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"set db [ns_db gethandle subquery]..."
    (procedure "gt_category_id_list_inner_swcm" line 3)
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"gt_category_id_list_inner_swcm "236767" "static_pages" "Content Type" "1" "0" """
    ("eval" body line 1)
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"eval $tcl_statement"
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    (procedure "Memoize_for_Awhile" line 11)
    invoked from within
"Memoize_for_Awhile "gt_category_id_list_inner_swcm \"$id\" \"$table\" \"$category_umbrella\" \"$limit\" \"$min_weight\" \"$department_id\"" 90000"
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"gt_category_id_list 1 "Content Type" $page_id"
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"set content_type [gt_category_name [gt_category_id_list 1 "Content Type" $page_id]]..."
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GORP Rides Across America
Day 3: June 21, 2000, Update
Cashmere, WA, to Grand Coulee, WA
Today's Miles: 103.2Miles since Seattle: 236.6


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The extensive orchards of the Wenatchee Valley
Orchards of the Wenatchee Valley
The First Century

In bike lingo, a century is 100 miles ridden in a day, and it's a challenge to most riders. On the third day of the RadioShack Big Ride across America, riders took on 103 miles, from Cashmere to Grand Coulee, Washington, and it was definitely no picnic. What's more, it was the first century that about two dozen riders had ever done.

The day began in spectacular fashion, with lenticular clouds trimmed in orange-red dominating the eastern sky and hanging above the enormous American flag flapping above the Chelan County Fairgrounds where riders had spent the night. Many riders took off promptly at 6 a.m., heeding warnings of the heat and the long road ahead.

The first part of the day's ride wound past fruit orchards watered by the Columbia River. At Wenatchee riders cycled across the mighty river, then followed its course northward past rocky escarpments.

Slow Ride

The big challenge of the day came at Pine Canyon, a grinding 7.4-mile route climbing 2,100 feet in elevation up from the river valley to the wheatland plateaus above. With practically no shade and temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, riders found their"granny gears," their lowest hill-climbing gears, and pedaled slowly up the grade.

A great cafi in tiny Douglas revived many riders' sagging spirits with milkshakes and second breakfasts, and the tailwind through the young green wheat proved a tonic as well, Riders sailed along, escorted by the parasail-like seed heads of giant dandelions.

Fifty-seven miles into the dry, rolling, and virtually shadeless course, riders entered a sagebrush-covered canyon between jagged gorges, a former course of the Columbia.

An abandoned shack added visual variety to the long expanses of rolling wheatlands
A shack among Washington's wheat lands

At a water stop, dozens requested ice packs for aching knees, and flat tires brought on by chip-sealed roads plagued some. Yet by and large, riders remained upbeat, praising the landscape while slathering on copious amounts of sunscreen.

"Hot Enough for Ya?"

Jonathan Mirsky of Washington, D.C., seemed elated as he raved that he"loved the heat." He, like many, delighted in the terrain, claiming he "never knew Washington could look like this." Certainly his were not the only preconceptions of Washington to be quickly discredited. Many think of Washington as a state of excessive rains and sky-scraping evergreen trees, but as riders have discovered, east of the Cascades, the desert and dry plains dominate the landscape.

Ally Spain of Seattle, Washington, commented that today was "harder than yesterday because of the heat," while Eric Strobel, also of Seattle, wished "they could have planted more trees out here for us." Jennifer Derentowsky, of Silver Spring, Maryland, grinned widely as she raved, "It's gorgeous, we're lucky, as long as you keep moving the heat doesn't bother you."

A downhill eased the end of the first century on the way to the Grand Coulee Dam
Downhill toward the Grand Coulee Dam
Sunburned faces — many getting dangerously close to a lobster shade — smiled at good-natured comments on the nature of the road and the weather. Cameras materialized as Air Force bombers flew low in the canyon on drills. Riders seemed to come out of nowhere when ride director Peter King of the American Lung Association arrived in one of the vans with a box of chocolate bars.

At Century's End

Chris Ely, of Haverton, Pennsylvania, seemed to sum up the overall feeling of the riders."The weather's excellent, the terrain's awesome, pretty good road conditions, really couldn't be better. This ride is extremely well-supported, and you get a little bit of everything."

The day's long ride concluded with riders streaming along Banks Lake, past marshes with red-winged blackbirds on the right. On both sides, lava escarpments from the world's biggest outflow of volcanic magma — last in molten form about 240 million years ago — dominated the landscape.

After dinner, some riders took a bus from camp at a middle school in Grand Coulee to see the laser show at Grand Coulee Dam. For those who didn't, Mother Nature provided a spectacular sunset, a perfect ending to a memorable day.

Katie Schlieper of Seattle, Washington, contributed to this report.

For more information about today's ride, check out the GORP Big Ride Log.



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