July 20, 2021
Day 76: Newport, WA to Colville, WA
The Flowery Trail
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Climbing Today; 3,436 ft Climbing to Date; 117,665 ft
I didn’t sleep well last night, mostly due to concerns about the fire ahead. If I get forced to divert south it would add a lot of miles to the trip if I tried to go back north and end in Anacortes. I need to buy myself more time to figure this all out and to be able to bike any extra distance should I decide to do that. I wondered how I could buy myself some more time, and the immediate solution was that I could take the route that Steve took to Colville and bypass going to Ione and therefore save a day. That meant that I would have to cancel the hotel reservations I had just made and rebook them for 1 day earlier. And that meant it was possible that I wouldn’t be able to get rooms. When I woke up at 04:00 today it was way too early to call of course, so that meant I would have to head off to Colville and call somewhere in route and hope for the best. But it would buy me an extra day if I did that, so that's what I decided to do. That little bit of planning caused me to have a delayed start today, and I didn't get rolling until 06:00.
A light rain was falling, not enough for me to put on the raincoat but still enough to wet the road. I only wished it was falling on the forest fires. I saw turkey and deer today.
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2 years ago
Bud
2 years ago
The route Steve took was on the Flowery Trail road, and there was more climbing than I had anticipated and some of the grades were steep.
I was glad to reach the summit. Tomorrow I have the biggest climb of this trip and I was hoping to have fresher legs for it - maybe today's effort will just get me prepped and ready.
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The long downhill run was a blast and it took me all the way to Chewelah. I got a hotdog from a roadside vendor and sat in the shade a bit - it was heating up into the 90's and I still had a ways to go.
Doc traveled 70 miles today against a headwind in the heat with no shade, and made it to Moses Lake where he has a hotel for the night. He's taking it 1 day at a time as he works his way directly to Seattle.
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Steve and Allane are staying in Omak tonight and tomorrow, and the report is that it is smoky there and unbearable farther west. The fire evacuations are continuing, the road closure is growing, and the rumor is that the road may not reopen until October. So it looks like I will not be able to continue all the way on the ACA route. As of now, I plan to divert at Omak and go south, then west to Puget Sound. Steve has a plan worked out to end up in Edmonds - several of the towns he hopes to stay in are the same as a tentative plan I had worked out, so it is likely that I will be following him to Edmonds. He talked to a local bike shop and they recommended the route and also ending up in Edmonds, because Edmonds is far enough away from Seattle to be a bit "rural."
So that's the tentative plan for me. It gets me to the coast as much as going to Anacortes would have. I just have to work out the details of transporting me and the bike back, no big deal. I shouldn't be up this late because tomorrow will be pretty tough on me - so good night...
Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 3,846 miles (6,190 km)
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I sort of wonder if riding through the PNW area will ever be the same again.
How are you getting to Seattle, Highway 2?
2 years ago
Bud
2 years ago