YAP! (Yet Another Pass?!?) Republic to Colville, June 1st

We must admit, the prospect of another pass did not thrill us...

We've been over Sherman Pass before on our single bikes (on an infamous "Goose Tour") and I remember it as a slog very similar to climbing Mt. Ventoux (a famous TdF climb - and I am not being dramatic), which is your basic unrelenting grind to the top.  Why, in this golden age of road engineering (and mountaintop removal), we cyclists have to work our asses off just so those "civil" engineers (you know who you are) can save a few bucks on Dynamite, is beyond me. 🤔

We packed up, jettisoned our ballast, and set off up the hill.  Actually, the ride out of Republic to the east starts off downhill (because "they" wouldn't want you to cheat and use the elevation of the town as a starting point - oh, no!), and we enjoyed the early morning calm of an empty roadway, chirping birds and sunshine. We started off early also because there were threatened thunderstorms by 11 am at the top of the pass we wanted to avoid.

The black dot is us.
The grey dot is the "virtual rider" taunting us...

One thing that's really helped pass the time on these 4-6 mph transits is listening to podcasts, and Brigitte had found this interesting series called "Presidential" that we were enjoying this morning.  In all we listened to nearly 3 segments on our 2hr, 48 minute climb (50 minutes slower than previously on my single, Strava informed me) - but we did make it to the top before the thunderstorms!  We took a short break and had an energy bar, I checked the brakes, and then we were off, down the other side.

Descending 4000' in 23 miles is for sure our "just reward" (damnit, we earned it!!), and we had to pedal a few times just to stay warm and stave off rigor mortis for our legs which had worked so hard for nearly 3 hours previous to gain us this pass. Also, it seemed to have rained on this side, but the sun was out and the road was steaming itself dry, and we whizzed down the mountain side with nice sweeping curves to meet the Columbia River at Kettle Falls.

After crossing the bridge (not bike friendly) we were grinding it out again, up the final hill to Kettle Falls where we stopped to catch our breath at the Visitor center and figure out where to get a nice lunch.  

We ran into a fellow named Chris who was interested in our trip, and was a cyclist also.  He related to us his accident where he'd had to get a replacement hip - but now he was pretty much fully recovered and cycling again.  He also gave us a great tip for a nearby food co-op  and natural foods deli (Meyers Falls) for lunch.  And it did not disappoint!

Co-ops are the best!

Saddling up after lunch (lunch legs!!) we easily cycled the last mostly flat 10 miles to Colville, where we sought out the Selkirk Hotel, our lodging for the night. We had one stop at the Dollar Store to pick up a couple washrags (yep, we went right past the Walmart blighting the highway). Our motel turned out to be a very modest little place, with a room barely large enough for the RV2, but it would work for our needs.

We then set off to find Lost Falls Brewing, a local nano brewery that we'd be put onto.  We found it in a little industrial park, and as we walked up the owner Chip and his sidekick welcomed us as the first customers of the day. Chip has a 5bbl highly improvised brewing setup, but he had 4 beers on tap, 3 of which we tried and really enjoyed.  Soon other folks showed up with food and there was an ad-hoc buffet of various good foods set up right on the bar for us all to munch on.  

Chip would not let us buy our beers (after exchanging cycling and brewery stories), but we did pay him to fill our growler with a tasty IPA-ish beer, and headed out for a more substantial meal.
On the way to our restaurant, we ran into Nick & Spencer again, as well as Ron and his female companion who were also going cross country on their heavily loaded, but well outfitted singles.  Soon we were at Stephanis Oak St. Grill, wolfing down a nice pasta dinner and enjoying beers from No-Li (IPA for Brigitte) and Northern Brewing (Scotch Ale for me).


Stats: 53 mi, 3,842 ft climbed