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| Our host in Okanogan |
Henry's notes for today:
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| Weighing the bikes |
Day 48: The penultimate mountain pass, Loup Loup. We woke up not long after the sun rose, as is our ingrained habit these days. I had left my sleeping bag outdoors on the lawn overnight, and did not know the sprinklers would turn on early to saturate it. Fortunately, it was nothing a short tumble in the dryer couldn't fix. said goodbye to our cheerful-even-in-the-morning-before-coffee hostess, and headed west once more. Our first destination was breakfast at a restaurant on a fruit farm on the outskirts of Okanagon. There was a farm scale outside the restaurant, and we all weighed in with our bikes. Rob won (or lost) as his total bike load was 93 lbs. Tim 73, Linda 69, Henry 68, and Jeff was a lean 66. Having missed out on both yesterday, Tim ordered a BLT and 2 scoops of ice cream for breakfast to satisfy his fix.
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| Pass #4 |
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| One more group selfie at the pass! |
Turning left out of the restaurant, we immediately began our Sisyphean task of climbing our daily pass, now the 4th day in a row. It was overcast and cool again with no wind, allowing us to ascend steadily. A caravan of UPS trucks buzzed all of us too closely. How hard can it be to move to the left to give us room? Tim and Linda will be writing letters to the company. On the way up, there was a drop of 200 feet halfway up the mountain. There is nothing more disconcerting than losing precious elevation that we work so hard to gain, before reaching the pass. The climb today was 16 miles, with a gain of 3,000 feet. We took our usual break at the top of Loup Loup pass, and then descended rapidly to Twisp, 12 miles away. We lunched at a grocery store deli there. Continuing to ride, we passed through tourist trap Winthrop, where Rob and Jeff were drawn into a brewery for a libation. The scenery transitioned gradually from desert scrub land to mountains covered with conifers as we approached Mazama. We rode past a zone of stark, barren beauty where a fire had left only a forest of charred trunk matchsticks. Linda and I haven't been to this part of Washington for 16 years; it has been about 5 years for Tim. Rob has never been to the Cascades, nor Jeff, who was on the verge of tearing up because he was almost overcome with emotion riding through these beautiful mountains, valleys, and rivers with his friends. When we arrived in Mazama, we reviewed our options, and decided to ride 2 miles further west to a pizza place, so that we could repurpose the leftovers for breakfast. In the mountains, services are again limited and spread out. We would have to ride over the pass and almost 60 miles tomorrow before arriving someplace where we could purchase more food. The campground for the night was 1 mile down the road from our dinner spot. Early Winters USFS Campground. Predictably, it was full. The camp host did not have a biker/hiker tent site. As we rode through the campground, the first couple we came across graciously offered to share their site with us. They were driving out at midnight anyway to get in line somewhere near Winthrop to claim a camp site for the Blues Festival this weekend. Once again, we witnessed how competitive camping strategies are required in popular areas. Another camper offered us her bear-proof food box to store our food overnight, as this campground had not installed any bear-proof boxes. We set up our tents and all went to bed, in some disbelief of where we are geographically, and how far we have traveled. The end is near.
Maps of today's ride:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3856444412
https://www.relive.cc/view/u3673194025
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