Gig Harbor Washington to Bar Harbor Maine 2001

When I finally allowed myself to consider getting up this morning it was after 6, raining very lightly, and pretty cold. I enjoyed my granola with hot water and powdered milk, but I had to fight the chipmunk for it. The only thing to make them back off is to try to step on them. Throwing rocks doesn't work unless you have decent aim.

I still feared Washington Pass enough to want plenty of time to conquer it. By 8:30, when I was ready to go, the rain had become a pretty good downpour. Gridley wanted to wait out the weather and I think Garcia was still asleep. It was 44 degrees in the valley of the campground and immediately dropped to 42 as I climbed the first hill. It's a steep hill, but memories of passing the hotshots on my 1995 Trek Washington ride kept me proudly pumping. At the top of the hill is the Ross Lake Overlook. It's always been my favorite viewpoint of the ride up the pass. The clouds hung so low today that there was little to see but it was still a good excuse for a rest.

Ross Lake Overlook

I was pretty well decked out for the weather with my thick tights, long sleeve jersey (although the polar fleece would have been nice at times), full-fingered gloves and cycling raincoat. I discovered that the raincoat hood worked perfectly under my helmet and rode that way most of the day. I was constantly opening and closing vents on the coat to control how much heat I wanted to allow to escape. The desired venting was more a factor of road grade than outside temperature. Normally you suffer through the climbing to sail down the other side. Today I preferred being warm climbing to freezing on the descent, especially during the sleet.

Lunch

I definitely need a lower gear or two, but I rode pretty well anyway. I took plenty of breaks, especially if I could find a tree to block the rain or wind. I found a great spot to savor some thick, heavy bread and cheese for lunch. When it started sleeting, I discovered that we had a nice tailwind. It felt good as long as I kept moving but was freezing if I tried to stop and take a break.

Rainy Pass

Rainy Pass is kind of a false pass, at 4855 elevation and mile 28. The last couple of miles is very steep. I was getting discouraged the last time I rode it with BOB. Dozens of cyclists were taking a club ride over the pass to Mazama carrying nothing but water bottles. I talked to their sag wagon driver at the pass and he assured me that the rest of the climb to Washington Pass was more gradual. That knowledge, or propaganda, helped me this time too. There's a fast drop of a few hundred feet that is usually a pleasure but was very painful today as the temperature dropped to 37. Rainy Pass deserves it's name. It seemed to block most of the rain clouds keeping the rain on it's side. The final ascent to Washington Pass had much less rain and sleet. You could even see a few spots of blue sky.

Washington Pass

I stopped at the turnoff to a visitor center/observation point that's never open, laid down on the gravel and grass and closed my eyes. When I opened them, snow flakes were drifting down on me and I figured it was time for the big descent.

Last time, the back side of the pass was hot, dry, and dusty and I expected at least some warming this time. Wrong again. It kept raining and snowing and blowing. I tried to concentrate on keeping my fingers on the brakes. The brakes were so wet they didn't work too well and my fingers were so cold I could barely feel them. I went fairly slow but still got damn near hypothermic - my teeth were chattering and I was shivering all over. I went so long without pedaling that when I slowed down enough my knees were practically frozen up. I had to spin very slowly to make them work without snapping off.

After 32 miles of climbing and 18 miles of falling, I crawled into the Mazama Country Store and nursed a hot chocolate. The store keeper directed me to the Mazama Country Inn and agreed to tell the Mikes I was there. I was still shivering when got to my room and took a very hot bath. After reading a chapter of my book I was still cold and tried a hot shower. That finally did it.

Shortly after settling down with my computer, the Mikes knocked at the window. They were beaming, not shivering. They seemed to have hit all the weather I did plus some sun. Gridley actually took his coat off at one point. Guess I'll pay more attention to his weather beating ideas.

Mazama Country Inn is really an all-service motel. We did our laundry, sauna'd, hot tub'd and had dinner without leaving the property. We could have played squash or ridden a stationery bike, but somehow it didn't appeal.

Stats: elevation gain 5200 ft, riding time 5:59, average 8.5 mph, max 39.5, mileage 50.9

Cumulative: elevation gain 18,100 ft, riding time 27:20, mileage 279.1