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| With nick and Becky Oltean July 15 |
Henry's notes for today:
Day 46: Without fail, our hosts Becky and Nick prepared a healthy breakfast for us. We thanked them for their hospitality and resumed our route. We had relatively flat riding the first 40 miles to Colville and then Kettle Falls. We crossed the Columbia River and lunched at a tribal convenience store. Sitting at our outdoor lunch table, we could clearly see the road rising precipitously - this was the beginning of our long climb today. The biking map reflected a 24 mile ascent on the eastern slope of the Sherman Pass Scenic Byway, and a 17 mile descent on the western side after reaching the summit. We steeled ourselves, and began pedaling. Today's climb was long, but overall, Flowery Trail yesterday was notably harder, as it was steeper with more undulations. We were asked at a construction point to get into a pilot car again to bypass the zone of roadwork safely. Near the top, we ran into two young women biking together. It made Linda's heart sing to meet brave women traveling alone on the bike highway. These two had biked the entire Pacific Coast from Vancouver, BC to San Diego 5 years ago, and were experienced, confident bikers.
The Sherman Pass summit is at 5,575 feet. We started climbing at Kettle Falls at 1,400 feet, so we
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| The Kettle Range |
fought gravity for almost 4,200 feet. Long-ingrained vapid platitudes run annoyingly like a continuous sound loop through one's consciousness when doing something like this. Nike's "Just do it". Thomas the Tank Engine's "I think I can, I think I can". "Winners never quit, quitters never win". "Pain is temporary; quitting lasts forever". "Gonna Fly Now" - the theme from Rocky. Feel free to add your own that may come to mind.
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| Oh yea |
After the usual photo documentation at the summit, we met 2 more men climbing up from the west side. One of them had a vintage bike like Tim's 1983 Stump Jumper, so that required a few minutes of conversation and nostalgia. Our descent was grand and long, having stored all that potential energy on our way up to the pass.
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| Republic |
Republic, WA was basically at the bottom of the descent, and camping for 4 people at the Ferry County Fairgrounds Campground was the same price as a motel room, so we chose the latter without hesitation. Pizza was selected as the dinner choice. We all felt full after our meals, but as we strolled back to the motel, the pull of mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches from the grocer's freezer case was too great a temptation for some to overcome.
Crossed the Columbia
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Two toned Henry and Linda practice yoga after Sherman Pass
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