Biking Brian’s Blog

The rain had stopped before sunrise, but the outside of the tent was still wet. At least it wasn’t wet inside like last year! So I wiped off the standing water from the rainfly, walked to breakfast, and let the sun do the rest of the work – when I came back all was dry,…

Another day, another pass. This time it was Wauconda Pass, at 4310 feet. Tomorrow is the last pass in the state of Washington (Sherman Pass, 5575 feet) – so stopping in Republic tonight midway between the two passes was the natural thing to do. Leaving Tonasket in the morning, Highway 20 splits off of US…

I had the whole city park to myself last night, with the exception of an RV that pulled up around 9 PM or so. I had forgotten my earplugs so I had to use my pocket radio to drown out the traffic noise (and the wind noise too!) from the main street. I woke up…

I got the morning grocery shopping done and then went to the bike shop shortly after it opened at 9 AM. They didn’t have the Speedplay Frog pedals I was looking for, but I was able to a cheap set of pedals with toe clips and straps as a backup. I also picked up a…

Once again, Tom and David got an earlier start, although I was packed and on the road by 8 AM. The climb up to Rainy Pass, although scenic, seemed to go forever and ever. I was on the verge of bonking, but managed to eat enough food to prevent that from happening. I had expected…

Tom and David got an early start, getting on the road by 7 AM, while I didn’t get on the road until 8. This turned out to be to my advantage, as I was able to get to the restaurant in Marblemount right when it opened. The scenery starts getting really nice heading east out…

Being in a hotel, I slept in a little later than usual and didn’t get on the road until 9:00. The sky was blue and clear when I started riding – quite unusual for western Washington, especially for that hour of the morning. The weather was also quite unusually pleasant yesterday and the day before,…

Saturday night’s arrival in Seattle went pretty smooth. Southwest Airlines is great for point to point bike touring, since their one way fares are actually half of the round trip fare – and the bike fee is only $40, instead of $50-$60! I assembled the bike (which arrived undamaged) at the airport and caught a…