Entiat to Pateros

Today Carrie was motivated. To avoid the heat of the day she was determined to get us to Pateros as early as possible. In hindsight her motivation saved us from turning to goo.

The morning started warm, even at 7:30. The ride to Chelan went quickly. Time flies when the riding is pleasant. We took the county road instead of the highway. The landscape changed from high desert to alpine. It was nice to see trees again.

Once we left Chelan and the lake it’s named after the landscape reverted to high desert. With no pine trees to shade us the sun got down to business. The dry climate is tricky because your sweat evaporates so quickly that it’s hard to tell how much to drink. To be safe we sipped from our bottles frequently.

We arrived in Pateros around 1:00, just as the heat was getting to be a burden. In Pateros however the Columbia River provided a little natural air conditioning. We found the free “paddlers and pedalers” campsite at the edge of downtown near a boat launch, where we tucked in under a tree to stay cool.

That evening we ate a 16″ pizza in the yard at the local cafe. We splurged because camping was free and we ate the whole thing because it was in front of us and pizza is impossible to resist.

As the sun sank so did the temperature, until it was cool enough to lay in our tent. As we were about to doze off the city lit about twenty minutes worth of fireworks. They were celebrating motorcycles I think. The fireworks sounded like motorcycles anyways, which is a hard noise to lull you to sleep.

48.5 miles
Food $25.80+$10.50+$2.99+$20.87
Camping $0