I rode 41 miles today, from Republic to Tonasket, WA (pop. 1,032). A second significant pass, Wauconda, was on my path today, right on the heels of my climb up the Sherman Pass yesterday. It was with some trepidation that I was tackling another big pass so soon, even though it appeared to be only about half the length of the Sherman Pass. As it turned out, though, while the pass was challenging, the miles went by fairly quickly. The climb up the pass began soon after I left my motel in Republic at 7:30 a.m., and I crossed the Wauconda at 10:15 a.m. Based on my experience yesterday, I had thought it would take much longer.

For me, traversing these big passes is as much a mental challenge as it is physical. I often find myself breaking the task into “bite size” chunks, where I count pedal strokes and set goals for how many strokes I can achieve. My minimum is 50 strokes, and sometimes on a really steeply graded stretch, that is all I can do before needing to take a break. Even when I feel my limit is 50, however, I almost always push myself a little harder for “extra credit” by adding on another 10 or 15 strokes. When the grade isn’t super steep, I am able to do 100 or more. After completing each goal, I stop and rest, generally for just a minute, after which I feel restored enough to go for the next 50+ strokes. If all this sounds stupid, you’re right–it is! But it works for me and reminds me a little of a technique developed by Jeff Galloway that some marathon runners use, where they intersperse their running with a regular cadence of walking intervals.

There are four Brobdingnagian passes across Hwy 20 to get to the west coast, and I have now done two of them. I still must face the Loup Loup Pass (4,020 feet) and Washington Pass (5,477 feet) over the next week or so.

The sign announcing Wauconda Pass came up much sooner than I expected this morning, and I was elated to see it.

Before leaving Republic, I checked out a historical marker commemorating the area’s former glories as a center of gold and silver mining. The town was founded by gold prospectors in the late 19th century. An old air compressor used to supply fresh air to the miners was on display and I was surprised that the motor on it was only 75 hp.

On my way to the Pass, I had another incident with an unfriendly dog that looked like it was going to get pretty ugly. I tried the technique I used on an angry dog that I wrote about on July 9–told him he was a good dog, I was his friend, and he needn’t be afraid, etc. But that didn’t work, and he seemed to be getting more and more infuriated by the minute, barking like crazy. I had positioned my bike between the dog and me, and he bit one of my bike bags a couple of times. Just then, however, a guy in a fire department vehicle drove by. He could see what the problem was, and I told him the dog had been barking at me for 3-4 minutes. The dog was afraid of his truck and walked away from me to the other side of it. With his truck, the fire truck driver then blocked the dog in the driveway he had come from until I could safely be on my way. Whew!

Here is what the route down from Wauconda Pass looked like. After I made it to the Pass, the rest of my ride all the way into Tonasket (about 30 miles) was almost entirely downhill–hallelujah!

Here are some views of the countryside.

At one point on today’s route, there was a warning on my Adventure Cycling map about a section of the road ahead: “CAUTION: narrow winding road with no shoulders and blind corners.” Then there was this sign on the road itself.

I could tell there were creeks, waterfalls, and rock formations, all likely quite beautiful, as I was riding along this stretch. But I was going downhill at a pretty fast clip on a curvy road with traffic and no shoulders. There was no safe way to get a good look at any of it, and certainly no opportunity to stop to take any photos–sorry!

There were no amenities of any kind on today’s route until I was about 11 miles away from Tonasket and came across TJ’s Good Store. I stopped in for some donettes and a mocha iced coffee.

In addition to “all-natural pig and chicken feed” advertised on the sign out front, the store sells both chicken and duck eggs. I asked the clerk if duck eggs taste like chicken eggs, and she said that she wouldn’t know, but she’s heard that duck eggs are a lot better for baking. Here’s what TJ’s Store looks like. It’s a small place, but there’s a lot in there.

I was quite pleased to get to my motel in Tonasket by 1 p.m., since I had been expecting this morning’s climb would take much longer than it did. By the time I arrived, the thermometer had hit 93 degrees, and then got to 98 later this afternoon. Hot weather is expected to continue into next week, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to time my ascent of those two remaining passes so that they occur as early in the day as possible.