Bikepacking the Pacific Northwest Rail Trails

We went to dinner with Mark’s Brother and his wife before the trip.

I hadn’t seen my friend Dennis in years since he moved to Washington. This trip was a great excuse to have a most-excellent visit!

Here is the crew! Janet and i will ride with Todd and Mark to Missoula. They will fly home from there and then Janet and I will loop back on some other rail trails.

Mark contacted Brian who is a “warm showers” host. If you don’t know, Warm showers is like AirBnB, except you BYOB (bring your own bed and breakfast). It’s mainly for cyclists who are touring. Anyway, Brian turned out to be an amazing host who amongst interests in Architecture, photography, wildlife and home repair (well maybe that’s not an interest)… he also farms his own oysters. He bought 300 oysters (per bag; he has 5 of these bags). When he got then 3 years ago they were the size of a fingernail – but now many are quite huge – some of the largest I have ever seen.
Brian told us that these oysters are triploids. You are probably a diploid – meaning you probably have one set of chromosomes from each of your parents. If you got a 3rd set of chromosomes, you probably wouldn’t have survived to adulthood (though some people have). In oysters, this modification means that they are sterile. Moreover the additional DNA in the cells means they physically grow larger (each cell has to be larger to accommodate the extra DNA). The benefit of this sterility is that they cannot have a little nooky with the wild oysters. On second thought, I’m not sure if this makes them less randy… maybe they can still have their nooky and not have to deal with the consequences. Technically, these aren’t genetically modified because we didn’t insert any non oyster DNA in there… I suppose that the GMO definition is debatable.

Brian prepared they oysters for us and we ate them raw. In our local store, I can buy shelled oysters in little plastic tubs that are pretty fresh, but as you can imagine, today’s oysters beat those by a LONG shot. I’m so grateful for Brian’s generosity and that he chose to invite us to share some of his precious oysters.

Here is our camp at the Warm Showers… not bad, right?

Today’s route included a lot of carefully selected quiet roads – even though we are traveling through lots of connected cities. By the way, the original version of this very bridge collapsed in 1940:
https://youtu.be/j-zczJXSxnw

Wherever you go, there you are.

Today we met a cycle tourist who was heading half way across the USA.

Is zero a positive or negative number? If someone called you a “zero,” maybe it is negative, but if you add a couple of zeros to $1, that new number $100 is pretty positive.
While I was contemplating the zero, Mark informed me of the pattern:
1/9=0.1111111111111
2/9=0.222222222
3/9=0.333333333
…
…
8/9=0.888888888
But what happens when you take 9/9? You don’t get 0.99999999. Instead you get 1.

I knew I wanted to fly the drone over deception pass to get a photo of us. This is a significant place; The water can move up to 9mph in this narrow passage – so if you were in a kayak paddling a super fast 6mph into the current, you’d be going backwards. The drone flew well in spite of the wind and rain. After my first flight, however, I did see the sign saying that drones are prohibited here 😞

Today we had to take a ferry ride to make a connection. I never thought a 14 mph Ferry ride could be exciting… but as we were quietly moving along, I suddenly felt vibrations and a low roar coming from the engines. I looked up and we were turning slowly. Why were we turning in the middle of the straight? At first I thought, “oh cool; they are stopping for dolphins”. Suddenly it sounded like an alarm was going off. If this had been an airplane, I would have been really scared. Then I realized that this wasn’t an alarm; it was the horn. Out the front window, you could see a yacht speeding perpendicular to our route down below us. The huge car ferry had “slammed on the brakes” AND turned away from the errant yacht as best it could. We did not hit the boat, but a guy came down from the upper deck agitated talking with the others – in 22 years he had never seen anything like this. That yacht didn’t change course – and if we hadn’t, it would have been crushed.

This must be leftover; today we only got one serious cloudburst. It was even sunny for a while!

Last night we camped at the farmhouse of Todd’s old (as in old-time, not calling him old) friend. Todd used to work as a teacher in India, which has provided us with many stories. Some of the other employees of the international school also came to this mini reunion. Bob and Patricia were very kind hosts – especially considering that we showed up soaking wet and immediately went to their clothes washer / dryer.

