The 14 miles from Marblemount to Newhalem were superb. Reasonable grade and sufficient shoulder along with clear weather and moderate temperatures made it excellent riding. In a sign of the pre-tourist season that became a theme of our tour, the Skagit General Store had no bananas. The produce truck wasn't expected until the weekend. There went our plan for fueling up on the next day's strenuous ride. In the parking lot of the store, a guy "our age" drove up in a side-by-side motor trike, like a Polaris Slingshot. After the usual questions about where we were headed, he mentioned to Scott something about having bigger cajones than he had. TMI. Scott diplomatically chose not to respond. 🤐

We ground out the next 11 miles to Colonial Creek Camgound of the Cascade National Park and earned our post-lunch nap. The first 2.5 miles to the Gorge Creek Lookout were tough, then the road evened out a bit until the Diablo Dam, then we pressed on up another 2.5 or 3 steep miles until the slope down to the camp ground. The Diablo reservoir is beautiful but still too cold for swimming.

The camping sites were really close together. So close that you can hear others’ conversations. We decided to forego our evening treat of watching episodes of “Babylon Berlin” on the iPad. Didn’t want to disturb the neighbors.

No showers here, but the flush toilet facilities were new and heated. Nice.

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