Today started with a pleasant breakfast and espresso on Matt and Zach's porch, and a whole lotta sunshine. We said goodbye to our new friends, plotted our day's route, and headed southwest toward Bay Center, WA.
Today started with a pleasant breakfast and espresso on Matt and Zach's porch, and a whole lotta sunshine. We said goodbye to our new friends, plotted our day's route, and headed southwest toward Bay Center, WA.
On our route today was a stop at the Mima Mounds, which was recommended by our friends as a must-see. We pedaled our way toward the Mounds, but took a wrong turn (again) which added a good 16 miles (again) to our day's route. We're really, really good at getting lost on bikes.
We eventually found the Mounds, and they were a pretty weird sight. Apparently caused by glacial erosion, the mounds are a sea of undulating rises and drops that stretch as far as the eye can see. It's pretty alien-looking.
Unfortunately, a few minutes after the Mounds we hit our second rainstorm of the trip. The rain kept falling for the next 30 miles or so, and we decided to stop into a gas station in Oakville, WA to warm up and dry off.
We consulted the clerk about our route to make sure we were still on the right path, only to find out that the next turn we had planned out was onto a gravel logging road. Ouch. Not something we wanted to tackle on bikes. We were presented with a tough choice - backtrack about 15 miles and take a detour toward our original destination, or to head south on a new route toward Portland. Adding miles in the pouring rain didn't seem all that appealing, so some improvisation was in order.
We stopped in Rochester for the night and enjoyed a great dinner of ham and eggs courtesy of Dylan's skills over a griddle. We went to sleep feeling full, happy, and (relatively) dry.
Our new route will be taking us closer to the Centralia-Chehalis Trail, and is much more of a direct route to Portland than our original. We decided to set up camp for the night outside of Rochester, WA and try and attack the remaining 108 miles to Portland when the weather clears. Given that it's STILL RAINING (going on 25 hours now), I feel like we made a good decision. Hopefully the rain stops soon and we can hit the road - we're anxious to get back to pedaling.
Update: We made it to Chehalis, WA, and I'm blogging from "At Home On Main Street" - the most hospitable place on earth. Thanks SO much to Jene, Kasi, Vicky, and Sue!
No comments:
Post a Comment