June 7, 2000

We bicycled 51 miles today from Washtucna to Colfax WA. The trip was not that long but it seemed that it was uphill all the way. The climb was easy. I do not think any grade exceeded 3 or maybe 4 percent but it seemed that you never went down hill. At one time I think we must have gone at least 10 miles without ever going down hill. The scenery was very similar to the end of the previous day. For a long time we paralleled the abandoned Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroad right of way. Either we saw wheat fields, sagebrush, or bare earth where the farmer is planning to plant next years crop. In some of the hollows grew what appeared to be bunch grasses. We saw a deer in one hollow and when he moved he just disappeared behind some of the tall bunch grasses. At one point early in the ride the road ran through a man made trench in solid rock. At one point the cut in the rock must have been 20 or 30 feet on both sides of the road. Mary Kay commented that she would have hated it if the road were on top of the rocks rather than in the cut. All day we could see where the old road twisted and turned around the hills. We ate lunch in Dusty at noon. Shortly after leaving Dusty, Mary Kay said that something was wrong with the steering. The problem was that the front tire was going flat. The good news was that we were on one of the few flat stretches of the road. After changing the inter tube we continued and reached Colfax about 2:45 PM. Even though we both drank a lot of water all day, both Mary Kay and I were very thirsty.