After a relaxing evening and a good night’s sleep, I was definitely energized to attack the last major elevation climb in the trip. There’s still plenty of hills but nothing to the elevation that I climbed today. Starting from where I left off yesterday, I very quickly was enveloped into the forest. Today’s first 22 miles was uphill. I had hoped to finish this hill yesterday but that wasn’t in the cards. It took just over three hours to climb to the top. The shoulder was decent and for most of the ascent there was a passing lane for slow moving vehicles which meant I had plenty of room. Today was pretty simple get to the top and then ride down the backside. For the majority of the day I spent it in the forest. Getting toward the bottom, the plains opened up into some beautiful views. Arriving in the town of Cle Elum, Lisa Marie and I stopped for lunch. The little diner was packed. From here we traveled through downtown and out to the intersection of the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. This is approximately the 17th bike trail along my journey but I suspect there’s been a few additional ones that I’ll have to figure out when I return. This trail is a looser gravel then what I’ve been used to riding. Getting to the trail I rode up a ways and ran into four other riders who were done for the day. They let me know that the surface wasn’t going to change for at least the next 13 miles. They speculated it would remain that way for the whole trail but they had only gone up that far and then come back. With this information and after a decent day, I decided to end things right here. Tomorrow as I travel the trail, Lisa Marie will have to find her own way. She will certainly have fun.
Insights from Lisa Marie
Today we left Leavenworth to drop Norm back off at stopping point. Big climb today for him😳. Back to the driving forward and finding a place to stop and wait routine. Then we reached a point on the route where Norm was deciding whether to keep riding the highway or take the old overpass road. He chose the highway and after asking if he felt ok for awhile without me, I chose the Old Blewett Overpass fire road😂. Wasn’t off roading, but still very curvy and took me all the way up to the top of the tree line. Actually it was paved with a faded white continuous line showing, that at one time it was the road to get over. Most of the time it was narrow so only one vehicle could pass but again I saw no cars! On the road were some boulders coming down from the sides and overgrown brush/fallen logs but nothing that was a barrier. This drive was much easier than the Nor-PAC and Olympian trails. At the top I came to an intersection of 2 dirt roads going off in different directions along with my turn. I surprised 2 men in full camouflage dress in an ATV. I just nodded and kept going. None of my business 😂. Along my descent I did see a lone biker coming the opposite way. I found Norm, where he was about to complete his climb and enjoy a long downhill. We stopped for lunch in Cle Elum. Norm decided to call it done and will do all trail tomorrow.
