Edmonds, Wa. End of First Leg

Day 5 The Longest Short Day

I rode through the beautiful Cascade mountains today, but unfortunately I didn't get to see very much of them.

https://stateofwatourism.com/not-to-miss-stops-…

The rain started on the eastern slope heading up Stevens pass. Not much at first, just enough to sting my face and require wiping my sunglasses occasionally with my glove. I usually ride with my helmet visor up because it is too stuffy if I close it, and it fogs up when it rains. As I got closer to the top there was one of those large road information signs and it was flashing the message "Chains required on all vehicles except all wheel drive"!

As you can see in one of the pictures Stevens pass is a nice 4 lane road, but only at the top. As the rain increased in intensity the road decreased in width, back down to a twisty two lane road where the white line was the shoulder. I slowed down and could occasionally find a wide spot to pull over to let cars pass. One very encouraging person thought he could make my journey down the hill easier by pulling up behind me as close as he could so that his headlights would light up the road ahead of me. When I finally found a wide spot to pull over and let him pass he continued to offer me encouragement by honking his horn and giving me a friendly wave.

Google maps said 2 hours 52 minutes. Today they were wrong.Read more