Stilllife at Camp, Diablo, WA

A stop at the North Cascades Ranger Station in Sedro-Wooley was invaluable here. First off, they were able to point me to this campground near Diablo. Awesome find. Not far off the road, potable water, pit toilets (but cleanish ones with hand-sanitizer), and free. Free! Secondly, they gave me a map of the elevation gains and points of interest from Sedro-Wooley through Washington Pass…..a map designed from a bicycle perspective.

Okay. The elevation gains were just depressing. But the info on where you could expect to refill water, and where to watch for bad pavement and narrow shoulders was really fantastic. Every National Park featuring a mountain pass should have something like this. (Hello Canada, I’m talking to you!)

The climb from Sedro-Wooley through Marblemount, Newhalem, and Diablo is pretty gradual, just a titch above perfectly flat. This is really important for me, with the massive amount of gear I’m carrying. Anything greater than that titch above flat and I’m gutting it out at 6 mph or so. But on this sort of terrain I could keep a steady 12 to 14 mph, no problem.

Washington Pass

After Diablo, it pitches up significantly to Rainy Pass, drops back down again, and then up to Washington Pass. I felt pretty good on this stuff at first. I passed a couple of recumbent riders early on in the day, which both made me feel strong and motivated me for much of the rest of the day not to lolligag too much lest they catch up with me again. (Depressingly, I ran into them the next day as I was breakfasting on the sidewalk in front of a grocery store in Twisp. It turns out they were working on their seven-thousandth mile of their Paneverywhere tour AND that one of them had nearly completely ruptured one of his Achilles’ tendons about three days earlier. How they were still cycling at all…? But they said they were “taking it easy” to nurse the injury. I felt significantly less studly.) But pretty soon the heat and the grade were taking their toll. I was just counting the miles between water breaks. Finally, about 2pm, I crested Washington Pass. Zoomed down the other side at excess of 40 mph in sections. As the road flattened out toward Winthrop, I crossed paths with a couple on fully laden bikes headed in the opposite direction. Just starting the climb in the late afternoon. Woe to them.

It was really hot that day (August 18th).  And he was climbing out of the woods inside the boundary of the Okanogan National Forest.  I imagined that he had been primitive camping there.  (It is legal to camp in the US-national forests wherever it isn’t specifically outlawed.)  Says he has been on the road 18 years, though he didn’t look thirty and might have looked 18.  He had a mountain bike with road tires and front and rear panniers.  Says he travels about twenty miles a day, is happy (made a point of stating this twice, no bills, no health insurance, no job), and spends most of his time memorizing scripture.  Seemed bright and grounded in ways I did not expect.

He was obviously out of water.  I started to reach in my bag to give him some of my water but was still straddling the bike and plugged into my MP3 player.  I said, “here, you root around in there.  There should be a bottle right under the bag of food.”  Eventually he found it.  But not before identifying my stove which I thought impressive because it was sealed in a black bag.  He also inventoried my food (less impressive, as this was lying open in a couple grocery bags…but still, perceptive).  Started chatting me up about my my set-up and route.  On set-up, his question, “why don’ y you have any weight on the front fork?  Aren’t you supposed to have at least a third up front?”  Which showed a surprising awareness of conventional thinking on bike culture/touring prep.

As soon as I said I was going to Canada, he said two things in short succession, “like Manitoba,” (this was said with a wistful awe with which he could have said, “like Eden,”) and, “so, you have a passport?”  Which creeped me out a little bit like he was sizing up whether my passport photo would pass for him, but mainly I read it as a he didn’t have a passport and would like one.

In exchange for the water he gave me a couple cloves of garlic and a couple bags of tea (one of which I inadvertantly got wet before using).  I didn’t feel the need to exchange, and he didn’t insist, but he seemed eager to give something to me and I knew I could use both the garlic and the tea.  He also tried to give me an apple, “I saw you already have some bananas, but would you like an apple?”  No thanks.  ”It’s organic?”

I wondered later if he really just wanted some bananas.  I would have given him some had I been thinking more clearly.  I introduced myself and he himself.  What a better time to learn someone’s name than when you are about to never see them again?  And I started back up the hill to Loup Loup Pass (about 2000′ of elevation gain in 12 miles, so reasonably daunting in that heat).

Zephyr must have started out shortly thereafter.  I saw him in my rearview mirror for a while.  He was now wearing something bright red.  I wasn’t absolutely sure it was him.  He was climbing at the same pace as myself and maybe gaining.  I put the pedal to the metal.  I was worried that maybe I had slighted him by not offering bananas, that maybe he was after my passport, that maybe he would nomadically follow me to camp, that maybe his parting “be safe” had an ominous note.

Just hope he had enough water.