Washington

Tires in the water at Golden Gardens Park, WA

Carolyn Barbee, friend from JMU, met us and brought trail magic! 

Campsite day #1 

Day 1
‘Twas a beautiful day in Seattle to begin our journey. Before we got to our starting point, we had to take a bus for an hour to get to Golden Gardens Park from capital hill area of Seattle. One might ask, why didn’t you just bike down there since you are biking anyway? Well, this little extra would add 10
miles to our day. Gotta save the legs for the big stuff. In order for this trip to truly be coast to coast, we had to find the ocean and dip our tires in. At the park, we met Faith: a random stranger we asked to take our photo. It is kind of funny that out of everyone at the beach that day, we chose someone named Faith. Some may say we “found faith” to lead us on our trip, not that either of us are terribly religious people.
We proceeded onto the Burke-Gilman Trail for basically forever, not knowing it would add 10 miles onto our trip that we tried to avoid. But in the end it was okay because we got a tour of all of Seattle. Next, we popped onto Sammamish River trail. Let’s take this time to appreciate the Parks and Recs system in King county, Washington. It is very efficient and easy to follow, with lots of bathrooms and picnic tables. The trail system got us well out of Seattle to where we only had to do about a third of the day on roads.
Getting to our final destination of the day, we met trail angel Carolyn with smoothies, PB pretzels, and water at Iron Horse State Park. Thank goodness, because the legs were not feeling so fresh. After good munchies and even better conversation, we pitched our tent on the side of the road and went to bed promptly at 8pm. Just how us grandmas like it.
Miles: 61

Day 2
The day started off with a light drizzle and heavy fog lifting off the mountains. We got back onto the trail around 7:30am (Iron Horse Raul Trail, aka John Wayne Pioneer Trail). For the first 15 miles, it was all up hill. Suuuper enjoyable, especially dodging the giant slugs that hogged the path. Oh and did we mention, the entire trail for the day was a gravel trail? One does not move quickly on gravel. It was quite a grind. But we are very grateful for the rail trail systems. Instead of having to hurl our bodies over the Snoqualmie pass, there was a convenient, pitch black tunnel through the side of the mountain. It really gets your adrenaline going when your light is terrible and you can’t see 5 feet in front of you. Pro tip: purchase an effective bike light. The brighter, the better, and make sure it is charged.
As we continued to travel east, the Washington landscape became less green and more dry and hot. 70 miles on a gravel trail with the sun beating down on you can be daunting, especially for the hands which started to go raw by the end of the day. Our moods held steady because we had tacos on our mind. We met a gentleman named David when we were leaving Seattle who said that Ellensburg has some of the best tacos in the PNW. So when we finally got to our final destination for the day, we were on the hunt for tacos. We ended up eating at Los Chilangos, a super cute food truck with some bomb-ass food (pardon my language). Filled the bellies right up. To finish it off, we got a large Oreo milkshake and donut holes from jack in the box for dessert. A job well done in the biking and eating departments.
Injuries: 0
Repairs: 1 broken water bottle cage
Miles: 73 (total 134)

Day 3:
We started our day at the Olmstead Place Historical State Park, where we pitched our tent the night before. As a way to make the miles go by faster each day, we have decided to ride for 10 miles or one hour before stopping for breakfast and to ride at least half way before stopping for lunch. Today was an unusually quick-paced day. We were fortunate enough to find a nice gradual decline that got us well past the half way mark by 9am, which was a little early for lunch. With all the weight loaded up on the bikes, momentum becomes your friend. We were feeling good, feeling fresh, at this time of day but then we encountered an atrocious gravel road that may or may not have been restricted military property. After yesterday’s fiasco, we have decided we do not like gravel anymore. Instead of continuing forward, we backtracked 10 miles (20 miles extra for the day that was not planned). But instead of killing ourselves to add on more miles, we settled in Royal City, WA and found a park to eat lunch, nap, read, and fill up on liquids.

Injuries: 0
Repairs: 0
Miles: 64

Some bike yoga :) 

Kindra’s coffee shop in the teeny-tiny town of Lind, WA. 

She allows cross country bikers to sign the bar. 

Day 4:
After wandering for another 10 miles to find a place to camp, our day 3 mileage ended up being 74 miles. To get back on the main drag, we had to go back onto the gravel trail. Gravel is the absolute worst. Moving forward, we vow to avoid gravel at all cost.
Our next end-of-the-day spot would be in Ritzville, WA where the possibility of showers and beds was very high. The mileage would end up being 84 miles once we got there and temperatures were rising, but a place to stay at the end of the day was worth it.
We found a place to crash for a couple hours in the middle of the day to beat the heat, a little place called Kindra’s coffee shop in the teeny-tiny town of Lind, WA. This town is very small so when newcomers come through, it seems like all the locals come out of the woodwork to see what’s happening. We met some interesting folks. After loitering for about 2 hours, we had 25 more miles to go until we hit Ritzville.
Takeaways from the day: eastern Washington is HOT, windy, and dry. We both ended up drinking over 300 ounces of fluids each over the course of the day. Thank goodness for multiple water bottles.
Mileage: 84
Injuries: sore legs, butts, and backs
Repairs: 0




Day 5:
Don’t worry y’all, we’re still alive.
Not a whole lot of excitement happened on day 5. Eastern Washington was still pretty boring and hot. We tried to finish up the rest of Washington to get to Idaho but decided to stop in Spanley, WA about 20 miles from the border. We sat in a diner for about 3 hours to waste time and charged are devices. We chatted a lot with the waitress, who was super bubbly, and very jazzed about us biking across the country. Much appreciated when we find more fans. After that, we biked for another 5 miles to get to the high school where we pitched our tent on the back of the football field. Very glamorous.