Pateros to Wenatchee FIRE! The Chelan Hills fire started yesterday, burning tens of thousands of acres right along the road we took today. Megan tried to get local bus tickets from Pateros to Wenatchee but they require at least 24h notice when travelling with a bike, so we decided to try our luck with riding. This morning the latest news said the road had been reopened and the wind was calm, however, another fire had started on the opposite side of the highway. Sigh. Thankfully, we were able to get through, at one point with flames about 15' away as we rode by. There were a couple of flying boats, a helicopter with a water bag, and 4 or 5 single engine turboprop planes with floats all picking up river water to dump on the fire. There was some smoke but it didn't seem that bad. Aside from the fire excitement, we had a couple of quiet and remote sections punctuating an otherwise trafficy day as folks on holiday zoomed by in their trucks pulling boats, RVs, and other toys. We did not get buzzed by any of them and nobody yelled at us today, either. Maybe the ground-score American flag I attached to my bike placated the mean ones.