Our Official Start

It has been a while since we had started planning our little adventure, so it is worth sending out this little reminder of the upcoming details.

To kick off our trip on Saturday, Alea and Cary will be riding the first leg, from the east side of Sedro Woolley to Marblemount.  Anyone interested in seeing us off is invited to rendezvous on the First of August at 11 am at the Central United Methodist Church in Sedro Woolley (hopefully there will be parking available there on Saturday morning).  It is located near the east end of town, at 1013 Polte Road (which parallels the Cascade Trail very near its western terminus).  To get there from Hwy 20, turn south on Township Road (there is a Dairy Queen on the southeast corner).  Head south, and Polte Road will be the first street on the left.  The church is a few buildings up the road, on the right.  Here's a map link. 


That will be where we'll offload Alea's and Cary's bikes.  It should be easy to 'spot' our polka dot van.  ;-)

This first day will be a fairly short and pretty flat bicycle ride (about 40 miles), and we are tentatively planning to have lunch in Concrete, figuring that even with a late start that Alea and Cary will be there by around 1 pm.  From there I'll go get checked in at the campground and get the camper set up, where Lana and I will wait for the ladies to arrive.  

We were too late to get a reservation at the nearby NFS campgrounds, so we'll be staying overnight at Alpine RV Park and Campground, which is located on Hwy 20 at the eastern edge of Marblemount (315 ft elevation).  You are also welcome to join us there in the afternoon/evening, and here's a Google Maps link showing where it is located.

I'll be riding the leg on Sunday, which will cross both Rainy (4875 ft elevation) and Washington (5477 ft elevation) Passes.  Our planned destination will be Lone Fir Campground on the eastern slope of the Cascades, a distance of just over 60 miles.  The past few weeks have left little time for me to train, so I expect my only strategy for getting over the Cascade Divide will be to slow down and pace myself.  The one thing working in my favor will be that the highway grades should be shallower than those that I typically ride on.  Feel free to join me on that leg, but expect that I'll be poking along and stopping at all the watering holes.  On a warm day I hit the road once the temperature gets up to around 60 degrees (the forecast low for Sunday in Marblemount is 56 degrees).