Day 72 Colville, WA to Sweat Creek Picnic Area, WA 61.8 miles Total 3,540.0 mi

 4:30 am comes early, but the heat will beat him up if Steve leaves at a more normal morning time.  

Today was no exception.  Steve was off and riding by 5:15.   He rode through Kettle Falls and on towards the Colville National Forest and the Sherman Pass.  

I can't begin to tell you how hard the route was today.  Sherman Pass is the highest pass in the state of Washington that is kept open all year.  It crosses the Kettle River Mountain Range.  There was a 22 mile climb!  Yes, Steve had to ride uphill for 22 miles!  I met him by chance at a small park (there were not many places to stop at all) dedicated to the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) workers who built the road under FDR's New Deal program.  That was one of the two stops he made on the way up.  Honestly I was blown away, I don't know how he did it.  His elevation gain today was 5,781 feet!




He still had 30 miles to ride after that, but the ten miles down the other side were pretty good.  We had a great sandwich in Republic, WA at a restaurant called Steve-O's.  They are still not having indoor dining.

Steve ended his ride at a place called Sweat Creek Picnic Area.  This choice was based purely on dividing the distance from Colville to Omak approximately in half.   We drove west to Omak from Sweat Creek.  Tomorrow morning we will drive back to Sweat Creek and Steve will take up his ride there and finish in Omak.  Not a lot of choices of places to stay, and because we have the truck we can have more options.  

As we drove toward Omak, we began to see smoke from the Cub Creek wildfire that is now just 5 miles from Winthrop, WA.  It is burning over 32,000 acres.  We have been hoping that somehow we would be able to continue on the Adventure Cycling route through Winthrop and Mazama and over the mountain via Rt 20.  Unfortunately the fire "blew up" last night and they have been evacuating Mazama and Rt 20 is still closed.  Omak is the point where we need to make the call, because the other routes to the coast split off from here, and we don't want to have to backtrack.  

After talking to Hank, the hotel where we had a reservation, and the bikeshop lady in Winthrop, we are convinced that Rt 20 is not going to open up within a reasonable amount of time and we need to find another route.  This is disappointing and discombobulating.  Steve spent some time this afternoon figuring out a new route.  The bike shop lady gave him great  advice and suggestions.  We will head southwest from here following Rt 2 and end up in Edmonds, WA, just northwest of Seattle.  Thankfully this does not change our timeline much.  

We broke the news to Hank and we are excited that he plans to drive to Omak to have dinner with us tomorrow night.  It will be so great to see him!  We are obviously disappointed not to be able to see his ranch and Casa Cramer.  

We may convince him to go to the same very cool restaurant where we went tonight, The Breadline Cafe.  The food was great, they have a "bread bar" (like a salad bar, but with homemade breads!), and our waitress, Eva, took great care of us.




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