7-26-10 Day 51: Spokane, Washington to Wilbur, Washington: 70 miles in 4:40 hours all on Rt. 2 West.
Knew this was gong to be a hot trek across the Washington “Badlands”, so I had talked with Barney last night and pushed our meeting time to Wednesday due to the long distances I’d have to cover Today and tomorrow to get to Wenatchee on Tues. So we settled on Wed, which actually worked out better for him. Me to, hell I just have to do 3 60-70 mile rides through this freaking purgatory instead of 90-mile rides for two days in a row.
So I asked politely at the Comfort Inn reception desk if they could let me eat my free breakfast at 5:30 rather than 6 AM as is stated in the hotel. This so I could get on the road at 6 AM. Heck, I had a free breakfast coming, and that I did not want to miss. Got to get my money’s worth when I’m splurging! And they were just totally cool with letting me in a half hour early. So I got in the breakfast room and chatted with the gal who puts out all the grub. Nice lady and she was more than accommodating with my early arrival, and when I told her I was riding west across the desert to Seattle on a cross country trip, she just flipped, telling me that that was crazy to ride through Eastern Washington on days like today. I assured her that I would be fine, and that this is why I was eating early so that I could stop before the heat of the day set in. Then she started asking me a host of questions about my riding cross country, the first of which was “what is your cause?” I’m getting this like every day - my cause. So I explained to her that my cause was time and mortality. Got to do it now, or maybe I’ll never do it. Yup, my cause is mortality …go for it, Iive life and push yourself into situations that are just totally out of the norm. The reward is just an amazing sense of accomplishment. I don’t think she totally “got the pushing yourself” part but she was very cool in trying to figure it out. She even said she had read a couple of books, one about a guy who walked across the US, and the other about a guy who biked across the US, so obviously she has an interest in stuff like this were people go out there and just do it – living rather than just existing. If I can impart anything to people about doing things like this it’s: go out there and take a walk outside of the comfort zone, take chances, live your dreams, experience life. Yup, life’s about taking chances. If you don’t take chances you leave so much on the table. Enough said there.
So I had this great breakfast at the hotel, with biscuits and gravy, some eggs, yogurt, muffins, doughnuts. Yup, I was just packed. And then off I went, riding into downtown Spokane to try to beat rush hour and the impending heat of the day when I reached the desert. The hotel staff had given me a route to get through the city rather than take Rt 2 onto the I-90 – which is a no, no. So I road a net descent down into the middle of the city, and then turned on 2nd Ave and finally onto Sunset Blvd which exits the city west to eventually hook back up with Rt 2 which comes off of the interstate west of the city. Didn’t really have much of a problem what with the early hour and the light traffic in the downtown.
Then got on Sunset Blvd and began riding west – right into this monster climb. Now I’d just made it across the Rocky Mountains without using the little cookie, but when I caught sight of this puppy my stubbornness evaporated – it was little cookie time! I’m telling you, this thing was a bitch. I dumped it into the little cookie and just spun in the third easiest cog in the rear, and occasionally dropping a gear and getting out of the saddle to change it up a bit. Must have taken me 15-20 min just to get up this climb and out of the city. Half way up I just stopped and stripped my long sleeved jersey due the profuse amount of sweat just running like small braided streams down my upper body. I was soaked half way up!
Finally got to the top and junctioned with Rt 2 off of the Interstate, and then it was just nice and flat. Went by like this massive strip mall complex outside of the city with some pretty heavy traffic. Good thing was that I had this just glorious berm that was a lane wide and smooth as glass with fresh asphalt. Once I got through all the suburbs and strip malls I was suddenly out in the middle of nowhere, just farm country, where I was surrounded by wheat fields as far as the eye could see. It was wild how fast I left the foothills and trees and entered this gargantuan basin. That’s where the road went back to single lane, and where the traffic just dwindled off to a low to moderate level. And that was it. Goodbye Spokane.
The early morning temp was around 65-70 degrees. But by the time I’d passed the suburbs to the west it had climbed up to the low 80’s. I rode a series of rollers and straights into what looked to be more and more like the very Great Plains I had left several days ago. This is definitely not the way most people picture the state of Washington. I mean there were just all these rolling hills as far as I could see containing wheat fields. It was actually quite beautiful to see the fields of golden wheat on one side, and green wheat on the other. The play of morning light on the fields was pretty cool. I had a light crosswind out of the southeast that enabled me to keep a really nice pace of 13-17 mph depending on the rollers.
