Just 4 days after being assaulted, the winter weather had finally changed enough in our favor that the snows had melted along our next section of the Palouse to Cascades Trail. For those of you that are interested, there’s an awesome website you can use to see what the current snow depths are anywhere in the US. It won’t tell you if the ground is still mushy from all the meltwater, but hey, it’s still a pretty handy tool!

The dogs and I loaded up the car and headed out towards Warden, WA where our riding year had ended in 2021. I was really looking forward to getting back to the trail and spending some time exploring again with my pack. The dogs were excited too, they hadn’t seen me loading up the bike trailer in several months, so they knew it was time for some adventure after a few months of the more sedentary life.

When we got to the trail, I could instantly tell we were going to be in for a hard day as the ground was very soft, though not exactly muddy, and the tires were sinking into it just enough to add a lot of extra resistance. Plus, with this being the first ride of the year, I wasn’t in very good biking shape either. We had planned on doing a 10 mile day, but I was having serious doubts.

About 100 yards from the trailhead, the trail went through a long rock cut that was deep enough that, at this time of year, the sun couldn’t reach the bottom and so it was still filled with an inch or two of stubborn, packed snow/ice that gave a loud crunch as we rolled through it and there were a few times that I had to get off the bike and push. The bike was also heavier than the previous year as, with the launch of Pedals4Paws, I’d decided to start making videos of our travels as well which meant carrying extra camera equipment. We were now up to 4 cameras that we carried: a point and shoot with a great zoom, a DSLR for high quality photos, a GoPro, and a drone. Actually there are 5 cameras if you count the cell phone, though I never use that one.

Shortly after reaching the other side of the rock cut, we ran into the first trail users we’d seen in over 150 miles.

(click photos to enlarge and see descriptions)

I heard barking and looked up to see three large white shapes running towards us. We’d gone roughly 800 miles without having any run-ins with loose dogs, but that was obviously about to change… The dogs came straight for us from a nearby farmhouse. This was their territory and they weren’t about to let anybody travel through without investigating. I was a little worried at first as I’d never had to handle loose dogs while on the bike before, let alone with Captain and Zilla trapped in a trailer in back. If the loose dogs attacked, my pups would have been at a huge disadvantage, being tied up inside the trailer, and things could get bad pretty quick. Thankfully, as the dogs got closer, it seemed apparent that they were being more curious than territorial, but I still didn’t want to risk anything and so I tried shooing them off. They didn’t seem very fased by me and they were wagging their tails a bit, though still barking. I decided to call them the “Three Amigos” and carried on with our journey. The Three Amigos followed us, at a respectable distance, for about half an hour before getting bored and disappearing.

However, when we had to come back through a while later to return to the car, the Three Amigos came back in greater numbers; they had brought a 4th Amigo with them! The 4th Amigo was a golden retriever who was obviously super friendly. He was so excited to see us that he couldn’t help but smile at us constantly. My parents have a pug/yorkie mix named Wyatt who smiles when he’s happy, so I was used to seeing a dog show me his/her teeth in a non-aggressive manner. If I hadn’t seen my parents’ dog do this though, I probably would have thought the 4th Amigo was going to try and kill us. Thankfully, my instincts were correct and the golden wanted nothing more than to visit Captain, Zilla, and I and to be part of a giant dog party on the trail. At this point, the 4 Amigos decided we were cool and instead of barking at us, they came right up to us and let me pet them while they exchanged sniffs with Dogzilla and Pigapoo.

We hung out with them for a few minutes before trying to carry on, but the Amigos weren’t done with us yet and kept getting in the way and blocking our path as we were apparently the most exciting thing they’d seen in quite some time. Eventually, we made our way through the pack and headed to the car. This didn’t stop them though as 2 of the Amigos ultimately followed us ≈4 miles back to the car. I figured this was a longer journey than they’d anticipated so I made sure to give them Zilla’s left over Egg McMuffin sandwich that was still in the car. They were more than happy to eat it.

(click below for video)

The trail had been so damp and so rough, coupled with the run-ins with the Four Amigos, that I decided to call it an early day instead of carrying on longer like I had initially planned. Though disappointed at first, I quickly came up with a fun side project for the remainder of the day. Growing up, I had always been a fan of “Northern Exposure” and we were fairly close to where the opening credits had been filmed in Rosyln, WA so I decided to film a little reboot of the series starring Captain aka Pig….

(click below for video)