Republic to Omak

The climb from Republic to Wauconda Pass (1315M) was on excellent very low traffic road with a lot of good road shoulder. Nice scenery as well. As much of our descent to Tonasket was in a heavy rain, we weren’t able to appreciate how scenic it might have been. The last part of the descent, though, was without rain and was great. Turning on to US97/Route 20 at Tonasket, we rode through some really great countryside, making the increased traffic and its noise less of a problem. Also, US97/Route 20 had excellent road shoulder. We noted that there are a couple of alternatives that would have reduced the time on US97/Route 20, which presumably would have meant much less traffic and even nicer quiet roads. One alternative was to ride on Highway 7 on the west side of the Okanogan River from Tonasket until Highway 7 merged with US97/Route 20. The other was to take some side roads from Riverside that go to the other side of the river all the way to Omak.