Yesterday started with a beautiful ride on the Cascade Rail Trail. As soon as I got back on the road, I veered into a little town called Concrete and met some fellow cyclists. Bob and Nenanda are from Maine and are cycling the Northern Tier Route from Vancouver BC to home. We had a fabulous Fathers Day breakfast of steak and eggs. It was great to visit and during our meal I got Happy Fathers Day texts from my three girls; I love them and miss them (and Stephanie!) already.
Then the climbing began. I entered the North Cascades National Park and climbed 2000′ to my campsite for the night at Diablo Lake.
About 7:30pm there was a huge thunderclap and within ten minutes it began a torrential rain that lasted until about 3 am. I just hunkered down in the tent and rode it out, staying relatively dry.
This morning, everything was soaked! And the rain started up again. When you are cycle touring, you have to keep going. So one pannier was for the wet stuff, and off I went. Today was all about climbing. I climbed to Rainy Pass ( ironically, I climbed above the rain clouds) then after a steep descent climbed over Washington Pass at 5477′. Then it was a bomb descent down to a river valley and now I’m headed south again.