Day 5. Winthrop, WA to Tonasket, WA, 72 miles

I‘m feeling good and hitting my stride; the nerves have receded, thanks in large part to making Washington Pass yesterday. Today featured another pass in the morning, Loup Loup Pass, at 4020 feet. The Methow Valley was beautiful, but the thing about a valley is eventually you gotta climb out it. And I did! It was different from yesterday, which had a lot of tough, steeper sections. This was just 10 miles of solid, constant climbing at about a 4-6% grade. (Joyce, it was a little like the Elroy-Sparta trail, but more.) Totally manageable, but wearing.

Then it was seven miles downhill at a 6% grade (chilly even with a jacket, gloves, and hat), ending at the bottom of an enormous half-mile hill, followed by some normal-ass riding, and then four more miles down at 5%. And now you know all about my hills.

Then I was in the Colville Reservation, down in the valley. Flatter, warmer, less recreational traffic, more farmland. There were ups and downs, but gentler, and the landscape was brown and grey-green and purple and soft.

I wasn’t done riding when I got to my intended destination for the evening, Riverside, so I rode on to Tonasket, a town that appears mostly to host highway repair crews working in the area. There’s decent-sized Mexican population, enough that my dinner from Pablo’s taco truck was delicious and muy autentico. I couldn’t confirm the existence of a campground, so I am shacked up for the evening at a motel conveniently attached to a 24-hour convenience store. Expect snack news.