Sleep was not something that the park at Kettle Falls really offered - just too much noise. I recorded yet another train - beautiful as a sound but not a soothing going to sleep sound. But the cars were severe and continued throughout the night. Ear plugs would be a help though in city parks I like the idea of being able to hear if there's anyone hanging around near the bikes at dead of night. I think Kettle Falls is pretty safe though and this morning we chatted to Pete who lives nearby and sees the yearly flow of cyclists through the park. Some larger groups visit - no luggage sometimes (since they've got a luggage vehicle), carbon bikes, etc. He's been a farmer and racing car techie. We discussed politics. His view was that the coastal states' Democrats will outweigh the more rural based Republicans in the coming elections - particularly if the turnout is high, Kamala Harris might then be the first woman president. That would be a landmark in American politics. Pete is of Japanese origin via his grandparents but has not been to Japan, indeed he's very American - and evidently America works as a country partly because ethnic origin is subsumed underneath solid American identity.. Although the family moved from Japan in the early 1900s they were still interned in the Second World War. Guy took heart from Pete's optimism about world affairs. We had a big climb to do so we had to get going, via a cake at the grocery store. We cycled down to the Columbia River, hidden away in the reservoir - Lake Roosevelt - that now fills the valley. Then about 4 hours of climbing to the top of the Sherman Pass. Slow indeed but we'll graded - we did about a 1000' per hour. We are rather too heavy to do much more. Today's average speed was 8.5mph! That was the result of a slow ascent of the Sherman Pass. We reached the Sherman Pass - 5575' - at about 3pm and had a late lunch to celebrate reaching the top of our biggest climb of the transam - 4000' of climbing (though our highest point was the Logan Pass, 6646', back in Glacier National Park). The views are of large wooded mountains, evidence of forest fires abounds - various regrowth colours of different aged trees. Some fairly huge trees though not yet as big as the redwoods in California ten years ago. Hope to see some coastal redwoods but I expect they need a lot more rain than is usual here so they'll be the far side of the Cascade Mountains. There was a big fire here in 1988 and occasional smaller ones since. It is dry here, sheltered by the coastal ranges from much rainfall. The photo shows how late it was at the summit - the sun was shining from the west, behind me.... Surprisingly for such a challenging climb, there were no other cyclists at any point, either on our ascent or descent - which was mostly a nice steady downhill and so not too much braking. The wheels have done over 4000 miles now - mine a lot fewer than Guy's since my wheels were new in June. But hard braking for miles of downhill does wear out rims - Wales is particularly bad since in some areas you are either slogging uphill or braking on a twisty downhill. Not much traffic either. We reached a campsite - Golden Mtn RV that looks great for camping - has a clubroom so great for rainy weather and decent grass for camping - but no-one was around c. 5pm so we tried the Ferry County Fairground ($15 per night) and were as delighted by the lush grass and quiet, plus water, toilets and showers ($1.75 for a shower of 3 mins duration, lots of quarters...). And there are solid pavilions to shelter in - we've noticed rain creeping into the forecast for tomorrow and the next day and we might sit tight until we can do our Cascade Mountain climbs in sunshine.... Slept extremely well - after hardly sleeping at Kettle Falls. We are here.