Day 4 Chelan, WA
On beautiful Lake Chelan. Well, I haven't actually seen it but I am sure it is beautiful. Anyway, compared to yesterday, which is getting worse each time we tell the story, this was a gorgeous day.
Started in Twisp at the aforementioned Methow Valley Inn, Prop. Terry _____(?)(Terry, you fill in the blank please. My apologies). What a great refuge from the work a day world. If you are ever "in the valley", go there. We had a great rest and woke to good folks having easy converstion, including a surprising concentration of crazy cyclists like us. Breakfast was to die for. Baked French toast with blueberries and cream cheese was the headliner. But there was a bowl of melon and grapes, hot cereal with barley and wild rice, pure maple syrup of course, and the usual cold cereal, juice, bananas, etc.
It truly was delicious. We had a wonderful time telling stories and sharing contact info with Chris and Nancy from Alaska and with one of the other inn-keepers whose name I forget (I am so bad) but who really got into the story sharing because we had each done the cross country bike thing and Chris and Nancy are 4 days into their cross country bike thing. As we orgaized our gear and bikes on the porch everyone was gathered round and giving us way too many cudos for our organization and efficiency. We had an enthusiastic photo session with all of us on the porch and good wishes all around and we were off, the day promising to have some scattered showers but no life threatening conditions and we were confident of going off into the world again.
So, that is how it went. The ride was down the Methow River valley toward the Columbia River, which I had never seen before. So it was mostly down hill and very pleasant. We had advice to follow a county road instead of the main highway and it was great. Quiet and serene rolling past big hills and ranches, and the swirling Methow River. We ran into an Adventure Cycling supported tour group at Carlton and had a chat with them. They are on the Cascades Loop tour and have all their gear carried, for a price, while we just carry our gear and suffer ;)- After we saw them we did run into some rain and had to put on our rain jackets. There were, all told, a couple of sessions of rain for 20 minutes or so each. Enough to make me nervous it might not stop, but it truly was scattered.
We stopped for lunch in Pateros where the Methow meets the Columbia. The day was brightening and looked promising. We called ahead to Mom's Motel in Chelan and got a room. The Prop. said if we got a flat or had any trouble to call and he would help out. Biking brings out the good in many people :)).
The after lunch surprise was the head winds along the Columbia. These were serious winds. We estimate 30-40 mph. We had to work to maintain 10 mph going downhill. So, when we made the turn on the road to Chelan it was welcome to be out of the wind and actually in some warm sunshine for the first time this trip. I remember warm sunshine, it's nice.
Nice dinner at a too expensive Italian place but the meatballs were fantastic. Now we are getting sleepy. Talk latter.
No comments:
Post a Comment