Tonasket, WA to Winthrop, WA
Day: 73.26 miles, Trip: 4072.43 miles
I got up early (4 am to be exact). It ended up being myself, Kristen, Richard, Joe and Andy. We rode out of town around 5 am (at first light). It is a lot better riding in the morning than the heat of the day. We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds in Omak (all but Joe). The climb started right after Okanogan and it was a lot steeper than I was expecting. But about halfway up it got better. Duncan found me about 5 miles to the top and refilled my water bottles and gave me a banana. At the top I met 2 self contained cyclists and chatted with them for awhile before heading down from Loup Loup Pass.
We have been seeing and smelling the smoke for awhile now but when I started heading down from Loup Loup I could really taste it. This is the first stretch where we actually traveled through the burned area and see first hand the destruction. These fires around Twisp and Winthrop are part of the larger Carlton Complex wildfire site. In this area over 300 homes have been destroyed. All day long we have been passing various fire groups from all over that are here to help with the fires. Thanks to the drought that the area is seeing, this is the worst season for wildfires that Washington has ever seen. In addition to the charred areas we could see smoke rising and helicopters flying to the active fire zones.
