Day 6 - Winthrop to Tonasket

Well today was definitely not a rest day.
The morning started out great leaving Winthrop. I had about 15 miles to get to Twisp before heading up Loop Loop Pass. I was on the road by 0600 trying to beat the heat today. It didn't work!

I passed by the smoke jumpers training site just outside of Winthrop.  No one was there today. They were all gone fighting local fires.

I stopped in Twisp to get breakfast and some back up foods. The whole town was full of firefighters and  their equipment. I heard people talking about how many homes were already lost it in the area.

I wanted to make it over Loop Loop pass before they closed the road. Otherwise I would have had to detour about 70 miles and maybe still run into closed roads because of the fires. 

About 4 miles up the climb a man stopped on the way down and told me that I would not make it to the top of the pass before they closed the road. The fire was already getting close to the top of the mountain. He said I should turn around and go back down. I said I'm a firefighter! I run to fires not away from them you whimp! ..... (Just kidding..I told him thank you and continued at the pass).

The ashes and embers were starting to get pretty intense but I was making sure that I still had a way back down. About a mile from the top  a lady own her way  down stopped and told me that they had evacuated the area.  I knew it was time to get to the top as quick as possible. I flagged down the next truck coming by and ask for a ride. I got a ride with David who was from Twisp. We made it to the top in just about 10 minutes. When we got to the top David asked the firefighters when they were closing the road. They said its closed now! We are doing air drops for fire suppression in the next 5 minutes. ( I guess the ride was a good call) 

David let me out just over the top of the pass. Other than the smoke, embers and ash, it was a blast going down.

I had to go further than planned today because of the fires. It worked out great because the town that I stopped in has three members of Warm Showers. Warm Showers is a group of members that offer free places to stay for bicyclist.

I am staying at the visitors center tonight with my own private bath and campsite and its free!

I'm met George today coming into town and he showed me where to stay. He is also a member of Warm Showers. George is avid cyclist from the area.  He told me about a different route to take other than the adventure cyclist route I had planed for tomorrow. The route will take me into Canada tomorrow and link back up to the adventure cycle route in a couple of days.

I will probably be without cell service till I get back into the United States. I will continue to update the blog when I get back.

Pictures from the day show the ride. You can't see much but the smoke, the mountains were there.