Mt. Rainier National Park day. I was saving myself for today’s ride for the past two days. Proper carb loading regime, high cadence low intensity rides etc.. I think I was ready, both body and mind wise. 140km, +3k meters of elevation gain here I come! What I did not anticipate was the weather… Major mistake! I woke up at 6am to the sounds of droplets hitting my tent. ‘Ok’ I thought, ‘it’s not the bad weather just the clothes’ am I right my Norwegian friends? But this time I don’t believe that any clothes would have held up. 35km up the hill covered with clouds spitting out showers of rain. 100% humidity on the outside of the jacket for the entire climb and 100% humidity inside it for the second half. Riding uphill through the clouds is a surreal sensation - it feels as if the elevation is 10000 meters above the sea level instead of just 1, like you are climbing Mount Rainer itself (~4400m). I completely lost the perception of space and time and it was amazing. Even managed to embrace being all wet and didn’t mind it that much until my jacket started to give up and the humidity creeped inside. It wasn’t too bad until the altitude coldness arrived and entire climb swiftly changed from entertaining to miserable. Reaching the top in Paradise felt like a cold and wet hell… (completely exaggerated but a nice wordplay nonetheless 😅).

Ended up hanging around there, chitchatting with a fellow cycletourer, trying to warm myself up and dry out. In the end I switched to a dry set of cycling clothes (mistake!) and hit the road the moment it stopped raining. It even cleared up a bit and I could see some parts of the valley! Encouraged by this brief moment of sunshine I swiftly moved onto the next pass on today’s list. It actually went fine up until the very last km when it started pouring. I swiftly became miserable for the second time that day and ran out of dry cycling clothes. I decided that enough is enough and I am not going to try my luck up the Sunrise climb so I skipped it (Bummer! Highest paved road in Washington state!). I was so miserable that I reached the point where I started thinking about finding a nearest motel and crashing there instead of camping. The allure of hot shower and a warm bed started to grow on me real quickly. Since there is no signal here I decided to stop by the campsite and ask the host about nearby motel options. He mentioned just one - $425 a night. Suddenly I felt slightly warmer and dryer. I politely asked him for a one nigh tent spot at his campsite. 😂 🤷🏻‍♂️

All in all fun yet super challenging day. And I know tomorrow will be quite miserable as well because all my cycling clothes are soaking wet and it’s still raining… Where is Rapha’s sponsorship with their Shadow line when you need one?! 😩