"Yeah, you've got about 62 miles or so to Anacortes."

After one complete and total day of sitting in a barn doing almost absolutely nothing, we decided to brave the weather and leave. Ben left around 11:30. We left at 3:30, which turned out to be a mistake.

We stopped at the "funky" local store recommended by our friend Troy. The woman watching the house for the actual owners, Karen, worked at the Manzama Store. The food was great but by the time we were getting ready to leave, it was pouring down rain.

Around 6:20 it finally stopped. So at 6:30, with dusk falling at 6:45, we began climbing our final (2) pass and entering the Northern Cascades National Park.

Less than an hour later, we snuck into a campground 5 miles into the climb. Before the sun had come up, we had left. Well, I left Josh behind and began the last 13 miles to the top. Despite the frigid temperature, it appeared to be a beautiful day on the way.

A great swath of haze clumped at the bottom of many of the mountains but I anticipated, with time, the sun would break the mist up. 

The winding road with flanking evergreens dissipated to long rocky outcroppings. The valley became nearly three times as wide. It slowly began to rain.

It didn't seem to be much of a problem at first until it really started to pour. Would you believe that I ripped my rain jacket (trash bag) in half the day before? Still yet to make it to the top of the mountain, I was drenched in water, and pedaling just to generate heat. 

Getting up close to the top, I saw a sign reading "Washington Pass Overlook." I went praying only for a hand dryer to attempt to dry my gloves or warm my hands. 

Indeed, up at the overlook there were several bathroom. There was also a closed Rest Area that I tried breaking into but then didn't. In none of the eight bathrooms was there any dryers. This is where things got sad.

It was pouring outside and I was shivering cold. I pushed my bicycle into the personal bathroom and changed clothes. No longer with any dry "winter" clothes and my body's extremities going numb, I unraveled my sleeping bag and slipped inside, pulling it over my head, breathing heavily to conduce heat. Peaking out, and looking at the bathroom strewn with all of my things, it suddenly occured to me... This is how people die.

Somewhere in close proximity with this thought, it stopped raining and the sun came out. I joyfully walked back out amongst the living and took a gander at the Washington Overlook, now in the gleaming sun.

"What's your name?" said an attractive miss atop the mountain.

"Uh, Ralph," I said bashfully. "What's yours?"

Leah had done me a favor hitting on me, giving a little boost to my self-confidence after a very long and dirty four months. She was with her class from Gonzaga and once they heard what I was doing, I was surrounded, which was cool. I was really laid back and weird about the whole ordeal, talking pretty monotone and glancing casually over the view. I was pretty lame. I had also just come back to life from the bathroom floor.

Venturing back on Highway 20, I ran into Josh going up to the Overlook. He was not as cold as me. Anyhow, it was finally time to go down Washington Pass....

And then climb a few more feet to than reach the aptly named, "Rainy Pass."

Guess what it started to do again here at "Rainy Pass?"

The downhill was the best of the entire trip. For starters, it wasn't an exceptionally steep one. I could watch the trees and mountains drift by without anxiously watching the sharp turn at the bottom of the hill and wondering if I'm going too fast. Secondly, the landscape was unbelievable.

The fog that hovered around the mountains made everything have a magical quality. It felt like some kind of Cloud Kingdom. Then, when the whole mountainside turned into a thick jungle of wet forest, I didn't know where I was. To top all of this off, I went over Diablo Lake. You need to google this place because I didn't get any pictures that do the color justice. The bluest blue you have ever seen.

Around this time, I rendezvoused with Josh. He was now freezing cold. And it was now absolutely pouring cats and dogs out. With my backup pair of clothes now soaked, Operation Get-To-A-Motel ASAP went into effect. If I stopped, I'd get cold. I had to keep biking.

So that's what I did.

After I exited the Park after the town Newhailem(?), things flattened out a bit and the woods took on yet another. Everything was covered in some sort of fungus. All the trees had a thick green layer of moss dangling off of them. I had entered a rain forest.

I'm in Marblemount and the days are numbered.