Trail Monsters
Halloween 2021 - Warden, WA
Our day started in Othello, WA, near the Abraham Lincoln, where we saw the kind folks who had allowed us to tour the ancient Pullman car on our previous ride. After a quick wave of hello, we got on the bike and had to get moving as the near freezing temperatures and stiff breeze were making me cold and I needed to start cranking my legs to get some blood moving. We soon passed the last vegetable processing plants that were in town and started heading towards the town of Warden.
The temperatures were lower than we’d hoped for and the winds were higher. On a normal day, we would have reconsidered going riding, but since it was Halloween, I had decided to dress the pups for the occasion, effectively providing them each with a coat to help keep them warm, so I figured we could make an exception. Dogzilla was dressed as a tiny dinosaur and Captain Fantastic was an alligator. I modified the costumes by cutting small holes in them so that the dogs’ harnesses could still be worn to make sure they were safe inside the trailer as I didn’t want a repeat of the accident with Zilla.
(click photos to enlarge and see descriptions)
We travelled along a fairly quiet farm road without any real scenery. As it was the end of October, all the crops had been harvested and so the fields were pretty barren making for a less than exciting ride. We found other ways to amuse ourselves though; for example, about 5 miles into our ride, we found a vegetable processing plant that had a truck scale that was on and easily accessible. I thought it would be fun to see how much our setup weighed and was a little surprised to see that we topped the scale at 480 lbs (217 kg)! And we were actually riding much lighter than usual as I’d left the majority of the food and water in the car. I did this on purpose since we were riding along paved roads with easy access. I decided to use the car as a warming hut and supply cache where we could take breaks and warm up for a bit. So realistically, you could probably add another 10-15 lbs (4-7 kg) to our usual riding weight. No wonder we go so slow!
As we rode towards Warden, I glanced into one of the barren fields and laughed harder than I should have. About 20 feet down a steep embankment there was a potato, something we’d grown accustomed to seeing everywhere along the roads here in Grant County. But what made it so funny was that the winds had blown a McDonald’s french fry container on top of the potato. Being Halloween and all, my mind immediately jumped to the potato having decided to dress up for the holiday and go as its future self, a french fry. On any other day, it would have been ironic, but today, with the dogs dressed up as well, it was quite funny to me.
A short ways later, we were in Warden. Warden is a fairly small town and has a good amount of road traffic so I thought we’d see some kids out Trick or Treating, but to my surprise, we didn’t see a single person. It was kind of a let down as I was hoping to make some little kids’ days a bit brighter by seeing the dogs dressed up. The only thing I could think was that since Halloween was on a Sunday, maybe everyone was inside watching the Seattle Seahawks game on TV?
At any rate, we quickly made our way through town and left the pavement as the trail turned back to dirt here. I figured we wouldn’t see anybody now for sure, and since the temperatures were rising, I took the dogs out of their costumes so they wouldn’t overheat. We also took advantage of being off the road which allowed me to let the dogs out of the trailer for a while which I know they appreciated and then a few miles later, our riding year ended, unceremoniously.
We hadn’t planned it that way, but an extended visit with family in the Midwest for Thanksgiving, followed by winter snows in the Cascades, would keep us from getting back on the trail for several months. Even though it wasn’t by design, we managed to go out on a high note for the year as the dogs had been dressed to impress.
