There was only one time that the smoke was dense enough to really bother me physically. Most of the time the smoke was more of a mental problem. Anxiety wondering how much worse it might get and how long it will persist. Frustration that smoke significantly impairs distant views. And maybe a bit of headache and confusion after long term exposure.

Funny there was a $25 fine for crossing the bridge "faster than a walk"!

It must have been difficult to bicycle in all that smoke on your trip! :/

Wow, pretty small town - Coulee City -

Keith, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad somebody noticed the effort. It was a fun mini-tour.

Good luck with your summer 2022 plans. Interesting that you plan such a long tour without seeing an ocean. A few years ago I pedaled east from San Diego planning to end the tour in San Antonio. I couldn't resist making it a Southwest US Coast to Coast tour, so I continued on to Corpus Christi. I doubt you would succumb to the same thoughts if you start in Prineville, though.

As someone with an academic background in geology and a dilettante's interest in history, I enjoyed the context you provided here.

Thanks! I didn't look it up but assumed it must be an early trainer jet. Now I see it's a Lockheed T33A trainer first flown in 1948. I like the sleek appearance of the early jets that have the engine embedded in the fuselage.

Curiosity got the best of me.

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm1019K_T33A_Shooting_Star_Brewster_WA

Hi Greg. After the tour I have the luxury to find more information about things that caught my interest. Most of the details I posted were found on roadside interpretive signs. Some of the signs I didn't even read all the details until after the tour.

All of the visuals on the Introduction page are photos of roadside signs except for the map of the Columbia basin which was lifted from Wikipedia.

I looked up dam heights on Wikipedia but I don't think they are very useful because the height includes a lot of buried foundation. It's hard to find the actual height of the water between the pool level and the river level below the dam.

Before the tour I knew that California pumps vast quantities of water over a 600 foot hill to move the water from the Sacramento river valley to southern California. I didn't know that Washington does the same thing.

Hi Wayne,

I knew you had probably completed this trip already, so I've been anxious to read your report and view your pictures. (It's fun to compare notes.) I can safely say I've already learned more about that area from your journal than I did while actually riding it.