Mazama, WA

Whew! What a day. Over six hours time, the SPS Cyclists scaled 5,100 feet, making a dent in our ascent through the Cascade Mountains. The top of the Washington Mountain Pass, at 5,477 feet, was the highest elevation that we would reach on the entire trip. This day was predicted to be one of our hardest in the entire journey. The group left at 8:30 AM from camp, and took full advantage of the first flat fifteen miles of the road, prepping ourselves for what was to come. Sure enough, we came upon a steep ascent up into the heart of the Cascades. The trail wound up for miles on end, traipsing us around and across the ice-blue Lake Diablo (cool name right?) as we wound higher and higher. After a snack break on mile twenty-five, we continued our pursuit up to the top of the mountain pass. Then the thunder and lightning started. With a resounding roar, the thunder reverberated through the mountains. The once-perfect day had disappeared; in its place, black clouds covered the sky. And then the rain came. It came in stinging globs and then coalesced into hail, pounding us as we climbed our way to snow level. But we managed to get through it, and continue our journey. It took us two hours until we stopped again for lunch, at the pinnacle of the pass (or so we thought), where we were greeted by Biddle Duke’s lunch of leftover spaghetti and meatballs.
Now, as you might imagine, we were pretty psyched after lunch; the toughest part of the day, and possibly the trip, was completed. We were thrilled; the morning had been tough, to say the least. In the immortal words of Ellie Duke: “I wanted to die.” As we started for the afternoon, expecting an easy 20-mile downhill to our camp, we saw what we were looking for: a massive downhill. Our excitement was short-lived. As soon as we rounded the first corner, we saw a huge hill, which led to another six miles and another 1,000 feet for us to climb. But we made it…barely. After taking some pictures at the top, we found what we were looking for-- the downhill. That was sweet. With Brendon in the lead, and shirt completely unzipped, we zipped down the twenty miles to the finish line.
The MVP of the Day was definitely our new friend Rachel Speakman. The twelve-year old kept up with us for the majority of the day, donning jeans, a sweatshirt, and riding a hard-core Rockhopper Mountain Bike. She passed all of us on the downhills, and kept up with us the entire time. Rachel, you are welcome to ride with us anytime you like!

See you later. -Parker