G.A.S.P.

The next morning in Colville, we saw a freight train go by (double-stack container cars) being pulled by no less than 12 engines. I think that’s a record sighting for me, and gave us pause for thought relative to the steepness of the upcoming North Cascade Mountain Range. From Colville, we went downhill for a few miles to Kettle Falls where we crossed the Columbia River – actually it’s a lake (Franklin D. Roosevelt) at that point, backed up from the Grand Coulee Dam 100 or so miles downstream. Then we climbed for 23 miles (mild until the last 7 miles) up Highway 20 to Sherman Pass at 5575’ elevation. Since we started the climb at the river where the elevation was about 1500’, this was the second longest climb I’ve made. It felt like it too! From the top, it was all downhill to Republic, where we camped at another County Fairgrounds site. Just before Republic, a mother deer and two fawns started to cross the road just ahead of me, then saw me and stopped. They just stood there for about 30 seconds, while I came to a halt and started fumbling with my camera, but turned around and fled for the woods before I could get their photo.