DAY 18

There have been a bunch of fires in northern Washington lately. Luckily they have not slowed our progress but unfortunately they've burned quite a bit of forest. On our was out of the strange western towns we climbed another mountain pass right through a section which had been burned. I wish I had gotten better pictures of the damage but I didn't. 

It was a big old climb that put us into a hot hot deserty place. 

And Mike's chain chose a bad time to explode, but he quickly repaired it. 

We rode through the shining metropolis that is Omak Washington and stocked up on supplies. We continued north towards tonasket and had a hot but enjoyable ride towards tonasket. 

Our host for the night was a professional bicyclist-houser. She immediately offered us beer and showers and told us stories and made us a ridiculous amount of food. 

She keeps a journal of all the cyclists she hosts and Mike and I were happy to be a part of it. 

DAY 17

On day 17 we woke up in our campsite by the river and began our ascent into the heart of the Cascades. It was real scenic. 

That picture is from the begininning of our climb, at about 2000 feet. Here is a bug I saw. 

This climb was probably the most difficult riding I have ever done. It combined the hottest heat of our ride, the longest distance without water, and the highest climb either of us had ever done. Its a good thing that mike and I are so tuff. Here's the view from the top of Washington pass. 

A couple of times during the climb we had to collect water from waterfalls and streams. We used Mike's fancy filter to drink it. 

The other side of the mountain was a desert. It was real strange. We rode into Winthrop, a weird western-themed town that looked like Disneyland's Westernland. 

After around 85 miles we called it quits and camped in a nice old couple's backyard

DAY 16

Day 16 was the day our northward adventure became an eastward adventure. We had to backtrack about 20 miles to get out of Bellingham, but it was very worth it. 

Highway 20 rolls through all of northern Washington, and what a highway it is. We experienced our first major tailwind as we started east. 

We rode through a long stretch known as the Skagit valley. It was real scenic but I did t get many pictures... Mmm and we stopped for dollar hot dogs.

At the end of the day we ended up at a beautiful privately owned primitive campground by the river. We used it to wash our clothes

And our dishes. 

I kept so close to the river that I thought my tent would roll into it in the night. 

Butt-shorts tree

DAY 15

I forgot I was on an island when I woke up. We walked down from our campsite to the beach to check out the Peugeot sound we had heard so much about. It turns out its a body of water. 

A real nice one. 

The rest of whidbey island was beautiful, but Description pass was definitely a highlight. This bridge is the only link between the island and the mainland. We hung out here for a while abd pretended to be tourists. 

And we ate some well deserved pop tarts. I can't stress how important those tarts have been to our success. 

And I realized I've got a funny glove tan. 

I failed to get any good pictures from here on... But we made it all the way to Bellingham, a city near the tippy top of Washington. I fell in love with this place. Go see it for yourself sometime, its great. 

We used Warm Showers to find a place to sleep for the night and we couldn't have landed in a better place. Our host had just finished biking from Seattle to Boston so we got plenty of insight/inspiration from her stories. She also treated us to some frozen treats from the local ice creamery. 

It was a real treat. 

DAY 14

After two weeks of pedaling and 1000 miles (approximately?) we finally made it to the land of Frasier and chowder. 

We planned for a short day so we slept in (until 6:30 or so). About 40 miles put us into Seattle's gooey center. But first we saw a few nice views. Here's Mt Rainier, which looms over much of northwest Washington. 

Once we were in Seattle we had to see pikes place of course.

It was real busy and touristy, so we went to this cool secret local hangout I knew of. 

We had thought we were done for the day but around 3:30 we had this crazy idea that we could spend the night on whidbey island, one of the San Juan islands. We raced the clock to cover another 45 ish miles to get to south whidbey state park.

Here is mike getting real seaworthy on the ferry. 

We made it just in time for sunset

DAY 13

As a note, I finally finished the posts for the last two days

Also, if you're not already, follow mike Wang on Instagram @bike_Wang. He's got a bunch if good pictures from the trip

Anyway here is a slug. 

After a whopping 90 miles we landed in the home of a real nice couple in Tacoma Washington