Day 2 - Skykomish, WA to Leavenworth, WA

Weather
Temperature: 78°F
Conditions: Mostly Sunny
Wind: All over the place @ 11 mph; gusts to 18 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 3,600 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 5,640 ft
Maximum Speed: 38.5 mph
Average Speed: 17.4 mph
Distance Trip: 58.4 miles
Distance Odometer: 125.9 miles
Elapsed Time: 3 hr 21 min 23 sec

I slept pretty well that night. Must be any butterflies I had in my stomach had gone away. Typically the longer that day’s ride was, the earlier we had to get up. It was pretty common to wake up around 6:00. Today’s ride wasn’t that long per se, but we were starting to head into some serious hills. I headed off on my own, and after a few short, flat miles, the big climb up Stevens Pass began. I wore my rain jacket as a windbreaker to take the chill off. I soon had to take it off as I warmed right up on the climb. I was feeling much stronger than the day before and was maintaining a good, steady pace. I stopped to take a few pictures because the scenery was so awesome, but I also wanted to press on and not interrupt what was a great ride.

It warmed up throughout the day and was another picture perfect day. Not too hot with a nice, gentle breeze. About 15 miles or so outside of Leavenworth, I noticed a couple riders quickly gaining on me from behind. I jumped on the band wagon as they passed, and the three of us time trialed and hauled ass into Leavenworth. The two guys were Chip (Ohio) and Jim (Kentucky). Chip was in his 40s, and Jim was in his 60s. I finally met some people who rode as fast as me and were great to hang out with.

Leavenworth is a very Bavarian looking town. Kind of touristy complete with Bavarian polka music playing in the background. I’ll touch upon “food” in a future post but a number of us were so hungry after dinner that we went out to eat and ate a second dinner. After dinner, some people would hang out and talk while others would simply relax and read a book, listen to their walkman, or etc. One of the things I did every evening was write a letter (which ended up becoming my journal entries) to my girlfriend, Laura, back in Potsdam, NY. I eventually became quite famous on the trip for writing my letters.

We stayed at a KOA in Leavenworth. It was a good introduction to camping. WW provided 2-man tents for everyone to sleep in. I hit it off pretty good with Chip so we decided to “room” together. Being a KOA, we still had good facilities in terms of showers, laundry, and such. There may have even been a pool there that some people took advantage of. Some people would stay up fairly late (11:00+), but the rest of us would typically head to bed around 10:00. 6:00 always comes earlier than you want.