Our plan for today was to quickly pack and be on the road by 10, so that we could make it about 90 miles to Cle Elum along I-90. However, Travis hadn't begun packing, and in fact didn't even have his panniers yet. He ran off to buy those and get a map before packing, so we got off to a late start, leaving his house for Alki Beach at 12:45 pm. Originally, we had wanted to start at Ocean Shores, WA but our ride there fell through, so we ended up starting on Puget Sound. It felt like cheating to start with 100 miles of the country west of us, but as Travis pointed out "it's saltwater and there are whales." We did the traditional tire dip there, before starting on the bike route through Seattle to Interstate-90.
On the trail, we met Irv Latta, a Denver native living in Seattle. He led us on a nice route that avoided about 5 miles of interstate on a bike paths in the shade. Once on the interstate, however, it was brutal. Snoqualmie pass rises from near sea level to 3,022 feet, with only two down hill sections. Travis was keeping a grueling pace that I struggled with. The scenery, however, was spectacular with deep green forests and mountains reminiscent of the Rockies that I'm used to. But most of the time my eyes were down, looking for debris in the road.
One very nice Washington driver took the time to slow his truck down and inform me that I was a f*^$ing idiot who was going to get f*^$ing killed. Admittedly the interstate isn't the safest or best place to ride, but it was still sad that we hadn't made it 30 miles into the trip without being accosted.
After struggling up the hill for what seemed like an eternity, we saw a sign that said there was a Chevron Food Mart at the next exit, and as night was falling, decided to make that our stopping point. The miles continued to countdown painstakingly slowly and the pass was continuous uphill with a hefty grade for the final 5 miles to the summit. At last, there was a sign that indicated one mile to the exit. I'd never been so happy to see a convenience store.
I bought the nastiest chicken breast I've ever had, and that's saying something given my state of hunger. But with darkness approaching we quickly ate and looked for the first place off the road where we could pitch a tent. We found one in an abandoned parking lot, made some hot chocolate, checked text messages and went to bed at 11 pm. Tomorrow we get to reap the downhill benefits of our hard work from today!
| Time | Trip | Odometer | Average | Max |
| 6:40:12 | 75.2 | 75 | 11.2 | 32.6 |
