Northern Tier Adventure part II: Seattle to St. Paul: Day 8: To Republic, WA

Wed, May 31, 2017
Stats: Today - 50 miles; 395 miles to date
Elevation climbed: 3622 ft; 14,431 feet to date
Temp. Low: lower 60's, High: mid 70's
No wind, light cloud cover

This morning we had to pack up a wet tent as this was the first night we had rain while sleeping in the tent. After saying good bye to our hosts, we were off to Shannon's Restaurant for breakfast with our new friends Nick and Spencer. Back on day two we mentioned we met them under a bridge outside of Anacortes. Since then we've seen them a few times as they are traveling the same (Northern Tier) route we are. They are also writing a blog, aslightdetour.wordpress.com.

After breakfast, we went to a grocery store to buy food to help get us through the climb over Wacounda Pass.

From the grocery store we were soon out of town heading for the climb. About a mile and a half out of town we saw a sign that said "Canadian border 22 miles" and realised we took the wrong highway. After backtracking we found Hwy 20 and started climbing immediately.

The first four and a half miles were steep, then it got much better. The grade varied. Similar to our climb up to Rainy and Washington Passes, much of it was around two percent, much of it around four percent and some stretches around six percent. Also similar to Washington Pass, we rode twenty-seven miles to the pass and about half of it was level or downhill. So, we estimated we actually were climbing about thirteen to fourteen miles on each mountain.

After another break at the top and pictures, we zoomed down the eastern side to the town of Republic, ate supper at a restaurant, went to a grocery store to by food to get us through the next day's climb up to Sherman Pass, and headed to our campsite three miles east of town at the Ferry County Fairgrounds. There have been no food stops along the way on the mountains, so if we are climbing for six to nine hours we have to bring enough food and water to get us through.