July 20, 2009

Day 51 – A long tired ride to Wenatchee - Home of Tour de France rider, Tyler Farrar

What a spectacular day.  Brutal at times, with both incomprehensible dry and wet heat throughout the afternoon, and wonderful new random friends and scenery.

Starting early, I had hoped to get all the way to Leavenworth, WA, which is a little over 100 miles from Seattle, and the last town before the climb over Steven’s Pass.  The sun was shining, the temperature was on the rise from about 55 in the morning (warmer then at any point the previous day), and the road was relatively flat, with some simple ups and downs that got my legs rolling early.

Driven by watching the Tour for the first time live this morning, I spun my legs and pushed my heart rate to see how fast I could make up time today without blowing out.  Sure enough, in the first two hours I was over 45 miles, and hit Coulee City, 60 miles down the road, only 3 hours after waking.  Filling my water, putting in Heed to each, and chatting to a few folks everyone said I didn’t have but one small hill into Waterville and it was basically downhill all the way.

So here’s the deal, people of Washington: valley’s go down, then come back up.  Sure, technically, the climb up is not a ‘hill’, however, when you ride a 7 mile 1500 foot downhill at 1 pm into a dry, sun filled valley, the climb up seems like a hill.  Especially an 8.5 mile constant climb up 1500 feet with no shade.  For future reference, this is a hill.  Glad we could clear that up.

I arrived in Waterville completely bonked.  I took my last sip of water coming into town, then found a great little restaurant, Kopey’s Steaks Café, to get food and water.  I walked in, looked at the folks there, and hoarsely request water.  They smiled and asked if I’d just come up the hill from the west, but I said no, I came from the east through the desert like valley.  At least I know now I have a great downhill coming up!

I spent the next hour slurping down water, iced tea, and delicious pasta salad and bread as my body tried to recover.  I had stopped sweating about an hour before my arrival and I could tell my body was on the brink of bad dehydration, but I got in and cool before it turned the corner.  While I was eating I spoke with a wonderful woman, Nicky, who lived on a mountain down the road.  She gave me the scoop on nearly all the terrain coming up, and this time I trusted the legitimacy of the hill/valley confusion from earlier in the day.  Ray and Judy run the restaurant and Terry was my wonderful server.  We sat out front while I loaded up, talking of all the riders and random folks who made their way through town every year and sent pictures that live on the walls there.  Maybe I’ll make it on the wall in the future.   They also spoke about Tyler Farrar, the Tour de France rider, who happened to be a local from the town of Wenatchee, just down the road.  Everyone I met from this point forward spoke of him with great pride, and I saw his picture in windows and on the front page of all the local papers.  How awesome there is civic pride for a cyclist, and one who almost won the stage today!

I shoved off and discovered the downhill; 6 miles and spectacular, ending at a serene lake surrounded by tall peaks and orchards, and shadowed with a sun just barely bouncing above the tallest peaks.  After the earlier trouble with the valley, my legs decided they were done.  So I enjoyed the ride next to the lake, sometimes wondering if some of these clearly expensive homes for sale might have a door open for a weary traveler to crash on an empty floor.  I texted Angela as I pulled near Wenatchee, wondering if she and the kids were on their way back, and she said they knew folks in Wenatchee if I wanted to stay.

I kept riding a bit through town when Angela said the place was confirmed and gave me a number to call Maryann Reid, her very distant relative who Reid (Angela’s husband’s Grandfather married into some years back – you follow that?  I’m not entirely clear either).  Naturally, they lived back the way I came, up hill, so Maryann offered to pick me up.  A short while later, I we tossed the gear in the back of a truck and rode the 7 miles to their house where I met Robbie and Michelle.

We talked and ate a huge meal when Robbie and Michelle went off to a movie. I showered and then sat talking with Maryann for a few hours before hitting the sack in Michelle’s room that she had gracefully donated to the cause.  Tomorrow leaves a long ride into Seattle, about 150 miles or so, with a tough pass and forecasted highs around 95 with headwinds.  So early an start out of Wenatchee, with the thoughts of Tyler Farrar in the morning will hopefully spur me on to the other side of the country!