Day 7 - Crow Butte State Park to Walla Walla

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 Stats: 

Today's miles: 90 miles
Today's feet of elevation gain: 2,306 feet
Total miles traveled: 401.5 miles
Total feet climbed: 15,743 feet

Emboldened by the previous day and hoping to shave off another day from the ‘conservative plan’ (and the prospect of a bed and AC) I decided to push to go all the way to Walla Walla. While I’d hoped for a repeat of the good conditions on Friday, I was disappointed by a 10 mph tailwind that diminished throughout the day and a more challenging set of climbs throughout the day (even though less total gain than on Fri.). I made good progress to Umatilla and crossed back to Oregon from Washington. Stopped for breakfast at Rae’s Dayz café. Great food and nice folks.

I had a guy pull up a chair and ask about my ride. He had done a west coast-to Mexico ride about 10 yrs ago and wanted to know about my trek. After we had finished, the gal at the next table offered her best wishes for the trip and suggested that when I reached Bar Harbor, I really should take the ferry across to Nova Scotia. It’s just encouraging to me to get interest and feedback like that from total strangers.

After screwing around in Umatilla for an hour looking for an item; I finally hit the road about 11:30 ( I have to quit wasting the cooler, late morning). The rest of the ride to Walla Walla was un-eventful. It was hot (97 F) and dry (down to one water bottle coming into Lowden). It was a long, slow grind into Walla Walla at the end of the day. Glad to get to the hotel.

A couple of asides - some people on long cycling trips log strange things along the roadway (road kill, car parts,…etc.). Mine is more limited, 5 dead rattlesnakes, so far. I don’t know how much further that will continue as I get into the mountains. The second thing that I noticed was how the ‘smells’ of the various areas have changed (first, I don’t think you’ll find this in the travel guide and second, I have a lot of time to think while I’m pedaling). No, I'm not talking about the passing cattle hauler, garbage truck or week old roadkill in the ditch. It’s been noticeable how the coast was salt/sea breeze and the coastal forest was heavy mossy and predominated by western red cedar. As I rode into the upper, forested highlands, pines and dry grass predominated. In the last stretches it smells like the sage uplands of Wyoming. Hey, if seven days can cause this, imagine what I’ll be writing about in 10 weeks!!




Location: Walla Walla, WA 99362, USA

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