Start: 7:46

Finish: 6:40

Saddle time: 7:00

Ascent: 2,821 feet

Descent: 3,844 feet

Miles: 77.7

Total miles: 250

Highlight: Riding up Loup Loup Pass. My legs felt surprisingly good after yesterday.  Even though the area had burned a few years back the scenery was great.

Lowlight: The last 30 miles.  Gradual downhill I should have cruised along at 20mph without much effort but had to fight for 8mph in a headwind

Cyclemeter: Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. My watch died at the end so it was flatlined, the same way I felt. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Today is making me reevaluate how I plan and execute this tour.  The day started out great but went downhill fast.  I had a lot of time to think, get angry and maybe find some lessons learned for how I need to approach this tour, at least mentally.

I slept well last night, was concerned about my neighbors being loud, either they were not or I was too passed out to notice.  When I planned this trip I had expected my morning coffee and oatmeal at camp followed by second breakfast an hour or two later somewhere down the road.  Hasn’t happened yet, until today. I was looking forward to a bakery I heard of in Twisp about 20 miles down the road, Cinnamon Twisp.  I had a good “green eggs and ham” quiche, coffee and a chocolate nibs cookie for the road.  Excellent way to fuel for the upcoming climb.

Loup Loup pass started soon after Twisp.  Less climbing than yesterday but it has some steep grade.  Shortly up the road I saw a cooler at the end of a driveway with a sign saying cold water for bikers but I was still loaded with water from the campground.  Nice thought, though. 

Up above I listed the climb as a highlight.  Sounds kind of crazy but it was way better  than what was to follow.  I felt good, got into my climbing grove early and just kept going.  I was really happy I still had it in my legs.  At one point I stopped for a break and water, looked up and realized everything around me had burned. I had no idea I was in the middle of such destruction. The downside of “climbing mode” is I don’t see much but pavement. It was quite beautiful as nature was taking over with all the green undercover growing back.  I recall hearing about big fires out here a while back killing a few firefighters.

I reached the summit around noon and stopped for some pictures and a lunch of tortillas and Nutella.  On the way down I stopped for a picture of the fire destruction.  Maybe it was my dizzy fatigued state but looking out on a hillside at the burnt remains of trees reminded me of Saguaro National Park.  The burnt trees looked like cactus that look like trees.

Soon after things turned worse. I was getting swirling winds up top which turned in to constant headwinds about 2/3 of the way down.  I was peddling on fairly steep downhills just keep up 15mph while I should be coasting and breaking.

The scenery continued to impress.  I descended into a farm and orchard area.  The area still looks dry but they seem to grow a lot of fruit with the help of irrigation.

I had a 20 mile descent from the top.  I figured with stops for hand breaks and photography it shouldn’t take me over and hour and a half, could be as little as an hour.  I reached the first town, Okanogan,  in over two hours mostly because of the headwind.  I had some gatorade and gas station tacos for a snack, you take what you can get.  I was out of water so refilled as well.  I still had a lot of miles to go, about 30, but they are all net downhill.  My prior expectation was to average close to 15+mph without much effort so I could cover the distance in about 2 hours.  By now it was after 2:00 and I had expected my day to be done around 3:00, clearly not going to happen.  I was concerned about making time in this wind.  I looked at the map and found a bailout option about halfway in Riverside.  I could stay in the RV park if this isn’t going well.

I continued on through Omak and was surprised by the amount of garbage along the road, most of it beer bottles with the occasion soft drink can. The opposite of what we see back home and with much more abundance.  Doesn’t make me feel safe on the road.  Got heckled for the first time.  Couldn’t tell exactly what was said but they were not words of encouragement.  So Omak, you win the prize for the trashiest streets and the trashiest people.  Congratulation but I still have a long way to go. Early leaders usually don’t win.

Made it to Riverside and had a fudgsicle from a cool little general store.  Contemplated just staying here the night but decided to continue on, wanted to make progress so I’m better set to start climbing tomorrow and there really wasn’t much in this town for food, other than the general store.

At this point fatigue was really getting me.  The wind was incessant and seemed to be growing stronger so I had to stop a lot.  I’d ride maybe a few hundred yards then stop, repeat.  It was close to 7:00 by the time I made it to Tonasket and I was in no mood to setup a tent so I stayed in a cheap motel.

Nice little town, but like all small towns things shut down early and I was starving.  For the last few hours or riding all I could think about was food, and beer.  By the time I showered and headed out for food it was close to 8:00.  I found pizza place where I ordered a beef au jus sub.  While it was being made I went out looking for beer.  Found a convenience store where I could buy a six pack.  The bag of dried beef looked good as did the protein bars so I bought them as well.  On the way back I saw a Mexican food truck I wish I had seen early so I bought a few tacos. Took my stash back to the hotel, gave three of the beers to my neighbor, didn’t want to be tempted to drink all six. The sub came with au jus dipping sauce.  I don’t dip, anything, not even cookies, but I dipped. Not only that but once finished with the sub I drank the rest of the dipping sauce then ate the bag of dried beef.  I stood down after that saving the protein bars for tomorrow.

So what I learned from today is the days take way longer than I expect.  I thought I could ride 6 hours a day and make about 70-80 miles depending on conditions.  With stops my day would be 8-9 hours long.  That isn’t happening.  I did make almost 80 miles today but it took me nearly 12 hours.  I know the wind today was extreme but my previous days also took way longer than expected.  I underestimated how often I would stop for photos or looking at the map and how often I had to stop for rest and water.  I need to take this into consideration as I plan my days.  Maybe I need to shoot for no more than 60 miles a day for the next week or two as my body get used to this.  I’m also still considering bagging the whole camping thing.  I was way too angry to deal with camping tonight.  I don’t want to decide to ditch the gear too soon and regret it but at the same time I have a big climb in a couple days, Sherman Pass, so I have some decisions to make.  I do want to lighten my load somehow.

For now I’ll sleep indoors.

Notice up top I added a link to my cyclemeter data. I’ll update the previous posts with the same.