Day 8: Flowery Trail Pass to Usk/Cusick

Day 8 The Alternative Route to Usk
The lesson concerning alternative routes, cagers (car drivers) have no concept of incline. After deciding to not to eat lunch in Chewelah the climb began with a vengeance. About a quarter mile up, I was riding past the towns cemetery knees buckling, looking for an open grave to lie down and take a break in. Plugging along at less than 4 miles an hour. Taking frequent brakes. Standing up and pedal to stretch out the knotted back. Grinding along. A nice woman in town ran out into a parking lot to wish us luck and tell us that she road and that it was nine mile climb and it flattens out between mile 5 and 6.
So as the knees buckled I looked for mile markers wish to see mile 5 and make it to mile 9. Around mile 2 I caught up with Stillwater Susan as she walked her bike and BOB along. After a couple photos I pressed onward and upward. A mile later I caught Oregon Bill and NJ Diane walking their BOB/Bike combos. We chatted for a minute and noticed a deer watching us. Diane rode with me for about 5 minutes the got out of breath and stopped. I took a couple pics then we say Bill still walking and only 200 feet behind. She figured walking would be more efficient and continued to walk with Bill. I rode on toward the summit, losing track of the mile markers, never noticing the flat area around the five mile mark. I pulled off at a wide spot and took a short break and notice a mile marker…it looked like it could be a 9 but I was disappointed to find it read 8. I made it the last mile and found SoCal Rick’s red panniered bike leaning against a guard rail knew it was over. I‘d laid in the grass for ’bout an hour when Diane and Bill finished the days hike-a-bike section. We took pictures to celebrate another summit victory then began discussions about what to do for Susan. I mentioned I had acquired a BOB skewer from Kevin and thought either Rick or I should switch out skewers drop our panniers and descend to get Susan’s BOB. About that time a spotted a cyclist coming around the final bend and told everyone Susan had made it but someone noticed the bike wasn’t pulling a BOB and then it was mentioned that the rider was on a mountain bike. Well it wasn’t Susan it was the woman we had met in the parking lot of her dentist in town. She had finished her appointment and gone home then ridden up and was surprised and pleased to she told us a lot about the area and was about to leave when the phone rang. It was Susan, she had already reached our destination, Usk. She had gotten a ride to the top after I passed her and was first to summit but started to get cold so came down and started scouting for a dry place to stay. We descended. Her efforts paid off and I typing this from the comfort of an RV parks clubhouse. The hostess here is so kind she even had her husband cook extra hamburgers for us. We are showered, laundered and ready for sleep.

Kevin was the last to arrive he said he had checked the incline of the road several times and got readings of 8, 9, and 10 % on the climb, by far the steepest yet.