Just a few miles into the ride we crossed over the Columbia River and headed north on the 395 for a few miles before crossing over another much smaller bridge onto the Kamloops Island, which I’m pretty sure isn’t an island at all. Right alongside the road the Fire spotted a bald eagle just a few feet from the side of the road, which was pretty cool. The ride on Kamloops was fairly short and before long we were back on the 395 before turning onto Boulder Pass where we would spend the next few hours making our way up the 4,000ft ascent. Towards the top of the climb the lush green forest had been transformed by a recent fire and presented it’s own unique beauty as thousands of tiny new growth trees were already repopulating the mountain. The ascent was long and challenging and took it’s toll on all of us regardless of our various levels of fitness. As three time Tour de France winner (and officially the only American to ever win the tour) once said, “it never gets any easier, you just go faster.” Once over the summit a 2,500ft plunge dropped us into the tiny town of Curlew where we stopped at a market for some ice and water before pushing on towards Republic. The road from Curlew to Republic provided some amazing scenery as well as a few city limits and QOM sprints (queen of the mountains so I wasn’t eligible) which helped drive our pace into town where wings, pizza and (3) mexican coca-colas rightly finished off the day.