Author: Greg Pezoldt

After a solid week of riding and some tired legs, I took a day off from riding today. Carol works at the Sun Mountain Resort so I hitched a ride with her to work.

I spent the day in the pool and jacuzzi, hiking, and eating lunch. Here is a photo poolside at Sun Mountain

After carol got off work, we BBQed some sockeye salmon for dinner. Mmm.

It was a fun filled rest day, but it is back on the bike tomorrow. There is a lot more climbing in the next days. Legs don’t fail me now!

Nothing like waking up in the morning knowing that you have a 32 mile climb over a major mountain range ahead of you! That was what waited for me today.

I left the Colonial Creek camp ground at 8:40. Danny and Natalie had left right at 8:00 and I wondered if I would see them on the climb. The road pitched up within a 100 yards of the CG entrance and I was sweating right away. Luckily, the initial steep grade did not last all day. Most of the climb would prove to be fairly reasonable (as far as mountains go anyway). I caught up with Natalie and Danny after a couple of hours so it was nice to commiserate with someone while climbing the pass. After about 23 miles, we all decided to take a lunch break. It felt good to get off the bike for a while. Finely about 2:00 we went over the top of Rainy Pass! Unfortunately we still had to descend for a mile or so and then climb 3 more miles to the top of Washington Pass. It was not as difficult as I had thought it would be, but took longer. Natalie looked pretty strong on the climb while Danny had “bonked” pretty hard on the last few miles. He just needs to ride more days to get into cycling fitness. He only had ridden a few days and really not much before he started his tour. I am not worried about him at all.

Of course the reward for all of that climbing was the 18 mile descent to Mazama. Very fun. We all went to the Mazama Country Store for some bakery goods even though it was 4:30.

I then rode 14 more miles into Winthrop since I was staying at my friend Carol’s house. But we all met up again at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery for a beer and some food. The party was even better since Carol and our other friend Linda joined us. A fitting ending to another great day on the bike.

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.

The morning starting with some research since I was off route and not too sure about my route down to Sedro Woolley. So we drove part of the route to check for adequate shoulder width and traffic volume. I selected a route which went along Lake Whatcom and over to Hwy 9. The route was great but it started raining after an hour of riding. Now I know it is unrealistic to think that I could get out of western Washington without rain, but I think the gods were sending me a subtle message about skipping part of the route. It was misery riding in the rain for over 2 hours. After getting to Sedro Woolley I headed for the first restaurant I found to get some warm food and hot tea. After warming up I decided enough was enough for this day. I am holed up in a motel room drying clothes and gear…… and myself too. I am fine now, warm and dry and hoping tomorrow is nicer. The Cascade Mtns are looming in the near distance. It is going to get interesting.

I cheated a little bit!

The sun was out early today so I was looking forward to a great day of cycling. Before leaving Fort Ebey, I took some pictures from the bluff above the sound. Great views of the Olympic mountains and the San Juan’s.

So after leaving I headed for the mainland. Along the way I crossed over Deception Pass. Then it was on to Anacortes for some lunch. After a nice lunch I had planed on detouring to Bellingham to see Sandy Barbero, an old friend from my Republic days. Trouble was it was going to take me more than a day to get there. So I called Sandy and she drove down to Anacortes and drove (yes, drove) me to Bellingham. I rationalized this in my mind because it was off route and I would make the difference by pedaling back to Sedro Woolley from her house. We had a great time catching on life. And I got to sleep in a real bed!

Today was going to be interesting. I wanted to get a feel for how I would respond after a long day of pedaling yesterday. After all, I’m no spring chicken. But first things first. I pedaled into Sequim about 10 mikes from camp hoping to find a machine shop where I could get a new bracket manufactured. Having no luck, I went into a builders supply store to ask for any suggestions. The staff at the store ended up helping me make a new bracket with materials and equipment they had in the store. These types of acts of kindness will restore your faith in humanity. That all took some time so I ended up having lunch in Sequim too. About 1:30 I set out for some serious pedaling. I enjoyed another segment of the Olympic Discovery trail for about 10 miles. After that it was Hwy 101 and other roads to Port Townsend and the ferry over to Coupeville. After the ferry test, I still had 12 miles to get to Fort Ebey State Park. The county roads getting to the park were STEEP especially after another long day. Once there, I found the hiker-biker camp ground to be empty. I am sensing a trend here.

Fueled with a big bowl of oatmeal I set out on a “real” day of cycling. I pedaled the very scenic hwy 112 along the coast toward Port Angeles. The road had some rolling terrain and one hill posted at 9%. My gearing seemed to handle that OK. Just before PA, I picked up the Olympic Discovery Trail. What a fantastic bike-ped facility. Everything was going so well….. until a semi major mechanical! My bike suddenly came to a grinding halt. Literally. Seems the homemade bracket I fabricated to attach my rear rack failed due to fatigue. The rack pivoted and abruptly hit the ground and rubbing against the rear wheel. I “fixed” it by tying it to my frame with some cord I am carrying. I eventually got to the Dungeness County Park to camp. The hiker-biker camp sites were empty and I had the pick of the best site.

Here is a photo of my typical camping setup.

I am on the road! As I alluded earlier, I am starting off pretty slow as I get used to pedaling this heavy bike.

After staying in Forks at the Dew Drop Inn (I am not making that up BTW) we drove out to Rialto Beach across from La Push on the coast. When I say “we”, I mean Carl Stivers and myself. I owe a lot to Carl for driving me out to the beginning point and to his wife Maureen for letting him! Plus, they gave me cookies for the road. Mmm.

The ride today was short. It was overcast this morning and about 53 F. But no rain. Only 28 miles. I am staying at the Bear Creek RV Park just past the US 101 and hwy 113 junction. And the sun came out this afternoon. So after one short day, So far, So Good.

T minus one day. Everything is ready to go. Here is a photo of my fully loaded bike.

My home on wheels for the next 3 months or so.

just for your information, YES the bike weighs a lot!

T minus two days. I am going to be driving to Forks Washington on Tuesday. The pedaling begins on Wednesday morning. I expect to start off slow.