Day 4. Colonial Creek Campground to Winthrop, WA, 65 miles

I climbed a damn mountain! Today is the day I’ve most feared since I started planning this trip: two passes, one of them at nearly 5500 feet, just four days into the ride. And it was indeed hard. And slow. Today’s 65 miles took me 10.5 hours (including stops); in contrast, 75 miles to the Indiana Dunes recently took me eight hours, albeit with a stiff tailwind. Which I also had today! It was a lovely gift, and, along with the cooler weather, eased the pain of the climbing.

And I climbed. Thirty-plus miles of climbing, starting with a brutal two-mile hill right out of the campground. It did boost my confidence when, on a tent-drying break, I met two guys in spandex who told me they were averaging just under 13 mph. I was at, like, 5. But fully loaded!

There were dozens of lovely personal-sized (and several industrial-sized) waterfalls along the way. It is damp and lush and green, and I am here for it.

I was sort of hoping the first pass, Rainy Pass, would sneak up on me, like, whoops, you did it! But my device let me know it was coming, I guess because it was a major landmark.

Then I kept climbing, and surprise: Washington Pass, at 5477 feet, *did* sneak up on me. What! No warning (I mean, aside from all the dang climbing) and suddenly I was there, the highest pass of the trip. [Editor note: This actually turned out not to be true. Sherman Pass was higher, but entailed less climbing because I started out higher.]

I have no idea how accurate the elevation and max speed are—I’ve read elevation can be off, and I often experience the speed as inaccurate, but, dear reader, those roughly 4000 feet of descent were terrifying. I rode my brakes the whole way down, sometimes alternating hands to give one a rest.

And then, after a brief but intense squall that soaked me completely, it was 30 miles to Winthrop, where I got the whole adorable North Cascades Mountain Hostel to myself and did laundry and had a BLT and beer in a saloon in this Western-themed tourist town.