6/22/17 Ride C2C Day 5 Brewster to Riverside

6/23/17 Day 5. Brewster to Riverside
Miles: 41 Total Miles: 258.5

When 40 miles feels like 65 on our rest day, our butts are screaming, and ended at a lovely RV park & Tent camping in the grass.
Hot Tip: Hot gravel is good for your back
Wish I had: a 60 mile butt.

We were set for an easy day, yet it wasn’t. Our tailwind friend turned into a day long headwind struggle. Instead of cruising at 20mph like the day before, we suffered at 11 miles an hour, trading “pulls” every 3 minutes to break up the effort. That said, it was really a beautiful ride. Way different than the north cascades - gone are the forests now replaced with rolling dry hillsides and rock walls carved by glaciers.

We started high on a plateau above the Columbia (old highway 97) through cherry and apple orchards for as far as you can see. Sadly, it smelled nothing like growing fruit and only like pesticides which made me feel slightly nauseous and junky in my lungs. It's HOT (in the 80’s) but the wind helps us to feel cooler. Our mouths are dry.

At about 16 miles (it seemed like 30) I call it for a snack - there is no where out of the sun, so we just pull to the side of the road. A farmer came along and we had a fun chat - him telling us that he’s done the Bellingham Ski to Sea race before and that there is one like it in Omak. The random meetings with people along the way is what makes this trip so fun.

We stop at Mallot (consisting of a gas station and a country store, plus the “Mallot Improvement Club” community center) and enjoy a cold Gatorade while sitting in the shade of the porch at the store. We beg for mercy from the wind and get none.

At Okanogan we stop for lunch at the Dawg House and had salads and delicious homemade soup - beef barley - that had brisket they had smoked out back. So good!

Omak was just a few miles away, the we took the Omak-Riverside Eastside road for the 8 miles to Riverside. Quiet road with the relentless headwind...finally had to stop for food again and a rest.

Hot Tip: Hot Gravel...We both laid down in the gravel on the side of the road and discovered our own hot stone massage. My back was extra tired with the added effort of riding into a headwind - so this makeshift hot stone massage was very soothing. Who knew?

We pulled into Margie’s RV camp at about 3:30pm. What a welcome site! For $10 we have a grass tent site, picnic benches, a fire pit with wood, hot showers, and access to coin-op laundry. It didn’t take us long to decide that we’d have a layover day at our sweet camp spot.

I’ve firmly determined that I have a 50 mile butt: I’m ok in the saddle for that long. After 50, it gets expensive (painful). The ride today seemed so much longer because of the headwind - I’m sure my butt duration will grow, but the day off will help along with soothing my aching legs. My muscles feel used and tired and are ready for a break.

We made a 2-stage spaghetti dinner on our 1-burner camp stove, along with a little box of wine (I know, I know - but a bottle is too heavy). We loaded up the fire pit, had a big fire and chatted with one of the RV residents who we determined later was quite pickled.