Another blog about our route today

We have heard from several people about this biker that is doing a reprise of his cross country route in honor of his 70th birthday. Can only hope we do as well.
The link is his description of the route for roday. We are starting out in Marblemount.  Unfortunately cloudy, rather than the sunny photos he had when he rode. See:  https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=373000&v=By
Or if this link isn't working go to crazyguyonabike.com and search for Glenn Goodwin, his At 70 Northern Tier journal is from 2014.

Riding in some rain, sun, rain...

We came through several rain showers on our way here. Dave is cleaning the bike as the chain picks up a lot of grit when it's wet. We were on a packed limestone trail yesterday as well. 
It's been alternating between sun and rain all day today.  Mountain weather. We did expect this kind of weather in the largest temperate rainforest in the world.
We so wanted to leave the homeless shelter/motel we were at last night that we didn't care what the weather would be. Also we're getting so antsy to see what these passes are going to be like!

I won't be able to post for a few days since tomorrow we will ride into the North Cascades National Park. We will camp as close as we can to the first of two passes we need to complete in one day. There are bear safe boxes in the campground so I'm sure we will use them as we have no car to store our food! We picked up some freeze dried food in Sedro Woolley so that will taste good when we roll into camp.

There aren't any campgrounds once we start climbing until we get down to the other side. There is supposed to be a steep downhill initially, after the second pass (Washington Pass, the highest pass we will climb) .  Dave assures me he will take it slow.

The rain is supposed to lessen significantly in the next few days though. That will be nice, I'd like to see the peaks.
We have seen so many unusual trees and bushes. Everything seems to be flowering! The trees are covered with moss from all the rainfall. Lots of evergreens, cedars and Douglas fir, which isn't a fir at all, but related to the hemlock. The air smells so fresh and sweet; which is a good thing as we gasp for air on the climbs.
Hwy. 20 continues to have reasonably good shoulders except for the stretch coming into Marblemount. The traffic was all on the other side of the road as it's the end of the weekend for many folks.
First picture is when we waited out some rain and Dave got into some brambles.
Second picture is the mountains, getting bigger.
Third pic: mountain humor?
Fourth is where we waited out some more rain.
Fifth pic is needed bike maintenance. Sixth one is an ice cream stop. Last; more mountain humor?

Some maps.

Here are some maps and an elevation chart.

Adventures in Concrete, WA

Concrete, WA 

28 miles day 3

79 miles total (some are in town miles)

Ok, so I made the reservation when I was cold and tired of rain. Unfortunately I didn't read the following review beforehand but it describes the place we are staying perfectly. Read on:

Ok, we decided it was worth the adventure of a cheap motel, and certainly, I've stayed in worse. Hands down, though, Eagles Nest Motel in Concrete WA is the ugliest room ever. It's almost a parody of itself.

Paper-thin walls and ill-fitting doors brought the outdoors in, highway noise "and all." The mini-fridge was warm. There was no coffee, and the plastic disposable cups tasted like the bar soap they sat next to. The clock was off by many hours, if it worked at all.  There was a certain random artistry to the generous white paint splotches on the wood-stained trim and doorknobs.  The broad collection of artwork was absolutely resistible, especially the eagle prints in our room that were $100 each or $375 for the trio.  Yep, $75 more for the set than to buy each print separately.  When we asked to use a bottle opener, we were pointed to purchase an unbelievably tacky Indian beaded one for $15.   We decided it was cheaper to head down the road and buy something that didn't require an opener.  It was.

Warm, relatively clean room on a cold day with a comfortable bed, a tv and a mish-mash of well beyond slightly used tasteless 60s furniture... worth $55+tax?  Not sure.

Loren again. Well anyway,  we are warm and comfy but determined to ride at least to the next town tomorrow.
We were able to get the bike up the stairs and into the room. That feels a lot better after a guy who has seen lots better days commented on how "that must be an expensive bike".
Our ride started out in a misty drizzle. We rode for about 10 miles on a crushed limestone rail trail. It was pretty, seeing  farm fields and then some forest of cedars with moss all over them. We are on the rainy side of the mountains and everything is lush. We stopped for a photo at the Skagit river which we will be following for several more days. That water moves fast!
After we decided to leave the trail and go out and ride on the Cascade Hwy. we moved a little faster. The shoulders are wide and the road seemed quiet, especially for a weekend.  The road was a steady uphill mild grade. The mountains on either side of the valley are wreathed in clouds.

