From the sea...to Sherman

Sherman Pass, that is! Yesterday we went over the fourth and final big pass in Washington. We huffed and puffed up 3000 feet then zoomed down 4000 feet...quite a bit of rain but not too bad over all. The descent was fun, not scary steep, though my hands were getting numb so I had to stop before they stopped working. The best part of the ride down was watching Nancy ahead of me. In addition to her cool color scheme - lime high vis vest, purple wind jacket, and orange paniers (saddle bags) - she is a competent rider and seeing her in the context of the forested mountain road added scale and perspective to the scene. Our map says we have covered about 340 miles of the route since the coast but my bike computer which also tracks our canoodling around to campsites, stores, and the occasional missed turn has us at 380 miles. We are now in Colville, WA, taking a combo rest and weather day. Yesterday after coming down from the pass we crossed Roosevelt Lake which is the part of the Columbia River that is backed up by the Grand Coolee Dam. Yesterday evening there was a big lightening storm (well, big for us) and more was predicted for today so we are taking a day off to recover and we are expecting better conditions tomorrow.