Loup Loup Adventures

Warmth! After three days in the cold wet rain it was so nice to see the sun.

On our way out of Twisp we stopped to look around for the local pharmacy and we ran into Gary, a local cyclist and fellow adventurer. He showed us the way to the closest shopping center and told us stories of how he'd gone touring through Southeast Asia and Europe.

This man had some seriouse miles under his belt and it was really inspiring to think this crazy sport of bicycle touring could take you around the world.

Back to reality, we still have our own little piece of the map to get through before we start thinking about crossing the boarder. Today's challenge is Loup Loup pass, a 4,020ft climb over 12 miles. After two miles of easy riding I can see the hills in front of us and I take one last photo of Twisp before we start the ascent.

Loup Loup is approx. a 6% grade for the whole 12 miles. That doesn't mean much to anybody unless you're actually there, but every time I turned around all I saw was this:

It was an incredible 3 hour climb to the top of the pass. We've finally started developing a rythym climbing the hills which makes thing a little more manageable.

Trouble didn't hit until the descent. We had about 10 miles to coast down the pass and I usually let loose to see what kind of speeds I can hit, this time around the needle topped somewhere around 38mph. Anyway, after about 10 minutes I looked behind me and Sam wasn't there. I waited...

10 minutes in I flagged the first car I saw coming from our direction to see if they saw any bikers on the side of the road. Luckily the driver had seen Sam with a flat supposedly a mile or two back. I figured I better go back for him so I started going back up the mountain.

4 miles later I finally found Sam on the side of the road. His spare tires were the wrong size and we had to use mine to get him back up and running.

We were a bit behind schedule but we got to see some beautiful scenery on the descent as we headed toward our next stop in Omak.

The tire incident was a major setback and we just barely got into town before the last Mexican Restaurant opened. I forgot my camera, but we had some great enchiladas.

We Survived

We made it through the night at the top of Rainy and made our way up to the final ascent of Washington Pass. It was only a 1300 ft climb after a swift downhill from Rainy. Over the last few days we'd found a good rhythm and just put one foot in front of the other until we hit the top.

We ran across a group of cyclists going East to West as part of a group called Bike and Build. These guys bike across the country stopping every 5 days to work on low income housing project. They couldn't believe we were carrying our own gear over the mountains and asked if they could feel the bikes. One by one they came over to try and lift our bikes. Each attempt came with the same result, hysterical laughter.

We said our good byes and headed down the steep decent. We coasted for 30 minutes at close to 35mph until we hit the town of Mazama. We stopped at the local country store and caught a glimpse of the sun while we ate our first warm meal in two days: microwaved burritos.

Fully refueled and barely dried out we headed to our destination for the night, a little town called Twisp. Every rider we'd met along the way coming from the East told us we had to stop at the brew pub in Twisp for some amazing food and beer. My eyes lit up with wonder when I finally saw the sign that would lead us to our first real meal.

The Twisp River Pub was a mecca of food, culture, and music in a town with little more then a grocery store and a pharmacy. We sat down exhausted and ordered a couple of house brews, two cups of Cajun Clam Soup, Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon, and Oglio Y Olio a fettuccine and chicken dish covered in shredded Parmesan cheese.

We ended the night with a couple home made root beer floats and watched the sun go down. Again, dessert is my weakness and continues to be neglected by the camera but I did get some shots of the sunlight on an old piano.

Rainy Pass

Morning came, it was 8:30 am with nothing but 30 miles and 4,600 feet ahead of us to the first pass of the North Cascades. The procrastinator in me stole a few shots at the campsite before heading out.

The incline was brutal. It wasn't until much later in the trip we were told that the Northern Cascades were some of the worst terrain we would hit along the entire route. We'd stop every 20 minutes to rest and when you looked around you could see why. Being from San Francisco Liz was accustomed to the hard climbs and we quickly fell behind and lost her in the mountains. But everyone has there own journey and ours was an 8 hour climb at 4mph. Since I can't put into words the suffering we felt, I'll just share what we saw along the way.

We finally reached the summit of the Rainy Pass freezing, soaked, and exhausted. The sun was going down and we had no choice but to pitch our tent in the woods in a near by picnic area. It was only day 3 and we were already stranded in the mountains without food or dry clothing. We kept each other entertained playing go fish as we shivered in the tent and hoped a curious bear didn't come poking around.

Running into the Cascades

A thick fog descended from the mountains as our fears of the Washington climate finally caught up with us. Yesterday's ride had proven to be easier than expected and spirits were high so we wasted no time heading out into the drizzle.

We traveled east towards the cascades. We were mentally prepared to spend an entire day pedaling in the rain looking at nothing but the mountain range ahead. It's days like this that you pedal slowly into the face of what you know will only be several days of tortorouse climbing and you think to yourself: We must be the only people crazy enough to be doing this. However, much to our suprise, we ran into someone just as crazy as us.

We met Liz on the side of the road during a water break. She was originally from England, relocated to San Francisco, and is currently traveling America before heading back to Europe. We rode side by side for miles on small country roads sharing stories and climbing hills leading up to the Cascade Range. We stopped at the Buffalo Run Restaurant in Marblemount for mediocre burgers, pictures were not taken.

