John,
I was Organizer Susan Otcenas' designated 'control captain' at the finish. I was also the person handling the trailer for the left-luggage and left-bike cases. I'm glad that the other volunteers knew what to do.
It actually got to the point at the take-down after the ride that well-meaning volunteers were putting items into "wrong" vehicles and thus less likely to end up where said items needed to end up afterwards.
I did see you, said hello, etc. but didn't say "by the way, if anyone on YACF asks you about the tracker / the ride / I'm the guilty party who told them how to find you".
Watching the blue dots on the tracker on Sunday (day 2), especially toward the evening, became alarming. I live about 1.5 miles from the finish, and we had a series of rain fronts and thunder/lightning come through. Some of that, including the wind especially, made it over the mountains a few hours later to assault the riders. I've driven through that area a number of times, and understand that there's not very much to deflect the wind there.
You got a pretty good sample of some of our summer weather - some moisture early in the summer, lots of heat east of the mountains, winds, etc. BTW, I heard from one of the riders that the temperature displayed at the top of Washington Pass was 1 deg. C. The "lowland" part of the last day was pretty typical of much of the summer - sunny, not too hot, light winds (but, up-slope afternoon winds in river valleys, so even while going downhill, it's time to pedal)
And, regarding the description of the various days' routes copied above from SIR, I'd say that the bulk of the climbing on Day 4 is in the first 30 km or so. The last control at Mazama is at the foot of the climb over the North Cascades' passes.
Looking forward to the Arrivee article! Get them all excited for 2020 - Cascade 1200 happens every two years.
Joel Niemi