RAA II

Day 3

Omak to Colville

Another very big day: 116 miles and a 9,000-foot gain in elevation with most of this gain in the elevation occurring in miles 80-90 towards the end of the day (just when you thought the day couldn't get any tougher, oh yeah, “Here’s a huge, steep climb to end the day!”)

Road Conditions: We went from 3-foot shoulders with a “rumble strip” to 18 inch shoulders with no rumble strip to no shoulders! And we have included here photos of some of the machinery going up the mountain passes right next to us – not for the faint of heart!

Today’s weather: We had it all today, a little rain in the morning out of Omak and then the day progressed to about 88° from Noon on, going into Colville. Air quality from the fires was 151. Oh, and we had near 15 mph headwinds for some of the mountain ascents and descents. Some of these headwinds pushed us sideways while descending at near and above 40 mph.

Today’s story is about the ride, it was a very tough day and also a short life lesson … be careful what you ask for …

Coming into Tonasket we encountered (for about 10 miles) hordes of very small gnat-like insects, they were everywhere – I tried to get a picture of gnats on Joe’s jersey but this picture doesn’t show the problem like what we encountered.

As we ascended, mouths open gulping in air, we would get bugs in our mouth and noise! So, be careful what you ask for … I asked out loud, “Can you please do something about these bugs?” That’s right about when the heavy headwinds began – the headwinds got rid of the bugs immediately, but then we were riding up steep mountain passes with heavy headwinds; like I said, be careful in life for what you ask for …

Popular posts from this blog

Day 8 East Glacier to Shelby, MT 85 miles / 2,800 feet of elevation Montana is the “new Texas” from RAA I, we are in Montana for 5-6 days out of 18. Growing up in Alaska, my “lower 48” geography is a bit off, I truly had no idea Montana was this large of a state! However, happy to be in Montana; the roads and shoulders are good, the drivers courteous and share the road willingly. We have had some trouble with hotel accommodations as the state is not well populated and some towns don’t have hotels for us, so we end up shuttling at the end of the day and beginning of our days. This shuttling is a very slight inconvenience for the beautiful surroundings we are cycling in. We enjoyed wide open roads with good cycling all day long. Montana’s “Big Sky” was a treat throughout the day. Again, we tried to show you this aspect of Montana in some of our photos but our photos just don’t seem to do the real thing justice – at times w...

Day 2 Ross Dam Overlook to Okanogan Pre day-2 discussion; Bob email to Joe and I: “Surprise, our total elevation gain is over 8,000 feet, our estimated elevation gain was 1,600 feet off! 2,500 feet in 10 miles between miles 70-80. Super steep! Oh, and FYI, Wednesday is close to 9,000 elevation gain, not the 7,000 we had charted …” Joe’s response, “Good to know Bob.” 105 miles; over 8,000 feet of elevation gain! Tough, tough day in the saddle; this was one of the top 20 hardest centuries we have ridden and among the top 10 most beautiful. Stunning vistas, truly a magnificent highway (Hwy. 20; which closes for about 4-5 months a year due to 20(+) foot snowfalls! We encountered some smoke from long away forest fires and we saw tremendous damage from recent forest fires in the Okanogan National Forest. Very sad, this forest will not likely come back in our lifetime. We had beautiful, well-maintained roads, with lit...

Day 13 Wibaux, MT to Dickinson, ND 93.3 miles / three different venues / 4,300 feet of elevation and all at an afternoon temperature of 98° (yesterday’s start was 36° / todays finish was 98°! Today’s ride was an eclectic trip with three different venues beginning with Steve Miska’s childhood ranch area, then to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (Medora) and to complete, we rode on frontage roads going into Dickinson. All three venues delivered for one of the best rides in either RAA I or RAA II – a great day! We began riding in Wibaux, MT, where Steve spent his adolescence summers working on his family’s ranch. From Wibaux we rode across the Montana / North Dakota boarder to Beach, ND where Steve was born. Steve dropped us off, put a new “state sticker” on the van’s back window and then went to see his family’s ranch / farmland. (Some of the area we rode through early today is part of General Custer’s Trial before Little Big Horn.)...