Passes

It was a long day. We left our little cabin at about 8:00 and didn't reach Mazama until almost 7:00. Boy, were we glad it didn' t rain. It turned out to be a perfect weather day with a few little clouds and lots of warm sun. We are very ready for summer, and it would be hard to think of a better day to welcome it. Our calculations had predicted 8100' of climbing and as far as we could tell, that meant we would be heading up for the first 60 of our 75 miles, so it was nice to discover that the first 20 miles just melted away at pretty decent speeds. We stopped at the Newhalem visitor center to get a bit more information about the route, and Bruce found some good plant id books. The ranger told us we would be climbing some right away, but after lunch we would really climb. She has to shiflt down in her car to get up that part.

I hope we'll learn soon that things look a lot different from a car - even a ranger's car. We spent the next couple of hours doing little calculations of when we might actually arrive. They were worrisome. But a little voice in my head kept reminding me that we had about 30 miles to climb a total of about 5000 feet. Hard to figure out how that could get very steep.

Fortunately, the route was spectacular and we didn' t spend much time climbing before lunch at the Diablo Lake Overlook. We rode along next to a rushing river. We saw ever-larger waterfalls feeding it and the other creeks and rivers we passes. We saw a wildly colorful array of wildflowers. We got closer and closer to the jagged, snow covered mountains. We saw dams and bridges and lakes, boats, birds, trees. Our lunch spot, where Aline was kind enough to bring us all sorts of choices, was lovely. It had signs describing the area. We talked to a guy who had done quite a bit of bike touring & who seemed unconcerned about our remaining climb.

Then we headed out to see for ourselves. For quite a few miles the climb was pretty much what we had seen before lunch. An occasional mile or so that required us tp shift down, but more miles that were either flat or gentle climbs. I rode ahead on some of the climbs. One time I pulled over to meet Bruce and a guy on a Bike Friday pulled over to talk. He was coming from Twisp, where he lives, and where I am sitting as I write this. He was able to reassure me about the climb. Lots of miles to go, but he called the part we were onthe steep part. We had been expecting it to get lots tougher. It didn't exactly. At least it got harder because we were tired, but it never got steep. Bruce wasn't liking it much after a while, though, and he decided to ride with Aline between the two passes.

The first pass was Rainy Pass. It did not live up to its name, fortunately. It did get colder and colder as we climbed. By the time we got to the top there was snow almost three feet deep at the side of the road. After all we had read about the passes as they were being cleared, I looked around half interested and half nervous about the avalanche activity.

I set out on my own to do Washington Pass. That meant a mile of steep descent. Fun, right? But it was cold. Cold enough that there were spots I thought might be icy. And all the clothes I had to put on to stay thawed that had to go back in the pack before the last climb. All worth it.

Bruce met me at the top so we could do the final descent - and those last 15 miles were almost entirely descending - to Freestone Inn, Mazama, one of the nicest places we have been. We will keep it on the list for longer stays some day.

Details: 76.33 miles
2243 calories
totals - will update next time