Final Climb in the Cascades

8.4.09
We got up and out of Winthrop (a pretty cool western-y downtown with a super awesome chaco'd out pizza place) early and did some gradual climbing 15 miles into Mazama, which is even more chaco'd. We grabbed some food and drink from the gas station there which also doubles as a coffee shop and an outfitters (complete with really good outdoor clothes). There seemed to be a lot of cascade guides just chillin', and we had met a past transam cyclist who was from Mazama (and who offered us a place to stay). We left second breakfast around 8 and started the long climb up the east Cascades to Washington Pass. Ya know you're in for a good hill when before the climb even starts there's a sign warning people to turn off the A/C lest their radiator boils over. The east side managed to be incredibly dry even with the tons of creeks, and it sorta reminded me of a Teton/Current Creek Pass combination (though I can't say I know much about it, dad says that it looked like Yosimite). Twas quite a grandiose climb anyway, and the closer we got to the top, the more growth there was. Dad bonked during the climb, and while I was a little tired, I puttered happily to the top. We devoured some cheese and canadian bacon at the rest area up top, checked out the overlook (with views of the road we had been climbing hundreds of feet below), and continued down and then back up to Rainy Pass (a lower pass and the point where we crossed the PCT). The far side of rainy was completely different than the eastern part of the mountains. It was lush and green with a couple tons of creeks and awesome cascades (the tumbling creek kind and the off-the-sheer-face kind) that carved out their own mini-canyons. The east also had a plethora of yellow, white, and reddish wildflowers that just made the road nice. The descent was the most treacherous we've had, not because of the roads but because of the head/sidewinds. Near the top, a sign had warned us of severe crosswinds for the next 27 miles and the stuff definately kept me on my toes. Coming down, we started hitting dammed lake after dammed lake (the dams being part of a hydroelectric system that feeds Seatle and also the main thing that kept our road from being considered part of the National Park). The lakes were awesome, though. They're mostly glacier melt and had the color of a super-chlorinated pool or some Bermudan beach. Diablo was one of the cooler ones, since it had some beautiful snowy and super-green peaks surrounding it. We passed more dams, falls, and psycho winds, and went through our first and last tunnels. The last 10 miles (of 80) took some effort, but a sugar cube I had snagged from Mazama did help. We got to Newhalem, grabbed some supplemental food, and then went into the North Cascades National Park for some camping. This was probably the longest we've been on a bike time-wise: we were up pretty darned early and didn't get to the park until dinnertime.