6/20-I Was Paraded Around!

Steve and I left at the same time this morning, but he was quickly ahead of me. We were going different ways anyway. 

Morning on the road

Riding to Rosalia, I was so glad I didn’t try to do it last night! I would have been dead! Okay, not really, but it wouldn’t have been pleasant. 

Unfortunately, I got to Rosalia too early for anything to be open. Not a big deal as I really didn’t need anything. The climb on the route out of Rosalia was something!!! Very steep and kinda long. Amazingly, I managed it. 

That arch bridge is an old railway bridge. It’s possible that the P2CT goes on it (if you don’t go into Rosalia), but I’m not positive.

After a bit more pavement, the route turned into a gravel road that then connected up to the P2CT. Now I would be on it for my longest stretch since west of the Columbia River. 

Not the worst surface, but not the best. Fortunately, it was too cold and windy for sticks that aren’t sticks. 

See that sign? I came to dread them. 

Because it would go down steeply to a road crossing (the trestle is gone), then come back up just as steeply. 

The mileage markers to Chicago. 

This is the Seabury Trestle. The wind was really whipping, so I opted to walk across it. 

This was a very green section

Me thinks this is impassable when it rains.

I was within sight of the Tekoa Trestle when I met Cormac and Kayla. They are from Seattle. Super fun to talk to. They are both teachers, so once school was out, they hit the trail. I’m hoping they come down to ride in Cap Forest sometime. 

I crossed the Tekoa Trestle, and ended the Palouse to Cascades portion of the Great American Wheel Route. 

Cormac and Kayla told me there was a parade happening in Tekoa. I rode into town as the parade was getting underway. 

Quads riding up and over the moving vehicle

The Spokane Lilac Festival float and princesses

What’s a small town parade without a tractor brigade?

What the youth of Tekoa do for fun!

The Tekoa float

I was just watching the parade when one of the parade people came over and told me I could just jump right in. I said I wanted to watch, but she said the ambulance was the end, and the parade announcer wanted me to join the parade. Well, okay!

Me and Wanda in the parade!

When I got up to the announcer, he asked if I was doing the Great American Wheel Route. When I said I was, he announced that I was riding from Seattle to Washington DC. He asked my name, and a photographer for the Tekoa newspaper took my photo, and asked me my last name. Apparently, I’m going to be in the newspaper. It was pretty funny, and I even snagged some tootsie rolls that they were throwing out!

After the parade I went to a taco truck at what kind of looked like a Saturday Market type thing. I also got two giant cookies from an FFA bake sale.

It was time to get back on the road. I still had several miles to go. The route followed a road that was basically on the state line. It was a terrible road.

It was a roller coaster, which would have been fun, except it was very loose dirt.

See? Up, down, up, down.

I would try to find the part that was hard pack dried mud. It was too scary to try to build up speed to make it up the other side. Consequently, I had to walk some of them. It seemed to go on forever. It finally came out to a good ol’ gravel road. It was still rollercoastering, but I could gather speed on the downhills, and get at least partway up.

I had looked at the map, and saw a road named Meredith Rd. It looked like it would be shorter than the route, and come out further down the route. At first it was just continuous rollercoaster hills. Just like the other road. Oh, but then it went UP! I was kicking myself. Why didn’t I just stay on the route? At least it was a good downhill on the other side.

I rejoined the route just in time for the final climb of this first segment of the whole route. It was a doozy, and by now I was feeling it in my butt again. It was just a 2.3 mile climb, but it took me forever! I was basically stopping every tenth of a mile! It wasn’t that the climb was so steep, I just couldn’t sit on the saddle for any length of time!

Finally at the top!

At the bottom of the descent, I made the turn to go to the Trail of the Couer d Alenes trailhead, and the end of Segment 1.

I filled up on water (and put some more chamois cream on), loaded up the next segment (Cutthroat…it seems Wanda has her own segment), and started down the trail.

Mile 0

A nice shady trail for a change!

I guess Shakira (my e-bike) would not be allowed

It was about 6 miles of a 3% downgrade, and my butt was grateful! I arrived at the lake.

At the boat ramp, I turned to go up to Chetcolet campground. One final hill for the day! There are no showers here, but baby wipes work well enough. I’m reminded why I don’t really like Idaho campgrounds. They are crazy expensive, and they don’t have Hiker/Biker sites. I wish I could have gotten to Harrison, where they have $15 tent sites, but my butt said no more. 

Since I have finished the Columbia segment of GAWR, I’ve done somewhere in the neighborhood of 378 miles in 8 days. Today was 51 miles.