt like I was back in my "dogs vs. bicycles" video game. Like somehow all the levels I had built up got erased and I was back at level one again! So throwing in a steep kicker of climb I suppose was appropriate. And then after 18 miles of climbing, including three extra miles at the end that I didn't know were going to be there. I started. to. go. down. Without a summitt marker. "You've got to be kidding me?! All that work and no appreciation elevation marker at the top. Loup Loup - you are one big bad wolf indeed. (Okay actually there was a summitt marker, it just was a little downhill from the actual top)
Brigid all cool in the Twisp valley
But I'm glad to be finishing this trip with a conquering of the Cascades. I like climbing. I like getting into my granny gear and just getting in the groove. There's a place that I reach, it's almost like a meditation. Just one foot pushing after another. A wonderful rhythm where all the thoughts practically go out of my head and I'll look down and all the sudden ten miles have gone by. And then you get to the top of the summit and feel like you have really worked and really accomplished something. It's a wonderful feeling, not to mention the miles of glorious downhill you get to experience afterwards. So it's appropriate I think that these passes are wrapping up the last week of riding.
Loup Loup pass was a wolf indeed -
definite Appalachian style climbing for 18 miles!
And we've got to do all this in a beautiful part of Washington. Through the little towns of Kettle Falls and Republic, where we had great warm showers hosts with food and comfy beds and even an incredible massage chair while watching the last Harry Potter movie. Oh the luxery!!
And then cycling through the Okanogan, the apple tree farms and Smallwood farms fruit stand, staying the night in a little town of Riverside at Margie's RV park and pottery barn. X-FILES CENTRAL. Really. Think some weird, off the wall place straight out of the X-files and you have this place. I'm serious - there were some really weird people there. Harmless, but weird. Funny episode of the X-files weird. But when can you say you've camped at not only an RV park but also a pottery barn?
And now, after spending a gloriously wonderful day in Twisp, here were are, lying in our tent, looking up at the full moon (tempting the weather gods I know by not putting on the rain fly. The crickets are chirping, there is a slight breeze cooling the air. The murmur of the other cyclists getting ready for bed. I'm having such a fun time with Brigid these last few days. We have been enjoying music while we climb (TANYA TUCKER RADIO PEOPLE) and laughing over silly little things like when we had to scoot ourselves out in the river over the shallow water rocks to get to the deep part we coined it "beast of burdoning it" in homage to Bette Midler's performance of the song on the Johnny Carson show. (Youtube it people)
And now, it's off to dreamland! Tomorrow we climb!
MORE PHOTOS
One grouch indeed
Longest climb of the trip I think. 18 miles and 4300 feet
in elevation gain
interesting local history
getting artsy from the backseat
oh! another pass!
mmmmmm... Okanogan fruit!!!
I think I'm getting too confident on my bike...
yikes!
studying away at the maps on the top of
Loup Loup pass
mmm... took the morning to do some typing work here
pretty good food indeed. My favorite little place.
We stayed at a bike barn!
oh yeah! stylin' now!
