Wow, the last two days have been jam-packed. Just yesterday we left Coulee City, a town of about 600 people located in the basin of a coulee, which is a valley carved into the landscape by glacial runoff thousands of years ago. Since Coulee City is located in a coulee, we had to climb our way out of it to continue onwards. Thus, the first 10 miles were spent grinding uphill. It took a while. Once we got out of the coulee the landscape was flat. Wheat fields spread out on either side of us; the wheat stalks were just starting to grow, so they were small and green.
After a while we started to descend. Before we knew it we were flying down into another coulee. A tight canyon opened up as the road flattened out, and suddenly we were traveling across the base of a valley, with rock walls rising beside us for miles looking north and south. It was as if we were riding through the base of the Grand Canyon (clearly, I’ve never actually been to the Grand Canyon). It was some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve ridden through, and it came out of nowhere. Of course, if you go down you have to come back up, so the ascent wasn’t too much fun. As Maddie put it, coulees are kind of like reverse mountains, and trust us, it’s much more fun to get the hard work out of the way and finish with the fun descent than the other way around.
We stopped in Waterville for a much needed lunch break at the Canyon Pass Cafe. The women running the place were very friendly and interested in our trip. I had a tasty steak sandwich and Maddie had a portobello burger. The waitress suggested the portobello burger because we ”needed something with a LOT of protein,” so Maddie opted for it because it sounded like she was referring to a burger with mushrooms on top; we later realized she may not have known that it was actually just a portobello mushroom, with no meat to be seen. She had certainly lost some marbles somewhere along the way.
Leaving Waterville, we had 43 miles to go to Leavenworth. 43 quickly became 35 as we soared through Pine Canyon. For 8 miles we were going 25mph, descending through this canyon with fantastic rock faces rising all around us. It was one of the best downhills of the trip, even better than Needles Highway, Maddie said! I couldn’t even take a picture, we were moving so fast.
Washington is one of the largest cherry producers in the US. We only just found about this as we’ve biked past a few roadside cherry stands. Yesterday we stopped yet again to grab some cherries, then continued on route 2. Unfortunately Maddie got yet another flat (thats 6 now, but who’s counting?). We were pretty close to town, and a man from Leavenworth offered a ride, so we took him up on his offer. Don brought us to his house where he set up a bike stand and we fixed up the tire. He and his wife had fun checking out our rigs and advising us on the route going forward. We said our goodbyes and biked across town to the downtown area to grab dinner.
Leavenworth was a dying town until the town council decided to make it a Bavarian town in the 1960s in an attempt to drive tourism in the area. That means there is a town mandate that all of the architecture in the downtown area must be Bavarian themed, and there are places to get bratwurst and beer on every block. Maddie and I were joined at Yodelin by Dave, our host for the evening. The food was delicious, and the ice cream at Whistlepunk Ice Cream Co was even better.
It was 9:30 when we finally made it to Dave’s place. We stayed up late swapping travel stories, of which Dave has many more than we do. He has traveled all over Europe and much of the Pacific Northwest, and a little bit of South America by bike. He’s a big fan of wild-camping, which is when you just slip off the road when no one is looking and set up a tent somewhere random in the woods or along a river. Maddie and I haven’t been quite so bold as to attempt to wild-camp just yet, but we may have the opportunity in one of our few remaining days.
This morning we ate German bread and oatmeal and yogurt with homemade granola. Dave drew out a map of the area for us to detail stops we could make and detours we could take. Dave really knows his stuff; all of his pointers were exact. Especially the warning of the skinny shoulder on route 2 that lasted 20 miles. We’ll get to that in a bit…
The first 35 miles of the ride were spent climbing to the top of Steven’s Pass, which hits an elevation a little over 4,000 feet. The grade wasn’t always too steep, so it wasn’t a terrible climb. We stopped for a bathroom break at the 59er Diner, which also happened to have the “world’s best shakes”. I had to put their claim to the test, so I got a black raspberry shake and a blackberry cobbler for good measure. The sweets lived up to the hype.
The temperature was a good 10 degrees cooler at the peak. We arrived sweating and out of breath, and thrilled to have made it over our last big pass of the trip. Hills were once the bane of our existence, but we’ve learned to live with them, if not love them. And the descent is almost always worth the price of admission. Today’s descent was thrilling, and made for the fastest 10 miles of the trip, taking 23 minutes. However, the shoulder was skinny and completely cracked in spots. We were fortunate that the road wasn’t too busy so we were able to ride in the lane - it could have been pretty dangerous otherwise.
The vegetation on the west side of the Cascades was noticeably different from that of the east. No longer were we surrounded by pines alone; now there were leafy trees and ferns and moss growing all around. The humidity clung to our skin in a way we haven’t felt in months!
We absolutely flew the rest of the ride. The cars passing just a few feet to our left were all the incentive I needed to pedal furiously. At times the shoulder completely disappeared altogether, which was not fun. Earlier in the trip I would have found it imprudent to chance riding on some of these roads we’ve ridden out here, but now they don‘t faze me nearly as much. Pit stops at a Big Foot themed espresso stand and Sultan Bakery kept us sane. Otherwise we had our heads down pedaling for 50 straight miles, hitting Monroe in no time at all.
Monroe is coincedentally the home of my teammate, Colby Kyle. Colby’s grandparents are letting us crash at their place while they are down in Arizona. Tonight, Colby showed us around Monroe, pointing out the schools, the popular hangout spots, the fairgrounds, and the many chains that have sprung up in town just within the last 5 years. We ate at a local Mexican place before returning to the house to get some sleep.
Tomorrow we will arrive in Seattle! Though we’ve been telling people along the way that we are heading for Seattle, it will not be the final destination of the trip. We are intent on touching the Pacific Ocean, so we will continue onwards to La Push, WA, a coastal town. Our expected arrival date is the 16th. We’re so close we can practically smell the salty ocean air.
-Charlie