Two Passes (Aug 12)

After another late rise and breakfast at the Hoot Owl cafe we left Twisp at 
around 9:30 and headed for Loup Loup Pass, the second of the four major passes 
on this route.  Loup Loup Pass was only about 12 miles away but was a climb of 
about 3500 feet from Twisp.  After the decent the road was fairly flat for 40 
miles before the next climb started for Wauconda Pass.

Things went south pretty quickly at breakfast when the big dogs decided it would 
be a great idea to move me a little farther down the line and do two passes in 
one day.  All of the rides I had been following on line said you weren't 
supposed to do this, and probably for good reason (like 5900 feet of 
climbing in one day).  I'm sure others have done it before, but they didn't write 
about it because people would think they were stupid or something.  I'm certain that I could do a ride like that on a fully loaded bike.  But since they thought  it was a great idea what could I say, my gear and all the food and water were in the car?

So off we went.  With me way behind as usual.  The first 4 miles to Loup Loup Pass were pretty 
flat and then it turned into a steady 6 percent climb for the final 8 miles.  I 
actually didn't know what my legs were going to think of all this after 
yesterday's ride, but after a few miles they felt fine.  My bike was also riding 
even better now after I brought the air pressure up to 80 pounds from the 50 I'd 
been riding on the previous two days.  

We all made it up Loup Loup Pass fine and headed down the back side traveling 
through the tiny towns Okanogan, Omak, and Riverside.  With temps in the mid 90's, we stopped in Riverside for an ice cream and a quick dip in the river nearby to cool off before 
heading on. 

We reached Tonasket, a small town just before the climb starts for Waconda Pass, at about 3:30.  After a thirty minute rest we all headed out for Republic which was about 16 miles on the other side of the pass.  Around 7pm I was 3 miles from the top when my brother Dean joined me.  Dean had left Spokane that afternoon and had already driven through Republic locating places for us to eat and camp.  The ride down the other side of the pass was steep and fast and I arrived at the Sportsman restaurant at about 8 to find that Skinny (the waitress) had already served Sam a beer and Steve a double whiskey. We all ate dinner with a couple of pitchers of beer and headed for the fairgrounds to camp for the night.  All in all it was a 105 mile day that ended around 10pm.

Day three miles: 105
Total miles: 287

Over and Out, 

Joe
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