June 8, 2023
Thank you Ellen G. White.
So today was the eighth day of my trip, seventh on the road. I took a day off yesterday just to let my butt heal. Those of you who are interested, it is a little bit better, however still the toughest part of the entire ride. If it weren’t for the saddle sores, this would almost be a piece of cake. Ha!!!
Today I traveled from Ritzville to Sprague and then over to Spangle. The older woman working there was very kind. She waited tables and did the cooking. I would definitely recommend stopping there. Sprague is like some of the other towns I’ve been through. At one time must’ve been a booming railroad town. Now there’s not much left. I did see one odd thing, at least odd for the middle of eastern Washington, out in the boondocks. A Man and woman of Indian dissent walking the streets, I suppose for exercise. He wore a turban and had a white beard. She wore typical colorful Indian garb. Just odd to see these two, walking the streets of a nearly abandoned old railroad town in the middle of nowhere.
Had a little bit of rain leaving Sprague. And I noticed something odd again about the tumbleweeds. Do you know how when it’s going to rain cows usually lay down and cuddle together? I suppose it keeps the ground dry and warm and they share body heat in the cold rain. Well tumbleweeds do the same thing. It’s amazing. They don’t fly around when rain is coming. They lie in the ditches and are still. Sometimes singularly and sometimes in pairs. Very odd behavior for a plant.
Another observation: horses don’t seem to care about cyclists. However, cows are incredibly curious. They will stop whatever they are doing and follow you with their eyes until you pass. They stop eating, stop swatting flies with her tails, and sometimes even turn around just to watch you. Lots of cattle out here in this part of the country. Lots of wheat also. I did start a small stampede on one farm. I don’t know if the cows were just having fun running alongside me or if I had fighting them. The horses i passed didn’t seem to care, they just kept getting grass.
I passed by a number of small lakes and ponds. They run north and south, and are narrow and long. I assume they are remnants of the ice age and caused by glaciers. Kind of like the finger lakes in New York. It’s interesting to see what I consider seabirds out in the middle of the high desert. There are sandpipers and clovers, and I spotted several osprey. I also saw a really beautiful pheasant and my first mule deer. Mule Deers are odd looking creatures. From the tail end to the front shoulders, they kind of look like mules . And then they have a thin neck and the small head of a deer.
About halfway or so on today’s ride the hills kicked in again. I have been climbing constantly since leaving the motel in Ritzville, but the grade was negligible. Later in the day the hills became steeper, and I was again climbing one, two, 300 feet. I believe tonight I am at an elevation of about 2200 feet. I started at 1600. I believe I checked the trail out on the way today. It is incredibly rough as it is mostly railroad ballast this side of the Columbia river. It would be OK if you were used to extremely rough gravel riding or perhaps had a E bike with fat tires. Otherwise I would advise you to stay off of it. The roads were quite well-maintained and had very little vehicular traffic.
I would’ve liked to of made it all the way to Plummer Idaho. That’s the start of the Coeur d’Alene Trail. But my butt said no and storms were moving in. Just south of Spangle, I came across a campus of some sort. It is the upper Columbia Academy. This is run by the Seventh-day Adventist church. I’m not sure if it’s a high school, prep school, or what, but the campus is very nice. I rode onto the campus, searching for the security office, but ran into two gentlemen, who knew what they were talking about. I asked if there was a place to set up a tent for the night and to my surprise the campus actually has RV camping sites right next to a Creek. Just up the hill is a dorm that they allowed me to enter and use the bathroom to wash up. I hope it’s open in the morning too. After cleaning up and eating, I jumped in the tent as the storm approached. As I dictate this, it is raining and the temperature is dropping somewhat. It started out at 50° this morning and soon increased to 80 or so. I think it’s back down to about 60 now.
I’ll try to add pictures now but I can’t promise they’ll show up properly or where I want them.
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Unique building of stacked stone, no mortar?
Sprague has quite a collection of old vehicles. Down the street from this lot were hundreds of old cars.
Another closed up forgotten town.
Best camp yet. Except for the rain.
PS. In case you didn’t get the connection with the title: the seventh day Adventist church was co-founded by Mrs White. Could she be a distant relative of my wife’s?
Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 354 miles (570 km)
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Moe: Going skiing in Colorado
Curly: Traveling to Europe
Larry: Bungee jumping
Shemp: Getting married … again
Tim: Hold my beer ….
11 months ago