But first back to Republic, WA and Sherman Pass.

Monday I continued my drive back to Spokane from the Okanogon. i stopped and tourist a bit in Republic on the East side of Sherman Pass. Old town on lad stolen from the indians for ranching, timber, and mining. I did some quick internet work on Giardia and discovered on Wickapedia that Goldenseal root has some healing properties and I found a health food store and started eating the herb. Some success but not  completely cured.

Drove up Sherman Pass ttrhu the White Mtn fire back in ’88. I skied @ the pass over the years and seeing the summer bare ground gave sight to the steep slopes down to the highway. Mel, I looked for the traffic camera once dfriving slowly and later pedaling and I could not find it.

I drove down to the West side to ride up ST to pass and then Kettle Crest trail out around Jungle Hill and down. Hot day and a bit of exhaustion forced me to push my bike. I rode stuff that in my previous rides I needed to walk which pleased me. I shared the trail w/ destroying slow elk and their offal. The trail down was a blast and I rode it w/ aplomb. Nicely done.

Kirk, I kept my clothes on for my solar shower. Before I could get wet a rig pulled up behind the van and a guy & girl got out. they saw my van and wanted to read the stickers. We struck up a conversation and it turned out that I met Andy way early during the creation of the mtn bike club I cofounded. I met his wife, Jen. They live in C d’A. Moy tongue loosened and I spewed stories. I invited myself to share their campsite and stories continued until the fire died. Oh, I did get my shower before joining them. They invited me to share their driveway.

Tues then I finished my drive to Spokane and started calling people. Randy is leaving on Friday for an Alaskan fishing trip making his schedule the tightest. He invited me to dinner for beer and he grilled salmon that I have not had since I left. Good friends Randy & Lisa.

I walked in front door of U District PT, the caretakers of my body, and put a big smile on Jeff’s face. Jill welcomed me. Jeff invited me to lunch on Wed.

Visited w/ Tim @ Bicycle Butler, my local bike shop. I will be doing a shop ride w/ them tonight. I am allowing myself to get a feel for the SPokane mtn bike scene that I didn’t do when i lived here because of time constraints. No constraints equals opportunities.

Yesterday driving across Division st I heard a crash inside the van and turned to see the contents of my medical drawer on the floor: the drawer exploded. How fortunate that Don, who built the cabinets, is in Spokane and not far away. Today he put the drawer back together and I pick it up tomorrow after the glue dries.

Slept in Randy & Lisa’s driveway last night. Before falling asleep I heard a cat fight. Later I was awkened by skunk squirt.

Lunch w/ Jeff & Jill was very pleasing. He is a fan of my adventure. I have some good friends, some of them i did not know how well.

This is Labor day weekend and Spokane has Pig out in the Park, tonight’s mtn bike ride might be an urban assult ride to riverfront to hear Too Slim & the Tailgators.

Gotta go.

Internet access is a lovely thing to have. I am parked on a side street in shade of tree in Chelan, WA. Lots of ties to Lake Chelan area from introduction back in ’70 on Safety Harbor fire and many subsequent visits for backpacking along upper shore of Lake Chelan to numerous mtn bike rides. Hot & dry w/ lots of sunburned / tanned tourists.

2 days ago I drove over the divide between Leavenworth & Entiat, an OK logging road system that spared me 40 miles of pavement. Drove to end of Entiat River road and then 4 miles up logging road to Entiat River TH. Too late in day to ride so I hiked 3 1/2 miles in on trail that I would ride to get a feel for a ride. these trails are closed to motorized travel so the tread should be in better shape, or so I reasoned. Hikers and horses pulverized the ground exposing roots and the pumice dirt underneath. Deep dry woods. My Sporttiva shoes are an open mesh upper. When i removed my shoes my shocks were dusty and my feet looked like I had been walking barefoot. Tomorrow’s ride could be slow and dusty.

I drove back down the road and found a spur road that was level and camped.

