On Tuesday I left Bellingham at precisely 5am. There was just enough light that I only needed a tail light. The goal was to ride over the Cascades via Washington Pass to Winthrop. In one day. The early start was great. I made it to Alger by 6am, and Concrete (49 miles into my ride) by 8am. There I stopped at a road side diner for some breakfast sandwiches, and was whistled at by a couple of country bumpkins. In Bellingham, my response to this kind of behavior would be to wink or blow a kiss in return, but I've seen the movie Deliverance, and decided it was high time to get on with my ride.
When I got to Marblemount a little after 10 am, I had ridden 80 miles. I was pretty tired, and I hadn't even started climbing yet. The highest elevation I had reached on my ride was only about 700 feet, on Lake Samish Drive. Marblemount is at about 300 feet above sea level. Over the next 42 miles, I would gain 5,200 more feet!
I took a break at Colonial Creek, slammed a cliff bar (I was eating constantly all day) and began the 32 mile ride to the summit. Looking down at my speedometer, I was barely able to maintain 8 mph up the steep incline. When I did the math, it was pretty disheartening.
An hour later, I was slogging along when a car came flying by me honking like crazy. It was my only road rage instance of the day... or was it? In fact, it was just a pleasant surprise from three friends returning from Chelan. I talked their ears off for a few minutes and then continued on my way.
As I continued up the pass, I became more and more drained. By 2pm I was stopping every 30 minutes to take a quick break. A little after 3pm the broom wagon caught me (driven by Morgan), and though it sounds ridiculous, I was so tired that I briefly considered catching a lift and skipping the last 2 miles.
Even though it was smoking hot, and even though I was dead tired, and even though 8 mph is not fast enough to ride away from flies, I sucked it up and powered to the finish. I was exhausted, and my knee was killing me. But I made it.
After a nice little photo shoot (you can go to all the photos from this ride on our flickr account by clicking on one of the above photos) I mounted my bike to attempt the descent down to Winthrop. I made it Mazama, and that was it. The 10 minute break, combined with 20 minutes of not pedaling while flying down Washington Pass, had convinced my knee it was finished. Every pedal stroke was agony. It was disappointing not to make it at least to Winthrop, but the hot wind in my face put me over the edge. I called it a day.
If I ever do this ride again (and I would love to), I will drive to Marblemount and start from there. Riding 80 miles before a challenging climb is stupid.
If you want to see the route I took, you can click here. Click on the "Summary" tab for the elevation profile (Which I think is always the most interesting part).
1 comment:
Nice work! Brian and I did some of the same ride—the easy part—a couple summers ago when we biked to Pullman. But we got a lift all the way to the pass... Maybe we'll try the big boy ride some other time.
The grade down to Wilbur really is a blast.
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