Labored up Wauconda Pass for seven hours to cover 22 miles. Log trucks, stone trucks - all with trailers on a steep narrow curvy road. A time - pain continuum heretofore unexperienced and thank you for that. Kerry - the dog-pulling vet we met in Sedro Woolley and had reconnected with in Tonasket rode and camped with us. John Mark, as well. We camped at the Old Wauconda School - long abandoned but maintained for the purpose by Joe and Cheryl. Outhouse, running water and an assortment of birds including yellow headed blackbird and mountain bluebird. Joe and Cheryl fight fires and raise cows. She’s best with a chain saw, and he was bowlegged enough to ride one of our bicycles between his legs. Temperature dropped to freezing during the night. Spectacular moon, night sky and dawning in that high mountain meadow. Have developed a pain scale since pain appears regularly as a feature of our experience climbing these passes:
500 feet up equal to 500 units of pain which is the amount of
pain felt with a smashed thumb
1000 feet up - same as a rolled testicle* - this only applies to
some women
1500 - same as a thrombosed hemorrhoid
3000 - same as an amputated digit severed with a rusty saw
blade
From now on when I call attention to height climbed it will send a clear signal of the pain involved. I am noticing a slight “training” bounce that may require I downgrade this scale over time.
Pat Sewell
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