Check out the meal that Patricia made for us. Wow.

So, Canada (or perhaps British Columbia) has taken the title of the best place on earth.

Yesterday, the Canadians didn’t give me the warm welcoming feeling. When I crossed the border, the man was super gruff. Luckily, 99% of the arrival had been done online, so all he had to do was scan my passport. He asked, “how long will you be here?” I said, “two weeks.” Then I thought better and said, “actually we might need a little more time.” He got really serious and said very somberly: “WHY WOULD YOU STAY HERE LONGER?” Sheepishly, I said, “well, it may rain some days and we might need to stay in a hotel…”. He grumbled but accepted that as an answer.
In 2001, I rode to Canada in the winter – and I stood in their office for an hour and a half as they mulled whether or not they should let me in. I dripped a muddy puddle about 2 feet in diameter as I stood there (no one else crossed at this border during that time). Finally they decided to give me one day to stay?!? WTF 🇨🇦???

That to the left is the Fraser River – which drains an area larger than Great Britain! It is flowing fast too. The amount of water going through here is amazing. Here is a fun fact: Smog Checks are not required for cars in Washington state anymore. One reason is the heavy adoption of electric vehicles. And electric vehicles are are A LOT “greener” in WA than they are in the rest of the country. How? WA gets a huge amount of electricity from hydroelectric – which has far fewer emissions than other methods of electricity production.

Janet and I rode the official KVR route, while Todd and Mark opted for the highway. Much of the route was washed out… After we climbed over a pile of rock rubble, we were relieved to see a bridge! Two, actually. We were still 17 miles from getting off this route, though – so had some worries about the deteriorating road ahead.

I flew the drone at the first tunnel. Janet and i are on the far left of this shot. I took this photo before we realized that there was a tall iron gate that was locked and blocking the tunnel! Undaunted, we threw the bikes (and ourselves) over the fence. We knew that if there were any missing links to the puzzle, we would have to turn back (missing links would be insurmountable landslides or significantly missing bridges).

As you can see, the tunnels are in series. Between the tunnels you can look at the river. This was one of the top geological/man made features we have visited. On par with stuff we saw in Switzerland.

Later we were forced to ride a section of Busy HWY 5… we had a bikepacking.com route to follow that paralleled the road/river – but every bit of that route had been devastated by the floods. You know by now that I don’t use the word “impossible” lightly…. But the trail was simply gone in many parts – and a raging river in its place; we only ended up doing tiny bits of the intended route. On the highway, we caught up to Mark and Todd who rode the HWY the entire way (Todd wanted to charge his eBike at “the Lunch Bucket”). It turned out that this was a good idea given what was to come for me and Janet. This photo is from the early part of our second section of the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. Janet is that little dot on the right side of the Road.

After so many washout crossings, My wallet and blood glucose meter slipped out of my pocket on a very remote section of the Kettlle Valley Rail Trail. It has my credit card, needles, ATM, driving license, $100 REI gift card (that I got by signing up for their credit card), $60 US cash, and most importantly my permanent National Parks entry card. 😞 Fortunately, I had a spare glucose meter and needles stashed all over my bike, but was a little sad to lose 3 days of readings.

I’m very impressed with Janet today! That was a big ride. At one point she couldn’t unclip from her pedals and she fell on a rock. Nothing broken, but a nasty gash on the side of her shin. She just roughed it out and kept going. Wouldn’t even let me put antibiotics on it until the end of the day. Super Janet!!

Check out how this bridge slipped – but didn’t completely fall! We were so lucky because so many of the sections today could have been impossible – forcing us to do long backtracks – but we made it through each challenge.

The KVT (kettle valley rail trail) has some wide sweeping switchbacks on it. I thought it would be cool to see them from the air, but then realized they are HUGE. This is one loop of four in a series of gradual, easy switchbacks. The surface is soft, but the grade is easy.

