Day 12 Over the pass

North Bend to Cle Elum 63 Miles 6 hours and 20 minutes of riding time.

Up at 6:30, but with eating, packing the bike and blogging hit the road at 9:30. How is that possible? I think it is correct.

Just beyond North Bend the road is steep for a few miles and steep again for a few miles near the summit, but the grade is pretty reasonable for much of the middle distance. As the road steepens, I gear down to keep the work steady, but with a slower pace. Now rather than thinking of % of grade I think of 3 mph grade, 4 mph grade etc. On the steep parts I went 4 or 5 mph with only one brief dip to 3 mph. I was helped by a substantial tail wind augmented by the draft off of the big rigs. The draft is not the same for every big truck, but I have not figured out what body shape creates the better draft. Unlike more bold cyclists I stayed away from the fog line and thereby sacrificed some of what Dwight called the traffic draft. Made the summit at 12:30. After a bean and cheese burrito from the summit grocery store I had my first nap of the trip.

I had planned to use the John Wayne Trail over Snoqualmie and the old highway over Blewett, but was informed by a denizen of North Bend that neither would be possible since both are still snow covered. It turned out that riding the freeway was not that bad. I wore ear plugs to reduce the noise and the traffic seemed to be pretty light so that there were times when I was actually alone for a few moments.

The difference between flotsom and jetsom is that one is stuff that was cast overboard to lighten a foundering ship and the other is stuff that floated away from a foundered ship. I can never remember which is which or how to spell them. There's lots of both on the sides of the interstates making them collectively the largest Wall Mart of them all, measuring some 4,000 by 2,000 miles of goods available for free. It is mildly inconvenient that the merchandise is randomly shelved, but that lends an air of surprise to the shopping. The stuff also hints at many stories of loss and dismay. There is somebody who no doubt rues the loss of the 7/16 wrench that I picked up. The universal joint I passed on speaks of a drive line of a family size car that fell apart while trying to take someone somewhere for some reason.

Passed 500 miles on my ride today

Stayed in a wonderful freshly refitted motel in Cle Elem.

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