Winthrop to Omak

Miles: 49.6
ride time:
Elevation gain: 3261'

We left this morning and it was very pleasant, so we did not have to bundle up like we have been.
The road out of town was really nice, amazing farm and horse country. Field of hay bales, both round and square. The horses we passed seem well fed and happy, a few of them laying down in the green grass. The best sight was a bals eagle, that was perched in a tree. It was huge and magnificent. It is the first time I have ever seen a bald eagle in the wild. It was so cool. It sat for a while then took off, flying low along the river looking for food. What a sight!
We rode into the town of Twisp. Rumor had it that they had a nice bakery there....I was good I only had one bite of the cinnamon roll...it was super sweet..too much really.
We headed up and over Loup Loup pass-no that is not a typo! The pass was at 4020 feet. It was't too bad of a climb. The downhill, on the other hand was a blast. We headed down into more area of farmland, but definitely more of a dry climate here. We passed cherry orchards, I wanted to sample, but they were all fenced off with signs that indicated they wanted none of that from people like us.
It was pretty warm, but not uncomfortable. As we headed into Omak, we passed a horse racing track and an arena with someone practicing barrel racing. Denise, one of our guides said that they have this stampede every year where people on horseback and in wagons race down this steep mountain side as fast as they can...sounds like it would be fun to watch, but totally crazy!
Tomorrow we might see some thunderstorms as we head toward the town of Republic, but we will be dry when we leave Omak. It will be hard to figure out how to dress for tomorrow's ride. We have a few climbs tomorrow as well...should be fun!