Last night in Vantage was quite pleasant given how windy it can be there. The breeze we got was just enough to cool us down and mask the freeway sounds during the night.
We woke up to a high overcast, which many of us viewed with relief since the day before had been over 100 deg. The only way across the Columbia River is the freeway bridge, I-90. Since we had an 82 mile day ahead of us, we started early with a biscuit and gravy breakfast at the restaurant in Vantage.
There wasn't much traffic on the bridge, but we had quite a bit climbing the slope out of the river. It's a beautiful climb, especially with no headwinds. Conditions were perfect except for the broken down semi and trailer blocking the shoulder about halfway up.
We crested that climb and enjoyed a well-earned snack in George, Washington. They had a very cool Farm News billboard there.
From there, the route tended north away from the Interstate. We headed toward Ephrata and Soap Lake. Ephrata was quite an active place, and provided us with a Subway Sandwich stop for our brunch.
After Ephrata, it was 40 miles of desert, big farms, and the accompanying railroad tracks and irrigation canals. Quite a remarkable landscape all is all. Before Ephrata, we had picked up a headwind and it only got worse. Scott and I teamed up with various people through the day to ride together into the wind visit. The group on the Big Ride this year seems all quite sociable and an interesting group. We're all mixing freely and no exclusive cliques seem to have formed.
We rode through an hour of light rain showers, climbing further from the great Columbia River toward the Spokane Plateau. We gained a thousand feet today from last nights camp and only climbed a little over 2000 to get that.
I had some psychological challenges today as we pushed into a headwind for 40 miles. My body is doing well, although my legs were tired today. No saddle sores for a change and only the usual sore shoulders, but nothing serious including my knees. It rained on us in camp for a while too, but my tent is stout and my will is strong! On to Spokane tomorrow and a visit with my Dad.