August 3

Day 58:

After seeing the elevation map of Washington State, some of us were a little nervous when we got started in the morning. Fifteen miles into the ride everything seemed to be going well except for the heat that was starting to get to us (Upwards of 95 degrees), but of course around the next corner was a very steep hill, and then another one, and another one. It was almost like Vermont/New York all over again. We all were breathing heavily at the top of each hill making us take breaks much more frequently than we usually would. We managed to climb almost 20 miles without a single downhill before we got to the actual top of the mountain (4400 ft above sea level). The final hill to the top of the mountain seemed a lot easier than the rest probably because we all could see the 6% Grade for 8 Miles sign at the top. The 8 miles downhill did not seem nearly long enough, but thankfully it put us right into the middle of Chewelah, a decent sized town where we eagerly found a place to eat a very late lunch (4:00 pm!). As we were heading out of Chewelah we stopped at the grocery store nearby to fill up our water bottles for the 40 miles ahead of us (And it was past 4 o’clock). With about 14 miles to go until we got to Kettle Falls, Zach managed to get yet another flat tire (Maybe Tracker isn’t the only blind one in the house). We have changed flats so many times by now that we were able to make quick work of this one and finish our ride without any more problems. We have two passes to climb tomorrow so hopefully we can get the good night sleep we need and a filling breakfast in the morning as we get that much closer to finishing our trip.

Only the best

Jake

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