The Storm Before the Calm
Palouse to Cascades/Great American Rail Trail - Near Tekoa, Washington
Having crossed the Seabury Bridge, we only had one major landmark left to hit before reaching Idaho, Tekoa. We’d heard rumors online that depending on the time of year, this next section of trail can get a little muddy and overgrown with tall grass. We’d also seen a couple posts though that Washington State Parks had recently done work in the area to mitigate. Zilla and I didn’t know what to expect, but we figured that if the trail had been improved, it had to be easier than what we’d dealt with through the central/eastern parts of Washington, so we weren’t too concerned.
(click photos to learn more)
As we carried east, I spotted a very obvious drainage ditch which possibly doubled as an irrigation canal. In any case, there was a lot of water in it and to my knowledge, it hadn’t rained in this area in a while so I was surprised by how much water there still was. I also saw the familiar metallic glint of a discarded mylar balloon, though this time, I hadn’t been trying to find a balloon. This triggered a childhood memory of being about kindergarten age and taking part in a balloon release as part of a church group that I was in. Later in life, I’d often thought back on that moment and felt terrible that my balloon might have wound up inside of a bird or turtle somewhere and killed it. I then started to extrapolate the math and realized that there are literally millions of balloons all around the world littering the countryside. Not a pleasant thought.
I decided to pick up the balloon and make sure it ultimately found its way to a recycling bin. Zilla decided he wanted to help out and jumped into the canal with me; when he got out, he was covered in lots of plant debris but thankfully not any mud. We didn’t have much time to dwell on the world’s balloon epidemic though as a short distance later, the trail became totally unrideable.
To say the trail was beat up would be an understatement. It looked like Washington State Parks had brought in a lot of heavy, earth moving equipment to do their trail maintenance. The trail had to have been extremely muddy at the time as all of the track marks from the equipment have come through had dried into the mud making for lots of hills, valleys, potholes, and eskers of dried mud that were too tall for the low clearance on the trailer. To get through, I had to push the bike and trailer and then lift the trailer whenever we got to an impassable mud mound. Progress was slow, but at least we were in the shade so that made things much easier. I couldn’t imagine how difficult this section would have been had the mud been fresh and wet! A quarter mile or so down the trail, Dogzilla and I found the likely culprit for the earther mover tracks, a large, yellow John Deere bulldozer parked along the trail. Zilla took this opportunity to do some “man things” and got into the cab of the dozer.
After Zilla’s photo op in the bull dozer, we continued east towards Tekoa. Along the way, we were treated to some more spectacular scenery courtesy of the Palouse. As usual, we were going slow and taking our time but then in the distance, I heard thunder. I turned around and was surprised to see that a massive thunderstorm had been sneaking up on us the entire ride. The skies had been fairly blue the entire day so I hadn’t even considered the possibility of rain, let alone a thunderstorm! Not knowing where the nearest cover was from the rain, we raced off in hopes of finding an abandoned barn or a bridge to duck under but no such luck. The clouds continued to grow darker and then I started being able to see lightning in the distance followed ever closer thunderclaps.
When it became clear that we were about to get soaked, we happened upon a brand new trail kiosk with a small roof. The kiosk was so new, it didn’t even have information yet and seriously looked it might have just been installed the previous day. We quickly ducked under the kiosk. It wasn’t large enough for the whole bike and trailer, so I had to split it in half, putting the bike on one side under the roof and the trailer underneath the other. It was just big enough that using this configuration, Zilla and I could fit under as well and stay out of the worst of the rain.
We got a bit lucky in that the bulk of the storm stayed just to our north, providing a good show, but not putting us in too much danger. We were able to stay dry, but still hung out for over an hour as the storm did its thing and slowly moved through the area. Having just gone through the unrideable, dried mud a few miles earlier, I wondered how the storms would impact the trail ahead.
We were only 7 miles from Idaho, but the trail still some had a few tricks up its sleeve as we were about to be in for one of the hardest sections yet!
The storm before the calm - near Tekoa, Washington
