Date: Thu, 18 August 2016
Time on Bike: 8:39:37
Total Travel Time: 12:36:18
Miles Covered Today: 93.25
Total Trip Miles: 2,252.4
Average Speed: 10.7, Maximum Speed: 41.1!!!!!
From: Mazama, WA
To: Concrete, WA
(Uploaded on 28 Aug 2016)
WARNING!!! THERE ARE A CRAZY NUMBER OF PICTURES IN THIS BLOG POST! SO DO NOT READ THIS POST IF LOOKING AT PICTURES OF THE NORTHERN CASCADES MOUNTAINS MAKES YOU JEALOUS.
Magical! It was just simply a magical day.
I loaded the Prius up before leaving the Mazama Country Inn. As usual, Bunny & Woz would head out later in the morning and catch up with us on the road.
I was supposed to meet the gang at 6:30 AM at the local store. Really original name… The Mazama Store. It was closed at that hour. The only store/place to get food in all of Mazama and the hours are 7 AM to 6 PM!! WTF?
I knew where the gang stayed last night so I started biking in their direction. No need for them to pedal one extra revolution today!! Mt Washington is a long haul. They met me on the road on the way out from their WarmShowers hosts.
We crossed the Methow River for the last time,
and took a right on HW 20 and the road started to turn up. Jenn and Rachel were on a roll this morning and they had already headed up the road.
I realized we were in for a real treat when I noted this sign on the road.
At a certain stage, Jenn dropped back to ride with Carl and I caught up with Rachel. Musical bicycles!!
I took an early break to stretch my legs. The weather was still cool, crisp and clear and the road long.
We still had a lot of shade from the low sun. And in places, it was actually cold. You could feel the cold air roll down the gorges and hit the road. I started to get glimpses of Mt. Washington on the road. I knew it from pictures.
Epic! It was a hard climb, but every time I looked at the mountain I regained my strength.
Mercifully, Bunny & Woz arrived and were there with the sag wagon for a morning break! And food!
They can’t count on reports from anyone with AT&T cell service!!!!
I finally got to the elevation on the climb where I could see the switchback for the last section of the climb.
The road was closed down to one lane for rock removal from the road. Not sure they knew what to do with us four on our bikes. We rode through that section.
Bunny & Woz passed us for the last time on the climb. We would see them at the summit!
This was a special day. A special climb. The problems I had a few days ago seemed like a distant memory. Not sure if it was the blue skies. Or the incredible views. Or simply the fact that this was our last real climb of the trip for all of us. But I couldn’t take my eyes off Mt. Washington and our slow advance to the summit.
How many pictures can I take? Apparently, a lot! I went a little crazy today!
This is the ramp that ends in the sweeping right bend of the switchback.
The bend looks as steep as it was.
My fellow climbers coming up that same bend.
And the last section of the switchback that will bring us up to the summit area.
Jenn on that section.
The road we had already travelled to get to where we were.
Time for one more picture before the final push…
I arrived at the summit! Another four hour climb!
Rachel and Jenn & Carl almost there. See the smile on Rachel’s face. She knows she has done it too!
I think Carl's face says it all!!
Of course Bunny took a video of the me arriving at the summit! Love that sag wagon!
The pic we were all waiting for... four of four mountain passes completed in four days!
And Woz gets his ado for also having done four summits in four days! Does he look out of breath?
But me thinks Woz is totally done with the climbing!
Now… believe it or not, about 5 miles up the road there is a small incline of ~400 ft that brought us up to a fifth summit, Rainy Pass. But after doing Washington Pass, what was this, a pimple??
To my surprise, the gang stopped for a picture! So now I guess it is official... 5 summits in 4 days!!
And then the long, long, long, downhill. Yes, close to 40 miles of downhill today!
It seemed to go on forever… I clocked my highest maximum speed of the entire trip – 41.1 MPH (66 km/h) – today!
I sent Bunny ahead to Newhalem, some 40 miles up the road. Bunny & I had not yet made hotel arrangements for the evening as we were not real sure how far we would get today. The gang was shooting for Concrete, WA. (Yes, that is a real town!!) But that was close to 95 miles, and with all the work done to climb Mt. Washington, I just didn’t know if we would make that.
You see Jenn, Carl, and Rachel were on a tight schedule for tomorrow, the last day of our trip together. They had a ferry to catch in Anacortes at 2:30 PM. They wanted to enjoy their last day and wanted a short day. So the further we got today, the shorted the day tomorrow.
Somewhere above Ross Lake Jenn yelled “I need food”. She needed a food break. We had not really had anything substantial since breakfast and that was 7 hours ago! We had a little picnic in the shade.
Ross Lake below us.
The next lake in the chain we rode by was Diablo Lake, with its beautiful turquoise color.
We descended to a swimming area at Diablo Lake and I knew the pull would be too strong for these guys. As usual, Jenn went in and Carl & Rachel wet their feet. It was gorgeous.
By now I was getting concerned about Bunny as she and Woz had now been waiting for us in Newhalem for over 4 hours and we were still 10 miles away from them.
I decided to ride out on my own. I needed to get to Bunny and tell her the decision had been made to push on until Concrete after all. That was still ~36 miles west of Newhalem! And with no cell service, the only way to tell her to look for accommodations was to see her in person. AT&T, you still suck!
I biked past the Diablo Lake dam....
and past Gorge Lake.
And even two tunnels. One long enough to have lights indicating cyclists are in the tunnel. I never did find the button to turn on the lights.
So I put on my rear red LED lights and raced thru the ~1/4 mile tunnel before any cars even came!
I time trialed it into Newhalem. Just before I hit town I got a text from Bunny telling me where she was hanging out. Finally… cell phone service!
Bunny & Woz were waiting at a park at the entrance to town in the shade. We looked for a hotel near Concrete, WA and found nothing. We expanded our search. Still no luck. It was now almost 4 PM. We eventually found a place in Sedrol Woolley, which appeared to be an outer suburb of Seattle!!!!! Bunny & Woz left to check in at the hotel and to wait and hear from me regarding picking me up.
Jenn, Carl, and Rachel rolled into Newhalem and went to the store at the visitor’s center.
I found out the lakes we had been riding by for the last few hours provided most of the electricity (hydroelectricity) for Seattle and the surrounding areas.
It was getting late and it took a while to leave Newhalem. And we still had ~36 miles to ride. I went to the front to break wind and push the pace. I knew it was going to be a loooong day!
It was actually a nice ride along the Skagit River.
The sun was getting low in the sky, but highlighted the moss on the trees.
About 7:30 PM we finally cycled into Concrete.
Here is the history lesson…
I called Bunny & told her to come pick me up in Concrete. We would be eating dinner there and I wanted her to join us as it would be our last dinner together! Tomorrow, we would part ways.
The woman who took the picture above Carl had met at the bar next door. He had asked her if she could recommend a place to stay for the night for three cyclists. Before you know it, she had invited all three to stay with her and her husband. Carl has that knack!!
Bunny & I drove the 30 miles or so to Sedrol Woolley. It would be our last hotel stay of the bike trip.
And for anyone interested, here in my heart rate data from today.
I was surprised to see that I spent ~7 minutes in the Red Line Zone. I never felt that I pushed it that hard today... I didn't want to blow up. I knew it was going to be a long climb and an even longer day in the saddle. I guess the 12 hours plus below 133 beats per minute says it all!
You might be done with pictures from today, but I wasn't!
