This would have been a really nice ride, but the heavy smoke changed it into an OK ride. (Also, Vantage Coffee Company, where I really wanted to stop, is closed on Tuesdays, which was very sad). After leaving our tiny house on Beverly, we quickly joined the trail and crossed the old RR bridge, now dedicated to bikers and walkers. It was then less than 10mi along the Columbia and past the Wanapum Dam to Vantage. The views should have been great, but the smoke (AQI 231) obscured most everything. With the coffee company closed, we had a stop at the Chevron. Several people asked how we were doing biking in the smoke. "Not great" was the best answer I could come up with. After Vantage it was a steady climb (mostly 3 to 4%) for 12 miles. It was slow, but with no wind it seemed a lot better than yesterday. The highway shoulder was mediocre (2ft or less), but traffic was so sparse it was fine. The scenery was mostly grassland. There's also a big wind farm on the ridges, so watching the windmills was nice. After the top it's pretty monotonic slightly downhill the rest of the way to Ellensburg where we got lunch and headed to our hotel for our last rest day tomorrow.