Day 6

JUNE 14 Republic to Colville
I woke up freezing the morning in Republic. The day had been warm and I forgot that the town is situated at 3000 ft above sea level, so all my warm clothes were packed. Around 6:30 dad and I made our way into Clifford and Judy's house. When we got there, Clifford offered to make us oatmeal for breakfast, which sounded delicious. The oats turned out to fill only half the bowl; the rest was piled high with dried fruit... apricots, craisens, prunes... as well as sliced bananas. The mixture was so sweet I didn't even need to add sugar (which means a lot, coming from a Sugar addict like me!) That was probably the best bowl of oatmeal I've ever eaten.
Surprisingly, Shurman Pass, the highest we crossed in Washington at 5575 ft, was one of the easier climbs (and not just because we started at 3000 ft.) It was the first pass that I didn't agonize over each mile to the summit. The downhill took us 20 miles, right up to the shore of Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, which is a part of the Columbia River. The last part of our ride into Colville was over rolling hills, which went rather easily, although both of us were tired and our tempers were beginning to fray.
In Colville, we camped at the fairgrounds, along with Steve, Michael, and Jerry. Shortly after dad and I arrived, a husband and wife on a tandem rolled into camp. Greg and Caroline are from Michigan, and I'm amazed that they are crossing the country on a tandem... I'd want some time apart from who I was riding with. Right after Greg and Caroline, Bob, the camp manager, walked over. "Hello, folks. I'm Bob. What're your names?"
"I'm Chip and this is my son, Seth." My dad replied. After that, whenever Bob talked to us, he used our first name, which always made me feel rather welcome.
"Well, Chip, 't's $10 for the night. And there's a rodeo goin' on tonight you folks might all enjoy." After Bob left, I rode first over to the library with Michael, and then to the store with dad. Back at camp, Bob came over again to show us some "shortcuts" along the road the next couple of days. "So, Steve, you can see here this is the route your maps show to get to Usk" (a city on the way to Sandpoint, or destination for Monday) his finger traced traced the roads along the map. Then he moved his finger along a different path, "The maps say this road is 'undeveloped' but it's all smooth asphalt. There is a little climb in the middle, though. Nothing you can't handle."
"How high?" asked Steve, nervously.
"Well, you can see the mountains in Canada from it's top. Le'see here..." he searched on the map for the height, "5700 ft." We all looked at each other with wide eyes.
"That would be our highest climb so far! We'll be going a different way." Steve said, "We're through with passes."
Dad was going to go to the rodeo, but after dinner, we both decided we were too tired, and would rather stay at camp (which was basically right next to the rodeo anyway) to read (Crime and Punishment is my summer reading project... thanks Mr. Soles!) and catch up in our journals. We read and wrote for the next three hours, then at 10 we tried to go to bed while loud country music played for an after-rodeo dance. Actually, falling asleep wasn't that hard; after riding my bike all day, I usually feel that I could fall asleep on a pile of rocks.

P.S. I posted twice today, so you might want to look at the post before this as well!