Day 6- Cyclists!

The very first thing I did in the morning was check the weather. Not raining! Not exactly sunny either but not raining was important.

I had a lot of options today. The camp spacing was challenging. Either to close or too far apart it seemed. I decided to just see how it went and make those decisions at the time.

I am using Adventure Cycling maps for the most part on this trip. I must admit that have routed me onto some great roads for cycling. Off the hwy, little traffic, and nice scenery. Today was a fantastic example of all of that. I pedaled along the Skagit River for most of the day.

Just outside of Rockport, a great thing happened. After 5 days, I was finally able to shift into the “big” ring. That is a good excuse to talk a little bit about my bike for any of you gear heads out there. I am riding my old Fuji S-12S that I bought in 1981. It is a chrome moly 4130 steel frame. The shifters are on the down tube to give you an idea of how old it is. The gearing is a 28/38/48 Biopace front chain ring. Probably the only Biopace still in existence….. but it works for me. The rear cog is a 6 speed 12-26. So far, the gearing is adequate. So far!

I was able to roll into Marblemount around 1:00 for lunch. That was 47 miles for the day but I wanted to get further up valley to make tomorrow as short as possible for going over the Cascades. So on I continued.

In Newhalem, I stopped into the North Cascades National Park visitor center. There was another cyclist there! Wow. I am not alone on this endeavor. Natalie was also going to Maine but on a more direct route than me. But she was going to camp at Colonial Creek just as I decided to do too.

We pulled into Colonial Creek and promptly met Danny who was cycling through the park before heading south.

So all and all it was a good day. A few sprinkles, some sun, company in the camp ground and a nice 70 mile day.