58.8 miles, 583 miles overall
Miles overall, includes our leg from La Push to Seattle.
First and foremost, Steve and Bob want to move to St John; the people are wonderful and the coffee at the gas station is free (there’s a donation box). Camping in the park was great. We got lots of info on the town from Owen, one of the local 1st graders. With respect to bike campers he says, ‘they come back every year, thousands of them’. He’ll be 8 next week.
We spent most of the day with a strong tailwind riding sinuous ribbons of asphalt over the remaining Palouse…
…into the land of pine trees, smooth trails and, strangely, pelicans (on the lake behind us, really, we’ll try to get a picture tomorrow).
We passed over or under the Palouse to Cascades Trail many times today, and for the last time just as we entered Tekoa.
We considered and rejected any opportunity to enter the trail, luckily, because we saw many emergency closures and some blockages. Confirming once more that Bob’s enjoyment is traction limited, we spent a little more time than ideal on some gravel roads.
We thought about returning to the trail to appreciate the view from trestle in Tekoa, but after having lunch at C&D’s, and getting a description of the route to said trestle from the bartender (substantially up hill), we rejected that idea as well.
After Tekoa we were into Idaho, and soon at the beginning of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.
We realized as we hurtled down the trail towards the lake…
…that we had no idea where the campsite was. Luckily an Amazon driver at a four-way stop directed us (Bob asked ‘Where’s Heyburn State Park?’. He answered ‘You’re here’ but there was a little more to it than that). Following directions we quickly found and set up set up camp. Courtesy of some careless campers and Steve, our Eagle Scout fire tender…
…we had a real fire going in no time. Bob made a quick trip to the log-shed to procure more firewood…
…and we are now enjoying our new favorite meal of bananas and peanut butter on tortillas.
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