I rode about 9 miles before stopping for breakfast in Twisp, which is an Indian name for Yellowjacket (luckily I didn’t run into any). I ate at a local saloon/cafe that still had bullet holes in the wall from a gunfight back in 1959. The food was local and all natural and really flavorful.
On the next segment of the road a lot happened. First, the route I’m taking, the Sierra Cascade route, split from the Northern Tier route, so I am leaving behind all the cyclists I have met over the past three days.
But a couple miles down the road, another cyclist approaches me going the opposite direction. His first words were, “Hi, you’re the first cyclist I’ve seen in a week!” He was from Melbourne Australia and was doing the Washington Parks/Cascades loop. Earlier in the day, he had a wolf come down a slope and lope beside him- freaked him out- but then it veered off. Needless to say, I got my bear spray handy.
Sure enough, a while down the road, I ended up with a black German shepherd greeting me. I sprayed in his general direction and he stopped and I accelerated! Not long after, about 20 USD in front of me, a deer blitzed across the road- 2 seconds later and I would have been hurting!
After a stop for lunch, the wind really picked up and the rain started. I ended up putting on all my gear, head to toe, including shoe covers. Then it was a couple hours of just grinding it out.
The rain stopped- thankfully- before my last challenge of the day: a 700′ climb up to Chelan, WA. I’m camping at the City Park with a pizzeria across the street and a Starbucks 1/4 mile away- I’m thinking dinner and breakfast respectively!