Day 5: Twisp, WA

Journal for 2016-09-16 | Published on 2016-09-17 19:47:07

Woke up this morning to a brisk 39F. Neither Pam or Matt were feeling very good but knew we needed to get down into a town for supplies. We bundled up with plenty of layers for the downhill ride into Mazama. It was a nice, but cold ride down, went pretty quick.

We were now heading into the Methow Valley along Highway 20. There is plenty of farmland and pine tree covered mountains on each side.

After Mazama the route leaves the 20 for a side road which was a quiet ride. A short while later we rolled into Winthrop which is a town from the past, the main drag is all these old fronted stores. It is a neat place, and the outdoor store is very well stocked. We were able to get new filter to replace the one we lost yesterday.

We paused for lunch and the bakery at the end of town. Pam was feeling very bad and we decided that we needed to take a day or two off to recover from our colds. The nearest place we could find that had any room was in Twisp so we reluctantly biked over that way.

Along the way we passed the North Cascades Smoke Jumpers Center and decided to pause. A smoke jumper came up to us and gave us a tour of the whole operation. We got to see the operations room where they dress up and pack the chutes when done.

To Matt's surprise they still jump with circular chutes, but that may change in the next few years. All in all they jump in with about 50-100 lbs of gear, do their work and then hike out to the nearest road. It was a cool tour and definitely worth a stop if you are in the area, we even got to go in the plane and check it out.

Finally, we slogged into a slight headwind and made our way into Twisp. We stopped at the drug store and grocery store, then made our way to our accommodations. With super runny noses and coming out of 2 hardy days biking we were a hot mess. With some showers and cold medicine, we settled in for the night.