Winthrop Gravel Tour

Intro

Cascade Bicycle Club added a new tour lite to their repertoire this year, the Winthrop Gravel Tour. They now have a total of seven tour lites in place of the annual Ride Around WA (RAW) week-long ride they did in the past. A tour lite is a 3-day ride event that originates each day from the same location. Because we wouldn’t be riding from a new location each day, the need to transport gear isn’t necessary.

I created all the badges for the tours. For Winthrop, they used it on a cup they gave all the registered riders.

A few weeks before the Winthrop tour, I received my jersey.

Drive Day

Getting out of Seattle is always a chore in the summer and it took me nearly five hours to drive to Pearrygrin Lake State Park where I would be camping over the next few nights. All that driving had me full of unspent energy when I arrived, so after setting up my tent and unloading my bike, I decided to ride into town a back (around 7.4 miles round trip). On the way to town, I stopped and was within feet of a doe.

While in town, Ally (from Adventure Cyclist) sent me a text saying she arrived at the campsite and wanted to know which site we were in. I told her and said I would be back in about 15 minutes or so. Ally would be camping with me during the tour. I’m a member of Adventure Cyclist and always look forward to the magazine. I especially liked the latest issue that included a story about bikepacking the San Juan Islands and about taking photos during rides (Ally co-wrote the story).

That night, I didn’t sleep as well as I would have liked, having to get up around four times to pee (probably from all the water I drank on the car ride there).

Ride Day One

I got up around 7am and ran through the shower before putting on my bike shorts and jersey. I managed to eat a cooked sausage I had brought and a little bit of coffee and bread before we hopped onto our bikes and rode into town to the Red Barn where the tour would start each day. We were to meet at 8:30am.

It took forever to sign up and for the safety briefing to finish. We didn’t get to start riding until nearly 9:20am. I talked to some friends I rode with in the past and took some photos to kill some time.

I was anxious to get riding and was one of the first to push off.

The first part of the route was on paved roads. Close to Sun Mountain Lodge, we turned onto a gravel forest road and the first rest stop. I stopped and took a moment to drink some water before tackling the long, steep climb that was 6.4 miles and 1,507 feet elevation gain. Since my ebike doesn’t have gears, I would ride as far as I could, then take a five minute break to bring my heart rate down a bit (it felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest). Over the entire route, my elevation gain was 3,081 feet! In spite of the climb, the scenery was breath-taking and I was really enjoying the ride. I didn’t exactly like the downhill, though, since feared sliding and crashing my bike. There were also sections of washboard ruts that really rattled my body.

At the lunch stop, I spent about 30 minutes eating a really good ham & swiss sandwich with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato and pickles on it and keeping Allison company. I usually hate pickles on my sandwich (though I love pickles), so I was surprised how good it tasted! I was keeping Allison company because RJ’s keys got locked in his car and without any cell service, he had to go into town to call AAA for help.

When I got back to the finish, I got my souvenir tee shirt and then rode back to the state park. Once there, I took a nice hot shower and changed clothes. This state park is one of the few that offered hot showers for free (you usually have to pay for the hot water).

It was so blazing hot (close to 90°) with little shade, so I decided to drive into town for something to drink and kill some time. The car was scorching when I first got in, but cooled nicely after a few minutes.

After buying a hat and a soda in town, I decided to drive back to Allison’s location to see if RJ made it back. He hadn’t and Allison was glad for the company. I also saw Ally when she checked in with Davíd (one of outriders and also Cascade staff). I stayed until around 3:30pm and there were still around 30 or so riders that hadn’t arrived yet. When I left, I noticed that my car was covered in dirt from the drive to the stop.

After killing some more time in town, I sent a text to Ally to see if she was going to ride back to town or wanted me to pick her up. She had ridden the 50-mile route with even more elevation gain and was quite tired, so I headed back to the park to pick her up.

After her shower, we then drove to the Methow Valley Cider House where we all were gathering for a post-ride social. I was starving and woofed down a brat and some fries. I also got to collect my souvenir cup with the logo I designed. I even got a photo of Davíd who was styling in a matching shirt, shorts and sunglasses.

By 6:30pm, I was dragging and asked Ally if she was ready to go (she was). A lot of people were starting to leave because they were tired.

Back at camp, I started charging my bike batteries, then crawled into my tent. I think I was asleep by 9pm. While I did sleep better than the night before, I still got up twice to pee (the first time, I asked the campers next to us to please tone it down since it was after 10pm and they were quite noisy. I hated to ruin their fun, but quite hours were in effect and I was so darn tired.

Tour Day 2

I woke up with a massive headache, stuffy nose, and upset stomach. The headache and nose issue were probably from all the dirt I rode in yesterday. The stomach has been an ongoing issue and one that is being investigated by my doctor (who suspects a GI bleed). This issue has resulted in anemia, fatigue, and dark, tarry stool. I sure hope we get it figured out and treated before STP…I will be really irked if I can’t ride it this year!

Given my health concerns, I didn’t want to push it and ride more gravel today. My shoulders and arms were also very sore from yesterday. I told Ally that my plan was to pack up and drive back home.

On the drive home, I stopped to take photos along Hwy 20 since it’s so beautiful.

In spite of cutting the weekend short, I did enjoy my time in Winthrop and getting to know Ally better. I’m hoping to see her on another ride in the future.