WA To MT Day 3
Today, we left the Cascade Mountains behind and entered ranch country.
Our original rouute was supposed to be 59 miles, but collectively we decided to add an additional 14 miles biking 7 miles up the west side of the river below then 7 miles back down the east to rejoin our original route
Here is a view looking up the river as we crossed over:
After this side detour, we progressively put more miles between us and the Cascade Mountains behind. Here are two photos looking back at the Cascades:
As we progressed east, the mountains around us were much smaller.
We spent significant portions of today's ride on quiet roads allowing us to bike side-by-side.
Later in our ride, we entered the Okanogan National Forest. Throughout our ride through the forest, we saw signs of past wildfire. We had the chance to look at the landscape closely since we had a 10 mile climb averaging 5% grade. While there are some very strong climbers in our group, I am not one of them. At an average pace of 8 mph, it to me an hour and a quarter to make the climb.
We had lunch at the top. After climbing, I was quite hot and sweaty, but shortly after stopping, I needed to bundle up to stay warm in the cool breeze. This was the view at the top.
Like yesterday, the ride down was both fun and fast. In some ways, I found today's descent even more enjoyable than yesterday's. Yesterday had very long stretches which were just straight with minimally changing views. Today's descent had lots of truns which were fun to corner around. Also the views constantly changed. There were also places which were less steep allowing me to take some photos while still riding. Here are two final pictures from today's ride.