Sunday (Sep 17): After weeks of planning and prepping, including the purchase of new bikes for Craig and me, and the installation of tubeless tires on my bike, we were itching to get rolling. We had hoped that Craig’s would be tubeless as well, but we went back and forth with WTB who manufactures the rims because REI said they were defective and wouldn’t hold the tubeless seal, but once the new rims were sent, we didn’t have enough time for the wheel builds and conversion.
This would be our first time riding distance with Shannon, with whom I volunteer at Cascade Bicycle Club. She works full-time for them in their education division, and I met her when I helped deliver and pick up bike fleets from Seattle schools. She is just a few months younger than Kayla, a background in racing, fencing, construction, and bike mechanics, and has a contagious energy. When I mentioned we were planning to ride the Palouse to Cascade Trail she was eager to join us!
Shannon worked the Ellensburg Tour Light for Cascade that Friday through Sunday, so we couldn’t leave Ellensburg until 2:30. Craig and I had a mostly relaxed morning of last minute prep and loading the truck until we decided we needed to stop by the cabin (to assess the chimney teardown and septic status) and then we had to forego a sit-down breakfast to get to Kevin’s house in time to park the truck and ride into Ellensburg. The plan was to leave the truck there and have his daughter, Bellah, who is attending CWU, drive to pick us up the next weekend.
The first ten miles were smooth sailing. We were almost to the park where we were going to meet Shannon when the trail crossed a road and we heard a loud bang. My back tire (of course) blew the tubeless seal! Sealant everywhere, which looks a lot like Elmer’s glue; I’m bummed that I didn’t take a picture! Luckily we were only a few miles from Shannon and she calmly arranged for one of the assist vans from the event to pick me up while Craig rode on to meet her. Did I mention that Shannon is a bike mechanic? After they put a tube in my tire (because no bike shops were going to be open until Tuesday, so tubeless was out), we had beer and cider, meandered through a park, and checked into a hotel, since it seemed too late to make the 35 miles or so to the campground. Good choice. Mexican for dinner – if we’d only known… [14 miles]
Monday (Sep 18): Slept well, ate a standard hotel breakfast (including waffles – yay!), and rolled out of town late morning on the trail. The Palouse to Cascade Trail is also called the Iron Horse Trail and sometimes the John Wayne Trail. If you ride the Snoqualmie Valley Trail to Rattlesnake Lake (in North Bend), that’s where the PTC starts up officially. A converted rail trail, it’s one of the longest sections to date of the the Rails to Trails effort to connect the west and east coasts sans highways. However, as we found out, even these Washington sections are not so contiguous. We ran into frequent detours due to damaged tunnels, missing trestles, or land owner rights, and we had to apply for and carry a permit for the part past the Columbia River. This earned us a code that we needed a handful of times to get through locked gates on the trail. And the trail was often flanked by barbed wire.
The first and last days of our trip were the warmest, the first being the only one I shed layers down to a tank top and needed sunscreen. We slogged through five miles of sand before the derelict tunnel outside Ellensburg where we also had our first owl sighting and claimed it as good luck. Then up and over the tunnel and down the long descent toward Beverly. Our new bikes (with 2.4” tires) were awesome for the mixed terrain of gravel, dirt, and random rocks, but Shannon did great on her 1.5” tires and flew ahead of us most the way. It didn’t hurt that we had a decent tailwind off and on, although it became a brutal headwind for the last few miles heading north to the Wanapum campground. The wind continued to hound us as we set up camp in a hiker/biker site by the bathroom, and we made a quick dinner of ramen with added veggies, which Craig and Shannon ate al dente; during the second round of boiling water we ran out of fuel, and Shannon berated herself several times during the trip (even though it was really no big deal!). Then we went to bed early. [36 miles]
Tuesday (Sep 19): Craig and I slept poorly due to continuing gusts of wind and the light from the bathroom, but we still felt ok enough to rise, eat cold oatmeal and guzzle cold coffee (instant hydration coffee which was quite good!). Then we made our way to the bridge, which we had gone to the official opening of in April 2022 (You can see us in the second picture here: https://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/2022/april/12/beverly-bridge-opening-marks-major-jump-toward-statewide-trail-connectivity-in-washington/ )
We had planned to ride to Potholes State Park to camp, but slow going due to wind and terrain helped us change our mind quickly and we aimed instead for Othello. We had eaten most of our snacks on the trail and were starving by the time we got there, so we stopped at a Mexican restaurant (Ramiro’s) to eat and drink first. The bar was so nice and allowed us to bring our dirty, loaded bikes into the back of the bar, which allowed us to completely relax and plot our next moves. From a nearby hotel, we ventured out and bought a few things we needed (including snacks and a canister of fuel) at Walmart. While Craig ran into an auto parts store, Shannon bought elote (Mexican street corn) in a Solo cup from a van, which earned her a few thousand views! Then we stopped at a park to chill awhile and went to bed early. [46 miles]
Wednesday (Sep 20): We tried to get an earlier start but fought a headwind right away on our way back to the trail for ten or more miles. We started counting onions and potatoes that had fallen off trucks on the highway, and I was nearly hit by a potato! We rejoined the trail at Warden, but detoured before the end of the trail to stick to our plan of a hotel in Ritzville. More head and crosswinds made it a tough day, and from the hotel we walked to the closest restaurant (Mexican again, but substandard and poor service). [62 miles]
Thursday (Sep 21): Toughest day. Good breakfast (waffles, eggs, etc.) and earlier start (on the road by 8:30), but the wind changed again and we had mostly crosswinds with which to contend, as well as drizzle and solid rain for a few stretches. We also bypassed a part of the trail which required a hilly detour and rejoined the trail east of Marengo. But we were barely on the trail before we were required to detour again, which we did just after meeting Jay from Tacoma who was riding alone. He took a different route but still got to Malden around the same time, which luckily he had already told us had a park for camping.