The rail trail from Princeton to Chain Lakes was completely intact, so Janet and I took it the whole way. We enjoyed being on the trail, but the road that Todd and Mark took only had 9 cars pass them – so either is an excellent option. Along the way, Janet and I saw a tent camped by the side of the trail – but no bike and we didn’t approach them.

Here is Ray on one of the washed out sections of the trail. In spite of these washouts, the trail was still probably easier than the road – I only climbed 590’ today while the road riders had to climb 1,600’.
While I chatted with Ray, I told him about my lost stuff from 2 days ago. “Oh, you will get it back for sure. People are good here.”
Then I told him where we were when I lost it – that 20km stretch of washed out trail. He went from being super positive to pretty glum, “You’re never going to get that back. Oh my. No one goes that route….”
I still held on to hope, though…

Next, I found several attempted “phone calls” on Facebook Messenger from a guy named Dwayne. Sure enough, he was driving logs in a truck and stopped to pick it up. He was pretty excited saying in his Canadian accent (which sounds Scottish to me for some reason), “I know how hard it is to lose your stuff!” I told him, “please keep the cash as your reward,” but he wouldn’t have it. He said, “no, I just want you to have your wallet back. I could tell you weren’t rich so I didn’t keep it!” He was laughing. I guess real rich people carry more than $60 cash in their wallet 😊

When Janet and I got back together in town, she showed me her wounds (she had crashed on a muddy pothole in the road). She looked OK, but everything was very muddy. She saw a car wash, so for one Canadian Loony, we power washed the bikes (this is an after shot).

There were some 18 train trestles today! It is amazing that all this work was invested. The railway was built in 1914, and then retired in 1949. They rebuilt it for recreation in the early 80s…. But a fire in 2003 burned up many of the trestles… and they still rebuilt them! That is pretty amazing if you ask me. This route is a real treat to ride. Climbing is very easy. Surface is soft and bumpy – so not super fast.

Mark had a little marker on Google indicating a ski lodge. Mark always does his research, but there are always some unknowns. We both figured we might be able to sleep on a porch to get out of the rain. But then we found the lodge open! We got a fire going and made hot food and are now relaxing in t shirt and shorts. Quite the happy ending!!

It was cloudy or drizzly all day. Then at camp the sun finally came out for half an hour and we were too hot!

Mark’s rack came apart from the frame so Brian superglued it back together then added zip ties for good measure. Here Mark’s stick light is bungeed to the back of his bike at 9:12am. In the next photo at 10:02am it is missing! He has already lost and found several items so it’s still possible that the stick light is at the bottom of his pannier.

Mark kayaking during our rest day.

Lots of wildlife seen today on one of our best days of the trip. I saw a few bald eagles, and this one came close enough for a photo.

More wildlife – this is the third black bear I’ve seen on the trip. I came upon him at 15mph – trying to catch up to the gang – and didn’t slow. Snapped several photos while riding. I would not have been so bold if it had been a grizzly.

Tonight Mark arranged for us to stay at a “Warm Showers” host. If you don’t know, Warm Showers an app for cycle touring (similar to couch surfing if you have heard of that) where people allow you to camp in their yard and have a nice shower. The idea is that the tourist provides entertainment and they provide a free and safe place to stay. I always get a little apprehensive before these stays. Mainly that is because I don’t like being a ”mooch”. I always try to bring my own food anyway – but at the same time I need to be better about accepting hospitality. Our hosts were Jan (Janet) and Zack. Interestingly, another guy named Paul (hand over his face in this picture) was another guest. He did a better job at entertaining our hosts (and us) with many stories of his 50 day trip across Canada in the opposite direction of us. One story, a cop found him camping in a park and then offered to pay for a hotel for him! But one story was bad – he was camping in a park and woke up at 2 am to kids throwing eggs at him! They didn’t have a good aim because the next morning, most of the eggs were splattered around him. Must have been rich kids because eggs are expensive in Canada.

This morning there were ample opportunities for photography.

