Pacific to Atlantic at 10mph

Woke up early today, anxious to get going. It was a beautiful morning, blue skies, sunshine, and a gentle breeze. The tall grasses along the sides of the road were gently bending in the direction of my travel, as if they were pushing me along. Me and my trusty steed say goodbye to Winthrop and the snow capped Cascades.   After reaching the town of Riverside I went into the Town Hall and spoke to a woman about my route ahead.   This is the only store in Riverside - mostly some groceries and gas. She told me a shuttle bus could drop me off near the base of the next mountain in the "town" of Wauconda. So I waited an hour for the shuttle and jumped on. Unfortunately, the shuttle did not go to Wauconda but instead dropped me off at the Aeneas Valley Country Store - in the middle of nowhere!! The shuttle left and I went in and talked to the store owner about my route to the town of Republic. He promptly said "you'll never make it". None of the roads in this are...

This morning I got up early, loaded up the bike and went for a 20 mile ride to keep my legs in shape while waiting for Wednesday's departure. I left at 7:30am and it was 41 degrees!! Yikes, that was a cold start. Good thing I packed a sweatshirt and some leggings for these first few weeks in the mountains. After returning to the hostel I went out and walked around town several times (it's only about 3 blocks long!!) I talked to three different shop owners who all said the same thing - the road closure that wiped out my route on day 3 was killing their business. That road is the main road through this town. People can still get to Winthrop by coming from the east side, but most traffic apparently moves through here from west to east. I've heard conflicting reports of the road re-opening either in late June or late July. Hopefully it's the former so these shop owners can salvage part of their summer season. Local candy and ice cream shop. Snow capped Cascade mo...

Today is Day 1, although it is a strange way to start a bike trip. Matt and Sue and I loaded the bike into the Uhaul truck and said our goodbyes. Then I drove a little over 5 hours to my Day 3 ending point, Winthrop Washington. I'll stay in a hostel here until Wednesday morning when I'll restart the trip on Day 4. After I drove over Steven's Pass and went through the lovely town of Leavenworth, the scenery really changed. The west side of the pass was chilly and wet and very green. The east side was warm and brown and almost devoid of any vegetation. Although the scenery was different, it was stunning. I dropped the truck off in the town of Twisp and then rode the bike 10 miles to Winthrop. Winthrop looks like a real wild west town with old wood buildings and wooden walkways between all the shops. To me, it looks more like Montana or Wyoming than Washington!!

Happy 96th Birthday to Sue's dad, Bill Keane!! That is remarkable. Can't wait to get home and take you out to Wolf's Diner for breakfast, Pop. This morning I got up and decided to check my routes for the next few days since I'm scheduled to start tomorrow. Well, good thing I did. As it turns out there was a lot of rain in the cascades during the last week and that resulted in a rockslide that took out a section of road along the Washington Pass. The road is impassable and will be under construction for several weeks. That section of road is on my Day 3 route so I had to find a workaround. Unfortunately there are only 2 ways to get to the other side of the mountain: Go over it or go around it. The best option finally became to rent a Uhaul truck and haul my bike around the mountain. So I rented a truck and will load it up tomorrow morning and drive to my end-of-day 3 destination. An inauspicious start for sure. After renting the truck Matt, Ana, Sue and I spen...

Another bicycle trip is about to begin. Although I've done several multi-week bicycle tours over the last 10 years, the same questions and concerns always come to the surface about a week before the start date. Am I ready? Am I prepared? Did I pack everything I will need? Am I physically up for this challenge? Is my bike ready for this challenge? Have I planned everything to the best of my ability? So many questions. 40% of me says everything will be just fine. 60% of me is honestly a little worried. 100% of this overthinking will disappear the moment the trip begins and I start grinding the pedals. After that I have a set of milestones to reach:  First: every day is a new ride. I know how many miles I have to go and how many feet of elevation I have to climb to reach my stopping point for the day.  Second: If I make it to the end of the first 7 days I'll be very encouraged because days 3, 4, 5, and 6 involve crossing several peaks of the Cascade Mountains.  Third: Mak...