Wed Am I drove back up to TH and same cars were still in parking lot. Geared up & headed out. Trail was faster than I expected. Passed where I turned around yesterday. Trail climbed and I started hike a bike more frequently & longer. I reached the intersection of the dead end trail up to Pyramid Peak and stopped to access my desire. The trail climbed another 2300′ in 3.6 miles. I decided that I did not need to see the view from it’s summit. The trail climbed up to Grouse Pass @ 7400′ after pushing my bike over rocky sections. Up near the pass the tree cover changed to larch which to me is pretty. In the fall the needles change to a golden color and fall off. Too early for that this time. Trail dropped off pass. My reading of the small scale Green Trail maps indicated the trail would be mostly a traverse to trail junction dropping down the Entiat. Small scale maps lack detail and I paid the price as the trail had a few more ups. Sketchy ST bench cut into hillside w/ a bit of exposure. Pretty country.

Made the trail dropping down the river.  Made it back to TH unscathed. No berries at all.

AT TH my solar shower was hung off my van in the sunshine awaiting a toasty shower. The outside of the bag was hot, later I learned that the h2o was tepid even after soaking sun for almost 5 hours. Something about the air temp robbing some of the heat. I decided that nobody would be arriving @ the TH so I took a naked shower. I was soaping myself up when a white FS truck w/ lights on came around the bend. I covered myself w/ my towel. the guy waved @ me and said Hello. I asked if he minded and he said no so I dropped the towel and continued. He parked just out of the way and left me alone. I later thought that he might be writing me a ticket for nudity. He left and I sat in sun drying off.

I was planning on riding Devils’ backbone the next day from either Entiat or Chelan side. I figured I could ride up Lake Creek some 4000′ climb to access the ridge. I remember a nasty talus slope that we climbed up when I rode the backbone previously. It was serious carry a bike and I did not want to deal w/ that again. But I would ride out till that spot and turn around. Today when I drove down off the high point I decided that I didn’t really want to do this massive ride. I chose to drive to my next ride up above Twisp, Foggy Dew.

My memory of where I was during the fire of ’70 never gelled. I stopped @ the Entiat RS and asked for info on the fire. Tom, the rec staff guy about my age offered info. He said that I was there. An empty field was turned into a fire camp where we were flown by Chinook helicopter out to our spike camp. I don’t know where we dug line and camped for those 9 days and he didn’t either. Further conversation he told me the FS guy from yesterday told of interrupting a guy taking a shower. I introduced myself. I learned a bunch of stuff about protecting our forests from all kinds of user groups.

I stopped @ a produce stand and bought some tasty things and talked to 2 people working there who were interested in my adventures.

Shopped @ Safeway in Chelan and you are now caught up.

Off to Foggy Dew. I will drive to the upper TH saving myself a multi thousand foot steep logging road climb. Cheating, maybe.

Yesterday after the Freund canyon ride I treated myself to an ice cream cone and later a beer. Then I drove out to Lake Wenatchee SP for a shower and then up Chiwawa river road up Chikamin road. I remember finding berries @ 3000′ or so on my ride there several days ago. I stopped just past where the trail kissed the road and walked into the woods. I found berries but nowhere near the quantity and quality that I found on the other trail. I picked enough for Bfast but not enough for a larder. Next idea was to drive to the upper TH and hike down on the other trail. The road kept going up on a single lane gravel road.

The road dead ended and I camped. Tonight I will have a view of the sky that had been missing; however I was in the shade of a ridge blocking out tomorrow Am sun. Cold clear night. At 7:00 AM it was 37 degrees and I was cold. The sun created the ridge about 9:00 and I set out to check out berries where I was camped. Wow! I scored w/o hiking. I now have about 2 1/2 sandwich baggies of frozen berries. This is special as I had none last year because of my travels and the year before in greater Spokane there were none. Blueberry pancakes for Bfast!

Pot score fell thru as my man told me he was an hour late getting to his connection and by then the cops had busted the connection. Moving on.

Got my hair cut and beard trimmed in Leavenworth.

Plan now is to drive up Entiat River to ride Cathedral Peak. Might see where I spent almost 2 weeks back in ’70 fighting a forest fire.

Cooler temps are much enjoyed.