Day Eight: June 17

I suppose life has a way of turning things around, where at the end of the day you know you did the right thing. This morning we left Waconda around 8:00.it was three miles to the top of Waconda Pass, some miles almost all downhill and through the town of Republic. once we hit the town of Republic look for mile marker 305, then you know it's 20 miles to the top of Sherman's pass at an elevation of almost 6000 feet. We knew this meant for an extremely long day because not only are we carrying around more cargo than needed, Nick is now dealing with a raw a**, sore knee and who knows whatever else... let me get to the point; we were supposed to sit back in the saddle and climb literally one pedal stroke at a time. Nick in front of me so i can watch whistler from behind and me behind wanting to go in front to push a little harder. With Nick just being sore and tired from multiple days of climbing he mentions how he would love to have someone give us a ride to the top of Sherman's pass. I admit I too thought the same idea in my head, but at the same time knew how much I wanted to take on the challenge. So outside of the town grocery store we sat fueling up and yes asking around anyone with a truck if they were heading our direction. It was becoming silly wasting time and we knew we were going to have to get a move on in order to finish the climb before dark; well we thought we knew, but little did we actually know we would meet Bill. Bill became the man who not only became a friend in a matter of minutes, but also the man who helped save us from running into another long freezing night camped out by the side of the road. We began chatting with Bill and before we knew it we were all loaded up in the back of his truck making our way up up up... In my heart I know we could have accomplished this climb and this part of me still wishes I would have tried, but at the same time my family is more important and making sure of their safety is too. We talked and listened to each other all the way to the top of the pass, laughing at what we would of been climbing and how long it truthfully would have taken us. Honestly as heavy add our load is, sore and tired we were, and late in the day as it was we would have taken a very long time to reach the top. We aren't on this trip to prove anything to anyone and we don't have any rules we have to follow, so as the gentlemen we met yesterday, passed today by truck up the hill, later says to us cheated, I say to him no we didn't, we are doing our own bike trip cross country with our own mapping. We are having our own family vacation and making memories. Bill by far is one of our greatest memories and if we didn't meet him today this memory wouldn't exist. So for me personally, I know I could have climbed to the top , but I don't need to do it to by myself and if my family wasn't there too then in the truck with them and Bill is where I needed to be. We reached the top and what a beautiful picture it was, chilly indeed. We continued chatting a bit longer, whistler played with his tractors as happy as he could be and then we set for 17 miles of downhill adrenaline rush. We were happy! We continued biking past kettle falls into the next town of Colville, where we decided to stay for the night. we actually got to get ahead a day and make more daylight time for whistler to ride his bike... Miles biked today: 54 Approximate biking time:4:51