About an hour later the terrain really changed drastically, like it was very reminiscent of the lave fields I experienced in Iceland when I pedaled out of the Reykjavik airport – just rubble fields of basaltic rock everywhere. I looked intimidating and menacing with such scorching weather. Yup, it was the desert for sure. I could just feel the heat magnify out there. It was wild. But I still had a coolish breeze from riding so I was being cooled off. No humidity here. This is just Arizona type heat. Eighty degrees felt ok. So I kept rolling on. Made it past Davenport with no stop needed, but damn, the last 13 miles up to Davenport seemed like a total false flat, just neverending. I mean I was doing like 15-17 mph going up this thing, but I could see cars just disappearing over the horizon each and every time they passed me. And when I’d got to the top of what looked to be the end, it just continued on to another top, and on and on and on.
Once past Davenport it was bloody well hot, really hot. I was going through these zones where it would be farmland fields of wheat and barley and then these “no man” zones of basalt and desert. That’s about the time my mouth started getting dry and cottony. I’d sip my water bottles to wet my whistle and just plug on. From Davenport it was 29 miles to Wilbur, with the small town of Creston about 20 miles in, and 9 miles from Wilbur. So I figured that at the very least I had plenty of water – 4 bottles – to get me that far. More false flats and rollers, and then long stretches of flats amidst these basalt fields that just looked like a freaking oven. My holdout for Creston was broken when I came upon a rest area with water. I stopped and just guzzled water by the bottle full for a good five minutes. Drank so much that I nearly had a stomach ache! But I was well hydrated and continued on to Creston.
I’ll tell you, now I can barely understand people living in like eastern Montana amidst …..just really nothing. But this place? It’s like a hell on earth out here. Just this one main road, Rt 2, and then nothing but these little one lane dirt roads that go off into the horizon, into the heart of the freaking oven. It’s a literal hell hole in some of these places. And there’s a farm here and there, just nestled down in a hollow with a grove of trees where there must be a water source. It’s just crazy to see people living their lives in this area. And the kids? Wow, such a different life. Made it through Creston and it was just a blink and you’re through it kind of place. And the final 9 miles to Wilbur were hot, hot, hot. I had toyed with the idea of pushing on to Coulee City, another 34 miles west, but by Creston that was a definite negative. Nope, just didn’t want to ride on into the scorching part of the day. I was going to go as planned and bag it at Wilbur.
That last stretch was a nice one where I could jam on at nearly 17 mph. And seeing a town out here was just like seeing a town out on the Great Plains, where you can see the grain silos from miles upon miles away. You can see the town 5-7 miles before you get to it just because of the nothingness across this vast landscape.
Made it into town and hit a little efficiency and got situated. I asked for the “guy biking across America discount” and the lady was kind enough to give me the room with no boarding tax. By the time I entered Wilbur it was round about 92 degrees…and just smoking hot. Now this is not much of a town, and again, I just am amazed that people live their lives here….like this little oasis of humanity amidst a massive desert of basalt and wheat fields. Just like two little diners to eat, so I opted for the local grocery store and ended up getting like this big bag of frozen dinners. Got the Banquet specials! Got lunch, a Ben & Jerry’s snack, and dinner….+ a few beers for this evening.
I sat on a picnic table under this huge willow tree in front of the motel and had a beer. Damn, I was very glad I’d decided to bag it here. Going for the extra 30 miles would have been just insanely toasty. Nope, I’ll do short 60-miler tomorrow to Ephrata, and then a very easy 47-mile ride to Wenatchee on Wed to hook up with Barney. And that will get me out of this desert. I’m now about 220 miles from the coast. Yipppe!
Well, it’s like 2:45 PM PST right now. I’m all done with everything really. I can work a bit on the computer and then take a nap. I’ll venture out for some photos later in the evening when the heat backs off and the light gets kinder. But right now I’m cocooned here in the AC loving life. Did my Ben & Jerry’s and feel very comfortable.
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