Omak to Republic - May 30th

How to enjoy 27 miles of climbing - or: Really? This is what we do for fun??

Today was going to be a Big Day.  We knew what we had ahead of us, and fortunately is started with a nice 25 mile warmup with rather gradual climbing.

We met Dale at the McDonalds just out of town (up on the highway) right around 6:45am, after a warming 120' climb out of town.

We proceeded north on Hwy97 with light traffic, and a very pretty morning.

About 18 miles out of town we were able to turn off onto old Hwy7, which is a charming backroad now, with great views of the river, and farmsteads all along it.  We meandered up the valley paralleling the very full Okanogan river. 

Then we crossed the river into the backside of Tonasket, where we stopped to pick up sandwiches, bananas, and some Silicone spray for the RV2 timing belt (it's dry and hot over here, and it starts singing to us when it get's too dry).  As we were hanging out in the shade, a woman stopped to admire the tandem and told us that she'd used to ride a tandem and had once done the STP on one! 

Then it was time to saddle up, and head out (UP) out of town on Hwy20.  After some fiddling with the headsets so we could listen to our books on tape (the very excellent "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough) during the looooong climb, we were off.  Up the canyon, winding every upwards with many long blind curves and noisy quarry trucks (the long side-dumpers) passing very closely and abruptly.  After about 4 miles of this, the grade eased from the avg 6% to around 2-3%.  

Here's the view the Cap'n has at anything over 5%, sustained.

But the shoulders were still pretty meager, and it would be another 23 more miles to the summit of Wauconda pass.  

At 23 miles out of Tonasket (with another 2 mile climb to the top) we stopped at the little "1 pony" town (smaller than a one horse town...) of Wauconda, where we bought a couple cans of lemonade at the honor cooler at the post office.  

The cafe there had a fresh coat of paint - but yet another For Sale sign on it (I've been through here many times and never have I seen it without that sign, and closed).  It's tough to scratch out a living here.
We chatted with a local who allowed as how he'd lived out in Seattle "back in the 60's", but couldn't deal with the craziness of it any more.  He had no TV, not cell service and no internet, but was happy out here.  I said that in the city we have many more people, but probably the same % of nutjobs as out here, and he agreed that they had their fair share of nuts out here, too.

Thankfully, as soon as we headed out to face the last pitch of the day, we saw where the quarry trucks were entering the road, so we wouldn't have to deal with THOSE any more!

As we were ascending the last pitch to the pass, we started seeing chalk writing on the road.  The first one read: "B+D Seattle=>Boston!", and the next one was "Getting Closer, D+B"!  

We speculated that it was either Dale (just ahead of us on this climb), or perhaps Rick & Karen (from Winthrop) who were headed out this way on their way to Canada and Alaska for their big summer trip.  At any rate, this encouragement helped us along, for sure!

A little ways further, we caught up to Dale and had lunch at a road intersection.  We filtered some water that I'd dunked out of a creek with the growler, and relaxed in the shade of some pines.

 A woman came down to the mail boxes we'd leaned the RV2 against and chatted pleasantly.  As we were readying to leave, a grumpy old fellow on an ATV demanded we move our bike so he could drive right up to his mailbox.  I was secretly hoping there was nothing but bills and a summons from the IRS in his box - he was so unpleasant.  

Just short of the top, we ran into some more chalk art, reading: "Almost there!" and "BEER" (with big arrows pointing towards Republic).  Then we caught up with Dale, and he meekly shrugged his shoulders when we suggested that he was the grafittist!

Then it was a nice downhill to Republic nearly all the way, with just a couple of short bumps that we could easily pedal our way over with our built up momentum (if there's one thing we have an abundance of, it's that!).
In short order we were checked into our hotel, and I went to the local grocery (Andersons - since 1910) to fetch some "recovery beers" for the group.  

We reconvened at a local tavern (the Knotty Pine) since Republic Brewing was closed, and enjoyed a big dinner of big bacon burger & fries (me) and Chicken Fettucine (Brigitte) and hamburger steak meal with mashed potatoes (Dale) along we a couple bottled beers.

 All accompianied by a steady stream of '80's music from the jukebox being played by some linemen that were staying in town for the night on their job.  

All in all a pretty exhausting day, but a good test of our endurance and the fitness of our rig (still performing flawlessly!)  Tomorrow Dale is headed out to Colville on his own as he has to be back to work in Seattle on Friday.

Not for us though, - THIS is our job for the summer. 😀

Stats: 65 miles, 4,373' of climbing.