Day 6- The Colockum to Wenatchee. 42.9 miles, 3807 feet climbed
Tackling the climb up the Colockum with rested legs and early in the morning was nice. I also knew what to expect in terms of the roughness of the road, as compared to my first time here. So the climb didn’t seem so bad. We had a few rain squalls to keep things cool. As we got to the top and started down the other side I thought to myself ‘hmm, the Colockum isn’t so bad after all’. We thought we were near the big 10 mile descent on pavement so we donned our wind vests in preparation. Then we rode around a corner and into another big climb. Our memories jogged that we were far from done I changed my mind back, the Colockum is a beast! More rough uphills, more equally rough downhills, and a few stream crossings. To add insult to injury there were some logging operations happening on the last mile of forest road and it was all chewed up and very muddy. When we got to the pavement our bikes and our bodies were splattered and covered with mud. We had 10 ripping miles downhill on smooth pavement and then another 10 or so heading west into a headwind to get to Wenatchee. We stopped at a little convenience store for some cold drinks and snacks and I started picking the mud off my bike. It had dried to cement. Keri said she was planning to wash her bike off and was looking for a hose. No luck. It was still early in the day, about 3 or 4 o’clock and originally I had hoped we could make it through Wenatchee and closer to Douglas Canyon. But it was hot and Keri was tired. I was too, but I don’t know when to not push myself. I listened to her reason. Going on meant climbing up Rock Island Grade, a long, steep climb a few miles out of Wenatchee, so we called it a day. We got a hotel room in Wenatchee, hosed off our bikes and had a good dinner and more good rest.
Day 7-Wenatchee to Ephrata 72.2 miles, 6216 feet climbed
On the road by 6 a.m. we got to tackle the Rock Island Grade in the cool of the morning. The Rock Island Grade is a steep, switchback climb about 4 miles in length. The good thing is the gravel is superb, fine and hard packed. I rode up the entire thing not willing to stop or give my body a break despite the fact that I wasn’t feeling in top form that morning. I was somewhat nauseous and didn’t want to eat anything. But not fueling my body would be even more disastrous. I picked at some trail mix all day and luckily I felt better as the day progressed.
About 45 minutes outside of Ephrata, a thunder storm that had been off in the distance caught up with us. Giant raindrops and hail pelted us for the entire 45 minutes as we raced blindly to get to town. When we made it to town, we were out of the storm and stood a chance of drying out some before we got to the hotel. We stopped first to resupply at a grocery store and when I came out of the store the storm had caught up with us and the rain was again coming down in sheets. So much for drying out. The hotel with shower and dry bed never felt so nice!
Day 8- Ephrata to Othello. 56.1 miles, 1642 feet climbed
In many ways this day was the easiest. There wasn’t a ton of climbing and the weather was pretty decent. The biggest standout pieces of this section are the sand dunes at Moses Lake and carp crossing. With the speed Keri and I ride at we managed to hit the sand dunes during Memorial Day weekend. The place is crawling with ATVers, most of whom are Republican, and they like to advertise that as loudly as their machines. It’s a ten mile slog through a very dusty, sandy, flat road. Carp crossing is a little further on and is also in a sandy area. The main trail gets blocked by a giant puddle/small lake that once, during the race’s history, had dead carp floating in it. There is a ride around and Keri and I chose that rather than wading through stagnant water that would be knee to thigh deep. Again we opted to stop at a motel in Othello rather than getting in more miles and wild camping somewhere.
Annie Bikes 
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