Omak, WA

Another day, another pass.

We left Republic and reached our third pass in as many days, Wauconda Pass reaching an elevation of 4310ft. It wasn’t as bad as we anticipated and we were treated to a downhill longer than we climbed.

After the 40 miles on WA-20, we made a left onto Route 97 only to confront a wall of wind. For the first time, the riding began to feel like a chore and I was a bit bored with it; I only had small cacti on the side of the road and the occasional tumbleweed to look at. I’m anxious for the end and ready for a break from my bike.

For my ride, the weather wavered between sunny skies and on the verge of rain. I managed to get in early enough to miss the storms that caught some other riders.

I sat out the rain at a small café in town. Sharon, Kathy and I played a game of scrabble while we had our smoothie, coffee and tea respectively. It was a surreal experience, since the whole place seemed unqualified to have an open eatery. For instance, Kathy ordered her cappuccino with two shots of espresso, which the older waitress confused with as two separated drinks, a cappuccino and an espresso. And for my tea, they gave me a tea pot filled with hot water, a tea bag, then proceeded to hand me a tea cup filled hot water too. It doesn’t make any sense, where is the tea bag supposed to go? The tea pot or the tea cup? They opened in May. I bet they’ll be closed by the end of the year.

One hand. That’s how many days of riding left, just 5. To go back, our fifth day of riding into the trip brought us from Rochester, VT to Silver Bay, NY. We’re in the same mountainous terrain, just on the other coast.

Our hosts surprised us with a spaghetti dinner. And another church generously donated breakfast for tomorrow. All completely unexpected and greatly appreciated.

We’re camping for the next two days, so we went to Wal-Mart to stock up on food since we’ll be cooking. Actually, I went more along for the ride since I’m not on dinner crew this week and picked up some chocolate éclairs that I split with Laura.

For our evening activity, Katrina led a wrapping up program that a fair amount of us took part in. Details are personal, but it allowed us to say things to each other that most likely otherwise would’ve gone unsaid, unappreciated, or unrecognized without. For a moment, we opened up and shared the thoughts and reflections that can only come from a common bond forged on 3600 miles (and counting) of biking.

Off to the wilderness.