391 Dam Miles
Day one 56 miles
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Day two
We got a total of 5 flat tires and barely made it to Marblemount gas station where we bought the last patch kit and tube that would fit our bikes. It was only 10:00am and we weren't sure we were going to make it! Our goal was lofty, we wanted to make it 60miles and gain 5000', in-the-end after all the flat tires, miles traveled, and elevation gained; it started raining. It was after dinner, and about 8 miles shy of our planned camping spot at rainy pass. shockingly it was raining even before rainy pass. After 20 minutes of stubborn pedaling we pulled off the side of Hwy 20 and spent the night 100 feet from the highway on some slanty spot just big enough for our tent. We brought things to make smores' but didn't want to light the stove inside the tent, especially with Annabelle roaming around. So, we ate the smores in the raw. Annabelle had a wild graham cracker party. Stealing everyone's graham crackers- taking a bite and then trading it for the next cracker. There were crumbs everywhere.
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| On the side of the HWY where we camped |
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| Wild graham cracker eater |
Day Three 87 miles
A day of passes. First finishing off Rainy Pass (still raining), then Washington Pass, then Loup Loup Pass and settling into Okanogan for the night. Loup Loup pass was a real ball kicker- a relentless steep incline that didn't give-in for miles. The Loup Loup descent was our favorite. We stayed in a hotel in Okanogan and ordered amazing barbeque pulled pork pizza. The delivery guy was super nice and picked us up a six pack from the grocery store so we didn't have to bike any more.
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| Our final mountain Pass for the day |
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| Descending Washington Pass |
Day Four
We road to grand Coulee dam. We had always wanted to go there - but never drove there because it is too far of a drive. We toured the Dam Visitor's center, took some dam pictures, and enjoyed our dam ride.
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| At the Dam visitor's center learning how dam turbines work |
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| Another Dam picture |
Day Five
We road to Bridgeport and stayed at a riverfront campground, mostly RV's. Our super drunk tent neighbor Ray came over and joined us for a campfire. That was maybe the highlight of our day. He was actually a really thoughtful guy- and had interesting 1/2 stories- but we never heard a whole story before he started the next one. One thing that I will remember from his conversation is that he was worried humans were becoming degenerates and not really caring about others or the environment.
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| A favorite bike packing sign. |
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| Hay |
Day Six
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| Do you need a special endorsement for that load? |
We went on a wild craigslist goose chase and ended up buying a second bike trailer. Our first trailer is 23 years old and needed some serious modifications to outfit it for this trip. The new trailer didn't have the right hitch for our bike so Brandon tied it behind the old trailer. The lady who sold it to us gave us a bunch of zip ties in case his engineered solution didn't work out. We made it to Winthrop and were eating ice cream and and saw our ride home, Brennan The thrown down linkage to his truck transmission was out so he couldn't get his truck in gear. Which was our ride home... The zip ties the trailer lady gave us worked to patch the truck repair together. So we ended up using them after all.
We met up with a bunch of friends who were mountain biking for Jenna's birthday. My sister also joined us which was super fun too. The good vibes and friends made it seem like a congratulations on your dam bike ride party for us.
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| Two sisters and the Belle |
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| Belle assisting with the waffle cone |
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