Note: Dan is trying to catch up after a busy return. Elizabeth will post on the last 3 days soon.
Wednesday, September 6 Elizabeth departs Republic towards Omak some 70 miles to the southwest. The road is mostly flat for the first few miles then climbs steadily up more than 2000 feet over 14 miles.
By 10:45am Elizabeth goes over the Wauconda Pass at an elevation of 4310′. At that point most of the hard climbing is done — the route begins a steady descent over the next 30 or so miles.
By 2pm Elizabeth is passing through Tonasket at about 45 miles. Here she will start riding parallel to the Okanogan River south to the town of Omak.
Just before reaching Omak, Elizabeth enters the northwest corner of the Colville Indian Reservation. The reservation includes part of the town of Omak including the Eastside City Park where she would be camping for the night.
Leaving Omak on Thursday morning Elizabeth stops to take a picture at the Omak Stampede — the site of the area’s Rodeo and Suicide Race. The day’s route was 45 miles and 4100′ of climbing — but like Wednesday most of the climbing was to be finished in the first half of the ride.
The route continued south along the Okanogan River for about 8 mostly flat miles before turning west and starting to climb up 3100′ over the next 16 miles.
Elizabeth reached the summit Loup Loup Pass just after noon.
From there the route descended 2500′ over the next 10 miles to the Methow River. The descent provided lots of scenic views.
The route followed the Methow River into the town of Winthrop and to the Near Pine RV park. Since Friday was a day off (zero day) Elizabeth would get to settle in (leave her tent up two nights!)
Like her other zero days, Elizabeth spent most of her time preparing for next block of ride days. Cleaning, drying, and organizing the camping gear; doing laundry; and of course, doing maintenance on the bike!
Chores completed there was time left on Friday to explore the town of Winthrop. On the other side of the country, preparations were underway for BikeMS New Bern, NC where Elizabeth’s Missing Spokes fundraising team would be riding this weekend. This would one of the rare years that she wasn’t riding BikeMS in 26 years. But Elizabeth still had over 160 miles and 7500′ left before reaching Anacortes. The last days of her cross country adventure would be her own personal BikeMS weekend!
Dan…So glad you posted these spectacular pictures even if they are post- arrival home. Elizabeth, such a fabulous trip! I admire your daring in undertaking it. Brava!