While eating at the Buffolo Run we learned more about Liz and her afinity for the outdoors and camping. During our conversations we realized a funny thing about the trail ahead that neither Sam nor I realized, the Cascades National Forest is not only a national forest but also a national park. Now, for those of you who are not aware, a national park is hundreds upon hundreds of acres of nothing but unattended campsites and bears.

Maybe that's a bit of an exageration, but we're talking about the real wilderness which we were grossly unprepared for. We reached the North Cascades Park Visitors' Center and stopped in to say hello to the local rangers and get a better idea of what we had gotten ourselves into. Thier best advice was to turn around and take a look outside.

Most touring cyclists will tell you that you never know what you're doing on your first tour. In retrospect, I think if that weren't the case no one would ever try and ride a bicycle across the country. We looked at each other and laughed then mounted up to blindly ride to the first campground. We set camp at the base of Mount Diablo near the water. Liz pulled out her small kitchen set to make lasagna as we sat eating cliff bars and whey.

Day One

Here we are, the first day of the epic cross country adventure. But to make this official we've got to start at the Pacific Ocean. Our search for the farthest westerly point in Anacortes brought us to Washington Park where we took photos for posterity and even did a little shooting with the video cameras.

Finding the beach was rather painless, getting out of Anacortes was a different story. Between traversing highway 20 over a mile long bridge, searching for roads with no name, and riding through an array of service roads it wasn't a big surprise we missed a few turns.

Once we got through it though it was smooth sailing through the Skagit County Highway also known as the middle of nowhere. There is something amazing about traveling at 13mph and getting a chance to really see your surroundings.

Aside from the scenery our only other excitement today was getting offered candy from a stranger... Of course on day one a large man in an old Chevy passes us, pulls to the side of the road, and waves us over for some friendly conversation. The first words out of his mouth were, "Hi guys, where are you coming from? Would you like some candy? I think I have some in my car..." My foot never left the pedal.  Apparently he was picking blackberries on the side of the road to make homemade wine and often chatted with the touring cyclists to pass the time. Not really sure how you make wine with blackberries but we didn't stick around long enough to ask.

Without getting kidnapped we finally reached a little town called Concrete, population 780.

The great thing about small towns is homestyle cooking and after a little asking around we found the Red Ceder Inn. Granted there were only 3 restaurants in town, all on the same block, but the locals pointed us to this place because I guess the Cajun Bar and Grill across the street was a little too stuffy.

I'm going to start a new thing where I'll use the blog as an excuse to take pictures of everything we eat just to drive Sam crazy. I just barely got this shot in below before he devoured his Country Fried Steak which was incredible. I ordered the Pork Loins with Mashed Potatoes and we both felt adventurous enough to try the Taco Soup. Not so incredible but it was good. We finished off with a slice of Cherry Pie which sadly did not make the photo session.

I'm sure the view from outside must be peculier with all computer screens casting an eerie glow from within. Tomorrow we start heading into the Cascade Mountains, we've been looking at the all day in the distance as we ride closer and closer to summits of well over 5000 ft. Too bad we don't have Sherpas. Say goodnight Sam.

The Journey Begins

It's been months in the making and finally we're gearing up for our great adventure. As expected our departure was bitter sweet. We'd been staying with Sam's mother and sister while training in Santa Barbara for the last few weeks and it was sad to break up our little quartet. Much love and thanks to Jan and Payton for putting up with us!

While the circus tent of an airport was a little worrisome, the flight was smooth and we landed in Seattle around 1pm. Now the question was not only where do we catch our shuttle to Anacortes WA, which would be the starting point of this journey, but how do we get two boxed bikes and 120lbs of gear to said bus... After scouring the airport we finally discovered the loading dock for our shuttle which was on the completely opposite side of the airport. We took a chance and entrusted our cargo to Sky Cap James who was quite pleasant and even confused me with a TV personality which got him an extra 5 bucks on his tip. Left to our own devices, we waited over an hour for the shuttle bus to arrive so of course I amused myself with the camera.

For those of you who don't know, I'm driven by one thing and one thing only and that is FOOD. After 6 hours of travel with nothing but Cliff Bars to hold me over I had a hunger you couldn't even imagine. Thankfully our bus driver dropped us off at a decent hotel so we weren't stranded in the middle of Anacortes all those bags and boxes. We grabbed a room on the first floor, hauled the bikes inside and headed to a restaurant called Adrift "Seafood and Sandwiches for Salty Dogs". Like I said, my priorities in life start with food and we work our way down from there. Sam on the other hand is completely the opposite which often illicits this response pictured below.

After much humming and hawwing neither of us could decide what we wanted off of this eclectic surf and turf menu until the waitress gave us the specials of the day which included a Jalapeno Linguine with Singing Sea Scallops and a Half Pound Grass Fed Beef Burger with Caramelized onions, Jack Cheese, Peppered Bacon, and Rosemary Fries. We looked at each other and both said in unison "Done". We split the two entrees and quite honestly this was the best burger either of us had ever had and the sea scallops were incredible.

Fully stuffed we headed on out to take in the weight of what we were doing. Two guys just got on a plane to a tiny little harbor town in the northern most regions of Washington state to ride bicycles over 5,000 miles across the country...

Welcome to Anacortes Washington, first stop in Chasing the Road.