The early morning ride down the Methow valley was quite nice.
 

The town of Winthrop is all decked out in old west attire, touristy, but nice.

 

 

I got there just as the store was opening hoping to get some oranges but there were none to be had. So it was on to Twisp by a nice back road. A nice thing about this route as opposed to the TransAm is that it takes more low traffic back roads.

 

 

 

 

I saw this great garden on the road to Twisp. Like a lot of desert areas if you have water things really grow. At Twisp I got some groceries and headed towards Loup Loup pass. I felt like I had bonked the day before on the Cascade passes so I made sure I was well fueled and had some high energy foods on hand. Shortly after the start of the climb I ran into my first trail angel of the trip. Michael was on his riding lawn mower when he stopped and offered me ice water. There was a small cooler with frozen water bottles that his wife Marilyn puts out everyday for cyclists heading up the pass. The ice was really solid. I just kept pouring in my water and had ice water to drink, and pour one, all the way up the pass and on in to Okanogen.

 

 

 

 

It was nice to be up in the woods again. There was plenty of shade and the climb was not nearly as hard as the day before.

 

 

 

 

Once again things changed radically on the east side. The last trees were the scarred remains of a recent fire, and soon it was nothing but open sage brush. Even some of that was burned, possibly on purpose. It was hot, barren, and ugly. Soon there were orchards but these were all covered in bird netting and didn't really help the landscape. As I was entering Okanogen a fellow waved me to stop. Turns out he just got back from doing the TransAm in some ridiculous short time. There wasn't much in Okanogen. I went to the Legion park to take a break and eat. The allow camping there with showers for six dollars. It would have been an okay option if it wasn't so hot. As it was I made it to Omak and got a motel room. Time to chill out in front of the air conditioner and get a good night sleep.