The alarm went off at 4 am. Normally, I like to sleep in much later than that, but today was different, we were on a mission. We had the most difficult section of Palouse to Cascades Trail waiting for us. Just over 20 miles of old railroad bed that was compacted gravel at best to soft, deep sand at the worst. Add to the mix the sustained climbs, no bailout point in case of an emergency, no water, no shade, a forecast for little to no cloud cover to protect us from the relentless sun, a tunnel that was closed and needed to be climbed over on a rutted and rocky jeep track, and the fact that the military could be doing live fire exercises at any moment, we knew going in that it was going to be an interesting day, the kind of day where a bike touring adventure really earns its stripes.

We were able to get out of our motel room which was a nice start to the day. It was still dark out as we drove to the trailhead and as we were pulling in to the parking lot, there was a porcupine walking across the road which was great to see. There wasn’t enough light to get a picture, but it was still fun to watch. I tried to time our arrival at the trailhead to coincide with sunrise and we were right on time. However, I hadn’t planned on it being below freezing which was much colder than we were expecting, so we killed time napping in the car, waiting for it to warm up enough for our ride. I try to be fair to the dogs as they don’t have a way to communicate if they are cold, so I make sure to wait until temperatures are at least 40 degrees before we hit the trail so as to make sure they are safe and not miserable.

(click photos to enlarge and see descriptions)

Once it warmed up enough, we started climbing the steep jeep track to the actual trail. Though not a part of the actual trail, this was the only way to access the Great American Rail Trail and it would be the steepest climb of the entire day. It was impossible to ride up, even after letting the dogs out of the trailer, so our “ride” started as a quarter mile push. Even though it was only 40 degrees, I was sweating like crazy by the time we’d made it to the trail proper and that’s where the trail got really tough. For starters, there are a few boards and kiosks telling you about the area and warning you about the sand, lack of cell service, lack of water, dangerous tunnel that was technically closed, active military training etc. There was also a trail permit that you needed to fill out and carry with you. Once we’d done our due diligence of reading signs and getting our permit, we began our ride. If all went well, we’d do half of the Army base today and then the second half on our next ride as I didn’t feel there was any possibility of doing the required more than 40 miles of dirt, sand, and gravel in a single day, especially since there would also be nearly 3,000 ft of climbing involved.

Knowing this, I decided to bring with an extra gallon of water and an extra Powerade that I would cache at our turnaround point so that our next ride wouldn’t require carrying as much weight. I thought this made sense since day 2 would require nearly twice as much climbing as day 1. This however resulted in the trailer being extra heavy which made for slow going as not 200 yards from the trailhead, the trail surface deteriorated to soft sand that was very hard to pedal through. To make things a little easier, I let Zilla out of the trailer. He eagerly got out and was happy to be free to explore the desolate Army base at his own pace. And even though he was walking, he was still far ahead of me as I was only able to maintain a speed of maybe 2 mph. It was going to be a long day.

The trail switched back and forth from bad to worse to terrible and back again allowing me to ride the bad parts and push the other two. I soon let Captain out of the trailer as well as I was struggling with the slight uphill through the sand. Letting her out helped a lot and she was moving at my speed so it worked out pretty well. In total, Zilla walked around 2 miles and Captain walked around 1 mile. As the trail got a little bit firmer, I put the dogs back in the trailer and we began to ride again, albeit very slowly at around 3 mph.

Around the 3rd mile, my back tire started to sink in extra deep and wasn’t providing any stability while I pedaled. Then I looked down and realized that the tire had gone flat. Being covered with sweat and tired from all of the hard pushing and harder riding plus being dusty from the dry trail, I was not in a very good mood. I took the tire off, and as I was trying to put the tire liners and tube back into the tire, Captain kept getting super close to me, trying to force me to pet her. I pet her for a moment and then tried to get back to work, but she was super persistent that she wanted more petting. She’s such a sweet girl, I couldn’t help but pause and play with her for a bit, watching her tail slowly swaying back and forth as getting pet is always the highlight of her day and honestly, it helped improve my mood quite a bit.

Once Captain was sufficiently pet, I finished switching out the tube, and went to pump it up. As I pressed down to push the first pump of air into the tire, my tire pump exploded with a loud pop and I saw the head fly off of the valve stem and land in the sand. I picked the head up and tried to reattach it to the rest of the pump, but it looked like a small piece was missing. I began searching the sand where the head had landed, but didn’t see anything. I then started digging a bit but came up empty. I was hit by a brief sense of panic as we were 3 miles from the trailhead and I wasn’t sure if I could push everything back to the car or not, especially with a flat tire. Then I remembered that I had brought a second pump with me, just in case something went wrong, and oh man was I relieved! I pulled it out and was able to see what the missing piece looked like and saw that it hadn’t blown off of the pump like the head did, but instead had just slid down the hose and blended in as it was the same color. This was then a super easy fix and I was able to get the pump back up and running in a matter of seconds and finish fixing the flat tire. We’d lost about an hour in this debacle, but at least we were up and running again.

The Great American Rail Trail continued its slow climb up towards the now closed Boylston Tunnel and as we got closer, the trail started to improve; the worst of the sand was over. While we climbed, we passed a completely faded trailside information sign that mentioned the long forgotten town of Boylston. The town was so long forgotten that nothing existed of it any more aside from the trailside sign that was on its last legs. The only evidence we found of the former town itself was a small piece of glass along the trail.

