The rain stopped early so we broke camp and headed out. The road starts up immediately eventually leading us from 600′ to just over 5000, the first test of our training! Up and up we slogged through waterfall vistas and valley views. There were occasional rewards of small downhill sections but the reality of the climb was a hard truth. We knew we had 40 miles to the top of Washington Pass but at the rate we (translate as “Charles”) was climbing, necessitating multiple stops for water and rest, the clock edged toward 6 hours in the saddle with no peak in view. Finally I succumbed to the effort and had to walk my bike. We agreed that Maja would go ahead and see accurately how many more miles we had while I sat disconsolate by the roadside! Poor, poor pitiful me. Almost immediately a very nice German couple stopped to ask if everything were fine … Of course not everything was fine and they took pity on my sapped strength and total lack of water (an early first lesson on this ride – always have more water than I think I will need. We loaded my bike and bags into the back of their pick up and Yvonne (of Andreas and Yvonne) offered me several bottles of water. We caught up with Maja and made the plan that I would be dropped off at Washington Pass and rejoin Maja on the road. Andreas and Yvonne dropped me off with more water and I was able to eat, drink and even cat nap for the interval it took Maja to catch up. When she arrived I was re-energized and we headed down, down, down to the valley and, eventually, Twisp.  So, my confession is that of the 4273 miles of our journey I did indeed cheat for 4 miles. There, the truth is out.

Eventually, and back in good form, we descended to Twisp and located the house of the Warm Showers host, Scott Demorgue. Trusting soul that he is, he had left his front door open and the futon ready so we gladly parked our bikes, showered and walked into Twisp to find food. We had arrived too late for the restaurant we wanted and another had a “closed” sign in the window but after we knocked, they agreed to stay open for us! One for our “kindness of strangers” files.

Scott’s house is a monument to simplicity: one room and bath on the ground floor and a loft where he sleeps. He’s been a Warm Shower host for a while and a long distance biker himself so understands the trials of the road. We enjoyed his company immensely and fell into deep sleeps on our return to his house. Tomorrow it’s over Loup-Loup Pass and into Omak.

So far we’ve totaled 85 plus 83 miles so the short 37 to Omak will be appreciated.