Oh and by the way, we met Sasquash!

Our first test of the tent in rain

Sedro Woolley, day 2, Friday the 13th.
7 miles
We fell asleep early because we are still on MI time. I woke up to see a sunset so I thought maybe the weather prediction of rain would be wrong. Not so. At about midnight it began to pour. It kept on pouring until 11 am. Our Big Agnes tent performed wonderfully. Even though the nylon is extremely lightweight it kept out the rain. Of course there is some maneuvering needed to get out quickly so as not to let the rain in.

We got up and made ourselves an oatmeal breakfast under the picnic pavilion. This answered a question for ourselves since we wondered if it was necessary to have cooking equipment.  Well it sure was nice to fix ourselves a hot breakfast.

I had used a little thermos the night before and bought coffee. Not so much success with that as the coffee was cold. I was hoping that could suffice without re-heating.
So the second day of the ride we decided to sit it out and get a motel room. Don't feel like racing through the Cascades when the peaks (and valleys) are shrouded in fog. This rain is supposed to last through the weekend so we made reservations for the next town only twenty miles away. It seems we may do the Cascades like I jokingly predicted, 20 miles at a time.

Our first day of riding

Northern Tier, first day, Anacortes to Sedro Woolley. 44 miles.

We started out at 8 am by saying goodbye to our Warmshowers host, Beth. One last pointer was to have breakfast at Maryann's. Yum.
We (read "Dave") wanted to dip our back wheel in the Pacific AT THE FERRY DOCK. Which just happened to be surrounded by fencing and it was low tide. So, not wanting to wade through mud and clams we went up the hill and down the hill to the boat launch at Washington Park. That turned out to be a really nice spot to do the dip (are you listening Adventure Cycling?). We impressed some folks there who are from Maine and have a beautiful hand built wooden tandem kayak.
And we saw two eagles as we dipped the wheel! Seeing eagles is a sign for us that Dave's son Jon is watching over us from heaven.
After the big hill back up from the launch and a few errands, we finally headed out of town at 11:15. There is a large bridge over the Skagit river that has a nice sidewalk and Hwy. 20 had large shoulders.
Then we were off the highway and on to a secondary quiet road. This is a newer re-route and very worthwhile.  We skipped the gravel trail and found a more direct shortcut to our route. The terrain was flattish except for our detour-hill #3 that we walked today.
The area we biked today was agricultural.  We saw an interesting phenomenon a few times, dust devils.  It didn't seem particularly windy but it was enough to swirl the dry soil which looks like it hasn't been planted yet.
We are camped in a Town Park on the Skagit river in Sedro Woolley.  No showers or hot water but close to town so we could put up our tent first because the weather looked like rain, and then bike a couple of miles to have dinner. The town has a logging history and the town is filled with chainsaw sculptures.
Tomorrow we plan to do 49 miles which will start bringing us into the mountains and closer to the first passes.

Oh boy, mountains!

Landing in Seattle.  A little preview of our biking terrain over the next few weeks.  

We took a shuttle to Anacortes.  We were both pretty sleepy after getting up at 4:30 our time but we only cat napped on the plane and on the shuttle and it's catching up to us now.

When we got to Anacortes we walked two blocks to the Mailbox where our bike had been shipped. 

Dave had been worried since the staff there told him that "something was sticking out". However it turned out to be the end of a brake lever and nothing was damaged! Phew.

Our Warmshowers hosts, the Smith's, are warm and welcoming and came to pick us up along with the two huge bike boxes.

The weather is very nice today which made it pleasant to put the bike together.  It took Dave about 4 hours.  I managed to fold up one of the bike boxes and put it in the other one to save on cost when we ship it back home and later to Maine.

We plan to start riding tomorrow!