Around mile 5, the trail was blocked. Literally. There were two massive concrete blocks in the middle of the trail meant to stop people from going any further as beyond the blocks was the now condemned Boylston Tunnel. To prevent anyone from getting hurt, the trail had been rerouted above the tunnel meaning that we’d be leaving the former railroad track line of the Palouse to Cascades Trail and instead have to climb the rough, rocky, and rutted jeep track up the hillside and over the tunnel. It was going to be too steep to ride up, so I would be pushing while the dogs walked, but I didn’t mind as I knew that once we got to the top, we would be only about 15 miles of easy downhill riding to our goal of crossing the Columbia River at the Sentinel Gap. That wasn’t entirely true though as it was too far for us ride that day, so we’d have to turn around and then pick up the trail from the other side, climbing for 15 miles before then getting to coast back down to the river.

The jeep track was as steep, rocky, and rutted as expected, but thankfully it was still cool out so it was doable. When we got to the top, we were somewhere on top of the tunnel and could see beyond the Columbia River more than 15 miles away. It was wonderful to be up there at the pass! We could have turned here, but it made more sense to push a bit further so as to shorten our next ride. Since I knew it would be a huge 1,500 ft climb, I wanted to try and shorten it as much as possible. It looked like the Army had been kind enough to install an outhouse around the mid-point of the 20 miles through the base, so it made sense to ride there and then look for a spot to cache the gallon of water and Powerade so that we had less weight to carry up the 1,500 ft climb on our next ride.

We began our decent towards the pit toilet and found something totally unexpected along the way, trees! There were about a 6 of them, and they didn’t have leaves, but it meant that there must be some water nearby. Sure enough, a few seconds later, I spotted a spring coming out of the hillside. It had just enough water that the dogs could dip their paws in it and get a drink. I don’t think I would have trusted the water for myself unless absolutely necessary but it was good to know it was there in case of an emergency.

After our short break, we continued east along the windswept plain in search of the bathroom in the middle of nowhere. The trail made its way through several rock cuts in the hillsides and the rock cuts were littered with rockfall from the rock cuts themselves. We had to slow down considerably in order to navigate all 4 tires through them safely. Eventually, we came to the end of one such cut and saw our goal, the bathroom! It wasn’t that I needed to go, I had sweated so much that I hadn’t had to urinate the entire day, it was just nice to know that we’d hit the turnaround. But even nicer, it was a 4 sided building which meant that we could use it to find some shade from the sun for a few minutes since there had been very little shade anywhere else the entire day.

The clouds were quickly burning off and the temperatures were starting to rise. We were a bit behind schedule because of the late start thanks to the frigid morning temperatures. I looked for somewhere to stash the water and Powerade, but in the flat, open terrain, there wasn’t anywhere suitable. I could have hidden them behind the outhouse, but then they’d have been out in the sun and been super hot and gross when we picked them up on our next ride. So I made the decision to ride a bit further and look for a more suitable spot to hide them. Well that’s a lot harder than you would think as the grass was too short and there was just nothing around. Finally, after about a mile, I found a break in a barbed wire fence that was at the end of a rock cut and the post the fence was attached to had been burned by a fire. This was a unique enough spot that I knew I’d be able to find it again when we did our next ride. I don’t carry a GPS, or I would have been able to do that to mark the location, but I try to steer clear of technology on the trail with the exception of recording equipment to document our travels.

I then stashed the water and Powerade and we turned around. As we neared the outhouse, I had to try and maneuver the bike and trailer under a gate that we had previously crossed, but this time, I accidentally rubbed up against it as we passed. I didn’t think much of it until I looked down at my arm and saw that it was painted white. Apparently, the Army had just painted the gate shortly before my arrival and, since it was 10 miles from the road and no one ever comes out here, they didn’t put a “wet paint” sign on it. Thankfully, I didn’t get it on my clothes, just my arm. What are the odds?!

We then continued the short, steep climb back to the top of the tunnel. It was much harder though this time as the gradient on this section was the steepest section that the railroad had built for the entire state of Washington, so steep that it had required extra train engines called “pushers” to stay in the area on stand-by to help push trains up the long, steep climb. And now with the clouds gone and temperatures starting to bake me, it was a real struggle. By the time we reached the jeep trail, I was totally knackered and wound up pushing the bike a few hundred feet and then laying down next to the dog trailer, using it for what little shade it could provide. It was slow going, but it was the best I could manage. When we finally made it to the top, I may have let out a little triumphant cry that I knew only the dogs and I would ever hear. After that, the day was a breeze as we soared downhill towards the car. Even the deep sandy sections we’d had to climb in the morning were easier now as we had gravity on our side, though we did take several breaks in the few shady rock cuts that we found. I then started fantasizing about an ice cold Wendy’s Frosty and that gave me the motivation that I needed to get back to the car.

When we got to Wendy’s, luck was on our side. I had ordered a vanilla flavored one so that I could share it with Captain Fantastic and Dogzilla and when I got to the window, the cashier told me that there had been a mix-up and they had accidentally made 4 Frosties by mistake and that I could have all 4 of them! So the dogs and I each got our own Frosty. It was an outstanding ending to a long, hard ride!