I'm still riding with Patrick and Chris, up into the North Cascades National Park and scenic highway. It's a 3500-foot climb up Washington Pass, yet another of the big humps we've crossed in Washington. But glorious.

On the way up it looked like forest fires and their smoke were going to make our passage less than picturesque. It was just plain smoke as we left Winthrop; the sun was a red ball in the sky at midday. But it cleared with the afternoon, and we climbed into incredible sharp glacier-cut valleys.

The valleys are like none I've ever seen: There was no obvious pass out of the huge, jagged, glacier-cut cliffs all around us. But at the last moment the road cut up the side of one of the cliffs and over a knoll into a higher valley. The knoll was Washington Pass. It's incredible, though - the mountains were still steep on every side. It's not like the passes I've crossed before!

On Friday we spent most of the day hiking some glorious trails that gave us huge (and mostly smoke-free) views of the Cascades, incredible endless mountains. One set of peaks was completely enclosed with a glacier.

Finally we started down the mountain at about 4:45pm. We'd eaten all our food, so had to make it to the next town, 37 miles down. When we got there we found the store closed so Patrick led and we drafted and really screamed for the 15 miles to the next town as darkness closed around us. A glorious day.