Fresh off of holding the Pedal of Honor for Captain, Zilla and I returned to the trail with a fresh perspective and heightened morale. I was also excited that we were going to be spending the day close to trees, something we hadn’t done in a few hundred miles. I was hopeful that this would be the jumpstart I would need to finally move me on to the next phase of grieving and help me to continue moving forward with life.

We rolled along a quiet dirt road next to Pine Creek, making our way to Pine City. I was curious what the “city” itself might look like as nearly 80% of the city had been destroyed by wildfires the previous year. The dirt road we were on quickly disappeared and we were on a paved road heading into town. We could see a few homes and a granary or two, but honestly, we couldn’t see any obvious signs of the massive devastation we were expecting. The main road must have been spared for whatever reason, or the residents had been quick to rebuild. Either way, it was nice to not see people suffering in any obvious manner. Just a minute or two later and we were through town and on our way to Malden which had suffered a similar fate, having something like 100 of 120 homes destroyed in the blaze.

We followed the main road and though the shoulders were thin, traffic was very light and very polite, so it wasn’t very worrisome. As we got northeast of town, we entered the forest proper and I was very happy to be officially out of the desert for sure and then in just a few more miles, we’d be back on the trail proper and follow it all the way to Idaho. Zilla and I pulled over for a few minutes and sat down on the ground near the trees, just enjoying what nature had to offer. It was great!

(click photos to enlarge and see descriptions)

Recharged, we loaded back up in the trailer and on the bike and finished the last few miles to Malden. Along the way, we passed a home with 2 small children playing outside who waved hello and their mother shouted a greeting to us as we passed. It’s great to travel by bike and be moving slow enough to exchange small pleasantries with total strangers if only for a moment. After passing, I then wondered what their life was like out here, how scared they must have been during the fire that destroyed most of their neighbors’ homes, and how they were adjusting to the aftermath. Then a short distance later, we crossed Pine Creek and found ourselves at the trail and on the outskirts of Malden. The trail actually skirts around the north end of town, so we never saw all the destruction and honestly, I was fine with that. Who wants to see a bunch of broken dreams?

The closest thing we saw was what looked like a car junk yard that had been burned over, so basically just a bunch of cars that looked like they’d been thrown over the hillside and that were then burned over by the wildfire. It made everything look even trashier and I wondered why all these cars were here in the first place. Surely there was somewhere where they could have been recycled in some fashion instead of being left to rust away into nothing?

Undeterred, Zilla and I continued east along the trail, making frequent stops to enjoy the forest and Pine Creek and just enjoy being away from the desert, out of the monoculture farms, and back in a more diverse and natural landscape. It was an added bonus that the trail, though made of rock, gravel, and dirt, was fairly flat and well packed, so at times we were able to do 6-8 mph!

During one of our breaks, we had just entered into a small canyon of sorts with steep rock walls on either side. The ground was very damp as the water had nowhere else to drain and Zilla made sure to get a free drink and soak his paws for a few moments. While we were playing around and I was setting up for a photo, things just clicked and felt right for the first time in a long time. Right about then, an owl silently flew by overhead and disappeared into the forest as quickly as it had appeared. It was a wonderful sight to see and great to be feeling a little better about life.

Then it really hit me, we were less than 35 miles from Idaho. This was the first time that I felt like we were really going to make it all the way across the state of Washington!

Don’t forget to check out the video below for this part of our adventure!