We slept well in the basement suite at Andy and Chelsea's house after our short miles yesterday. Today we have a long downhill cruise to the Snake River, and tomorrow is another short ride. After all this R&R, I hope we still have the fortitude for some long days ahead in the Columbia Gorge.
We ride through Pullman on the chill bike trail for the first four miles, going past Koppel Farm and following the South Fork of the Palouse River. The path continues west along the Old Wawawai Road - pronounced like "Hawaii" starting with a W.
Enjoying the bike trails that take us all around Pullman
When the trail ends, we continue south on the Wawawai-Pullman Road, where the fields look especially vibrant on our last day in the Palouse. The traffic is light again and drivers are courteous. They are used to seeing farm implements and cyclists on this road.
Didn't see the bird until after I loaded the picture here
The big fun starts when we turn west on WA193 - the Wawawai Grade Road, and drop almost 1,800 feet to the Snake River over the next six miles. Barry doesn't like to brake so I don't see him until the bottom, where he'll report that he's been there for 8 minutes already. I like to savor the cruise and study the change on the hillsides as the colors shift from green and yellow to tan and brown.
We fly through the next 25 flat miles ong the river with the wind at our backs and not many vehicles on the road. Dark volcanic basalt cliffs tower above us and herons and pelicans rise up from the shore to glide over the water. It's a good ten degrees warmer than Pullman and the water in my Camelback is warming up.
Cool cliff with the sunglasses. Although it's hard to tell, the white speck on the water below the cliff is a Great Blue Heron, I promise.
Two miles before the bridge in Clarkston we turn off 193 on Wilma Road and ride for a little ways past the logyards and mills of the Clearwater Paper Plant. This must have been an auto-routing turn from RidewithGPS. It's fascinating, but I wonder if we're supposed to be here.
Nobody at the plant waves us off and soon we're back on 193 approaching the bridge into Clarkston WA. We have a nice view of the port from the bridge, then continue through an industrial area into town.
Our Motel 6 room for the next two nights is a bit pinchy with the two bikes. At least it's on the ground floor. The best feature is the location, across the street from Albertson's supermarket and five miles via bike path from Hell's Gate State Park, where we'll start tomorrow's adventure.
