Day 5

Day 5

Today is the climb up to Snoqualmie Pass. For breakfast, we are leftover Subway sandwiches from yesterday. 

As we were loading the bikes in the breezeway of the motel, a man came up

to ask us where we were going. We struck up a conversation with Doug, who comes from Thorpe where we will be riding by tomorrow and comes from German Baptist descent. He asked if he could pray with us and prayed a beautiful prayer for our journey- thanks, Doug. 

We started out on bike paths and gravel paths, climbing over 500’ in elevation from Lake Sammamish up to Preston. Then it was a turn north and a drop back down to Fall City, losing all our gain. We stopped at a gas station and got caffeine and bean and cheese burritos for fuel. Then took a gravel path up to Snoqualmie and North Bend, where we stopped again at- you guessed it- Subway. Got the combo meal, ate the chips and drank the soda; packed the sandwiches- 6” for dinner and 6” for breakfast. It breaks the monotony of protein bars, liquid meals, and the Greenbelly oat and rice bars we got for this trip. To save weight and space, we decided to not cook at all- no stove, fuel, bowls, etc.

Then we followed an old railroad bed up to the Palouse to Cascades State Park trailhead at Rattlesnake Lake.

The PtC State park is also an old railroad line that stretched from Milwaukee to Seattle. It’s a steady 4% average climb all the way up to the pass- what I call “honest miles” because there is no coasting or downhills at all. Jeff and l were talking and we have improved two gears in climbing since the beginning of the race. Thankful at this point we are stronger and not falling apart.

3 1/2 hours of steady climbing with the occasional break brought us to the famous Snoqualmie Tunnel, which is 2.4 miles long. We cruised it and made it to our hopeful destination for the night at the Hyak trailhead. It was only just past 5pm, so we decided to go the additional 15 miles to Lake  Easton State Park, knowing it was flat and downhill. We arrived just before 7pm, set up camp, and wolfed down those Subway sandwiches!

Jeff checked other racers locations and Nathan and Florin, who we met last night, looked about 6 miles behind us. Nathan texted me about where we were staying, and they pulled in about 845pm. They were beat and decided to pull the plug. Nathan’s wife was on her way to get them. We reminisced about the journey and parted ways. Great guys. There are a lot of people dropping out at this point- injured, burnt out, out of time…we are praying we don’t become one of the statistics.

Speaking of statistics, we did 72 miles today with another 3455’ of climbing.