Goodbye Mark and Todd! Janet and I need to ride back to Tacoma.. and Todd and Mark have flights out of Missoula. We would have stayed with them all the way to Missoula – but there are ZERO rental cars in Missoula… and a rental car out of Spokane is $1000 for 2 days! That is OK, though – now we are going to try and see Josh Kato along the route… and we are hoping to see Corrine Liestekow as well. She is planning to do an Individual Time Trial (ITT) on the Trans Washington course. This may elicit some changes to our route because we had planned to ride the lower, flatter route… but now we might go higher to meet up with these cool fellow bike packers. Excited!

I’m actually surprised we found a route this good. Riding was crummy until just after Bonner’s Ferry. Right after that, we got off the highway and had a great time the rest of the day!
One part of today’s route said, “Dead End.” Janet said, “let’s go for it!” Glad we did. Turns out there was a half mile “no motorized vehicles” link between te dirt roads.

I stayed up late last night doing some last minute re-routing. We didn’t know what we were going to do for sure after our Gray Creek pass route got stymied by the snow. From the horror stories I have heard, that was a good decision to skip. Anyway, thanks to the mapping application on our phones, we were able to put together a really super, largely dirt route that will link into our rail trail. In fact, I think tomorrow is almost all on bike trail!

Later we wanted to do the “John Wayne Trail” which has been renamed to the “Palouse Trail.” We were informed by Corrine Leistikow that we needed to register to get permission and to get the gate codes (which we did online). But when we got to the very first part, it wasn’t there anymore! In fact, I’m not sure if it ever existed as a bike able trail. We eventually had to turn back – but found an easy paved section to meet up with the route a little bit later.

Heard a rattle snake in the bushes!

By chance Al these cyclist arrived at the same time! The guy on the far right (Aaron) is riding across the country to the East. The couple to his left are going to Wala Wala. That hot chick to the left of them… she’s goin’ with me! The guy in the yellow didn’t talk. The guy to his left was riding a 7” travel suspension bike and he was admiring Janet’s bike. Can’t remember where he was going. Finally, blue guy with blue bike was traveling solo. And we all met in this one spot… crazy, huh?

We went a long way with nowhere to rest or hide. About 74 miles in, we got to this town and bought 5 large zero sugar beverages! Even though i left this morning with 3 liters (and ice in my thermos) (and Janet left with 2 liters)… we were parched by the heat and the wind.
My bike blew over a moment after I took this photo.

It was a long time coming, but we finally met Corrine in real life. She’s a Strava friend, but happened to be out doing an ITT (Individual Time Trial) on the trans-Washington route which we have (mostly) been using. Her route goes more through the mountains than what we did (we took the Beverly bridge which had been closed for a long time and just opened last month). She’s still on pace I think. She got slowed down by single track on day 2 – but will move fast across Eastern Washington – especially if these headwinds (tailwinds for her) persist.
Corrine is from Alaska and has quite the riding resume, including the Tour Divide, BC Epic, Smoke and Fire amongst others. It will be fun to see how she does on her ITT… but I feel bad for delaying her so long today (45 minutes?) during her race. That means more time in the saddle later in the day and less sleep.

Janet after re-emerging from under the earth. We took a nearly 3 mile long… perfectly straight tunnel through a huge mountain. You could actually see a tiny dot of light at the other end it was so straight. At first I thought that dot was a person with a flashlight off in the distance. The dot grew in size very very slowly. The tunnel was very cold inside, and it was kind of a surreal experience – one of the more interesting sections of the last 3 weeks. In the very middle, we saw a couple in the dark up against a wall. At first I thought they were working on the tunnel. That made no sense, then I realized they were Geocaching. Clever place to hide a cache – where GPS does not work. Before we exited, we passed some 50 girls waking the tunnel with shirts that said, “1% better”.

Leaving the mountains. I’m a little sad to be ending the trip – but also anxious to get home. Sometimes I question why that is the case. It’s a big effort to get this far North, so once you’re up here, it seems like you should maximize that opportunity. Living on the Central Coast of California, I daydream about riding in cool, green forests – which we don’t really have down where we live. Why do I pine for going home… and just a few days after I get back, I start daydreaming about going places far-away once again?