#acaNoTier Riverside to Republic, 60 miles | Something Old, Something New

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Another day, another Washington mountain pass. Same old.

But!

We experienced something new today! Before I give the deets on that let’s talk about the cougar old Wiley talked about at the Wauconda post office near the top of the pass. Wiley is a local who was mending his fence and I think might have been looking for a legit reason to take a break for a while.

Hence the post office visit where he found us. We’d stopped in for something to drink before the last three (and steepest) miles to the top of the pass. As luck would have it, Tom walked out with two La Croix. That happens to be our fave and about all they had in there at the remote USPS office. #trailmagic

Much in the same way I loiter before tackling a pass, Wiley was more than happy to share all he knew about cougars, moose, elk, bears and golden eagles in the area. (That’s right, Gordon, golden eagles). Smiley Wiley was super friendly but I was curious about his motives. lol

He said one way to befriend the locals is to wave at all the cars that go by while cycling. Wiley, I gotta agree with you, it’s a nice gesture when I’m not clenching the brakes to keep my bike under 30 mph going down or charging up the pass going 3 mph and can hardly keep my loaded bike upright.

Tom’s got that hand a-goin’ all day long and when Wiley passed us later on, we were on a flat and I managed a hearty wave. Fortunately no cougars or other predators were spotted the rest of the day. They were only imagined… by me.

Right out of the gate we had headwinds as we road to Tonasket for breakfast. Check out the flag in the vid.

As also seen in the vids, the weather has been stellar – the scenery, so much better than pics could show (unless Becky Andrade or Anna Kirkpatrick were taking them.)

Back to the something new. We decided it might be different to try out Warm Showers.

Warm Showers is a community of like minded folk who host bike travelers and offer a bed, place to camp, a meal, whatever. Since we got the camping challenge going we decided we’d camp.

I gotta tell you. These folk are super friendly and accommodating. We took Patty’s recommendation on the best local spot for beer and pizza, so we passed on dinner but took them up on the warm shower. And then there was that massage chair Tom used. Seriously, when will we ever have that luxury again?

Looks like we might not even have to fire up the camp stove in the morning because Patty mentioned something about coffee and a coffee cake on the counter in the morning. Yes please!

Warm Showers. That and so much more.

PS: We woke up to this note and treat for breakfast. The huckleberry coffee cake Patty made was the BEST!