Date: Monday, 15 August 2016
Time on Bike: 5:42:18
Total Travel Time: 9:45:40
Miles Covered Today: 54.99
Total Trip Miles: 2,055.9
Average Speed: 9.6, Maximum Speed: 36.0
From: Colville, WA
To: Republic, WA
(Uploaded on 24 Aug 2016)
OK, let’s start with the video please.
I missed celebrating my 2,000-mile mark yesterday as I didn’t even know I had passed that milestone. So without further ado, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny! (for those of you too young to know, that is how the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson started off for like 30 years!!)
Ok, now that we have got that out of the way… it was fracking cold and dark at 5 AM in Colville, WA on 15 August 2016!!!
The gang biked from the Fairgrounds and met me at the hotel parking lot. They dropped off some stuff they didn’t want to schlep up 4,000 ft today. We headed out in the dark. Good thing they had really good front lights as I relied on them to light the way. The sky began to lighten up as we were leaving Colville.
It was a peaceful, cool morning ride.
I was quietly thinking of our big climb to come today and the others over the next few days. But I also realized this was the last week of my trip. Something I had waited 32 years to do and it was almost over. Yesterday was 5 weeks since I had left Chicago. 2,000 miles and counting. It would all be over within another 300 miles or so…
As we approached Kettle Falls, you could see the sun just hitting the tops of the mountains in the distance.
Loved the sign… one grouch. Could it be me?
We rolled up to the restauraunt. I got my traditional pancake breakfast. My stack came with one egg and meat (bacon or sausage). When I told the waitress to hold the meat, she asked if I wanted another egg instead. Hell yes! I love Kettle Falls!
Bunny & Woz soon arrived and the team was ready for the assault on Mt. Sherman.
It was still cold outside… what to wear??? Team Woz was ready!
So we just couldn’t put it off any longer. Let’s roll!!
We had this huge downhill to Lake Roosevelt/Columbia River before we started our climb. WTF??
Wait a minute!!!! Why did I just shoot downhill like 500 to 600 feet only to have to climb that again in a mile or so????
We took a left after crossing and we were on the climb.
I started to climb at 9:20 AM @ ~14.5 miles on the day. The lower slopes were steep.
Very quickly I had a good view of the Columbia River below.
Our goal was to get to Republic today. It was comforting to see the sign, but knowing most of that was uphill didn’t help!
I was feeling really good this morning!
There were a lot of logging trucks on the road. Lucky for us the ones full of logs were coming down.
And the ones that were empty were heading up.
But that didn't mean that the trucks that were on the road (which was not too wide) had a lot of room to pass.
Bunny found a nice place to pull over. Rachel and I took advantage of the stop while Jenn rolled on. Damn that girl is strong!
I think there is something going on between Woz & Rachel. I kept hearing something about a Woznapping. After all Rachel kept saying, he is a British lab!
The road kept going up. And up! I saw everyone had pulled over at an old CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) camp. I followed!
I really appreciated it that these guys would stop, pull over, and “smell the roses”, or see the sights!
Time to mount up and continue the ascent.
It was a long climb. I was riding at ~5 MPH. But it was beautiful.
Bunny found another good spot to stop.
next to a flowing creek. Everyone stopped.
But the mountain called us back.
I don’t think they were talking about us today… but that is the rule!
Bunny came by and I asked her for maybe one more rest stop before the top. It was still ~4 miles to do of climbing and my legs were getting tired. She scooted ahead. I started to sneeze a lot. Allergies????
We all regrouped at Sherman Overlook for the final push.
Had we known it was less than half a mile to the top, I think we would have just finished it off!!!
And then it was over. 5,575 Feet!
I did Sherman Pass today!!! In less than 4 hours! My longest (23 mile) and highest climb (4,000 ft ascension to get to the 5,575 ft summit) ever!
Bunny took a video that I am proud to share.
The others soon followed.
We meet two local cyclists at the top. One (to the right I think) was celebrating his 70th birthday by doing the climb. I still have a few more good years left in my legs I hope!!
Wozzy likes summits.
We all ate some food and talked about the 18-mile descent into Republic. Now that I like!!
As the sign says, it’s all downhill from here!
We took our group shot. One down, three to go!
The downhill was thrilling. We all let it rip! I was doing 30 MPH or more.
We would regroup every once in a while just to make sure everyone was safe.
Rachel loved the speed. Her bike had a special gear for downhills I think! She would fly!
The road was glorious!
We soon entered Republic.
Bunny & Woz already were waiting at our hotel. I told the gang where we were staying and they decided to celebrate and stay in a hotel tonight. We all would be at the Klondike Motel!
We arrived and settled into our rooms. What you might not be able to see is there is a hot tub in that area by the umbrella. I made use of it, but don’t think the gang did.
Colville to Republic. Not my highest elevation (that would still be Logan at 6,646 ft), but my biggest continuous climb of the trip was today. 4,000+ ft over ~23 miles. Then 18 miles of coasting! Although we left early at first light, was still quite hot by the time we finished the ride.
We met for dinner and celebrated our day!
Unfortunately, by that night, I started to feel pretty bad. Actually, really bad. Didn’t think much of all those sneezes I had on the accent to Sherman Pass. After dinner got a bad sinus headache, a very runny nose, and generally felt like crap. I didn’t sleep well at all. My nose was running like a faucet…
I can’t have this happen to me. Not now. I can’t get sick.