The detour included a few menacing hills and was nearly all gravel, some deep, but we did manage to have enough water and snacks to get us by. With necessary stops, it took us more than 9 hours (7 hours riding) to reach our destination, and we had constantly encourage each other to stay strong. Can’t remember if this is the day we saw more owls, but we definitely saw hawks and deer (and cattle, goats, horses, etc.). We had very little traffic except for the occasional farmer or hunter.
Malden, where we camped, was devastated by fire a few years ago, and their town hall and library are currently single-wides as they strive to rebuild (which includes constant heavy machinery moving through town at all hours of the day, not ideal for camping). We never actually talked to anyone there (except Jay). Dinner was Indian lentils for me and freeze dried chicken dinners for them, but we were too wiped out to play cards or be very social before crawling into our tents. [63miles]
Friday (Sep 22): Took more advice from Jay and decided to head to the Idaho border and then backtrack 5 miles to camp at a park in Tekoa (tee-coh). Originally we had planned to continue onto Spokane or else into Idaho, but after our previous long days, we weren’t as willing. We had a little oatmeal first, then rode the ten miles to Rosalia for breakfast/lunch. The trail and several trestles were under repair between the two towns, but the construction workers let us through, and we had to use the code to get through a few locked gates. In Rosalia, the Brass Rail Bar and Grill had little to offer for me, so after greasy round one there, we crossed the street to a delightful coffee shop and I had a vegetarian sandwich and we split a raspberry roll (and took a scone for later). It was a long stop, but we would go only 42 miles total, so we weren’t worried.
Much better day riding, mostly trail with minor detours, including short descent/ascents where short trestles had not been restored. The wind was kind and we weren’t rained on, although we stayed layered all day. Once we got to Tekoa (and crossed the 975 ft trestle, which also reopened the previous Spring), we decided an early celebratory beverage was in order while we scoped out where to camp (and Shannon bought a few things at the antique store next door).
Jay decided to set up camp and leave some things there, but we rode the last five miles to the border still loaded up. Turns out we could have ridden a ways into Idaho, and possibly onto Plummer (the start of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes) without too much trouble, but it was late enough we didn’t even entertain the idea. We were excited to be mostly done and planned to just meet Bellah somewhere along the way the next day towards Spokane and call it good!
Back to the C&D Bar and Grill in Tekoa (joined by Jay) for dinner and beers, then to bed! Definitely could have used a shower… [42 miles]
Saturday (Sep 23): We rose late, said goodbye to Jay (who had decided to take Highway 27 all the way to Spokane) and then had a great coffee and breakfast at Éclair’s coffee shop in town. Luckily they had wi-fi because we hadn’t had enough signal to make a firm plan on routes, and we mapped a great meandering route to Spangle, which we stopped just 6 miles short of to avoid a busy highway with no shoulder. The wind in our favor for a change and a little more sun, plus more descent than ascent along mostly gravel roads with little traffic.
When Bellah picked us up before 2:00, we drove her back to Kevin’s and sped home to meet Justice (Shannon’s boyfriend) at the Eastgate Park and Ride. Our cat, Midnight, was elated to see us! [22 miles]
This is not the kind of writing I aspire to publish. It is really a brain dump of all the details I could remember each day, and I know I forgot some (like the fact that Shannon won the cemetery game both days we saw any, and how we bought caramels anywhere we could find them). It’s easier to include more interesting details when I have my laptop with me and can write before going to bed. But this also serves as my scrapbook of sorts, which is really for my own purposes more than yours!
Breit Bikes 