June 5, 2016
Day 3 - Rainbow Falls to Morton
More adventures in baking in western Washington.
After very little sleep, I was up at sunrise to catch some cool hours of riding.
I opted against the gravel section of the Willapa Trail and stayed on the highway. Then at Adna, I hopped on the paved section of the trail. Wow! This could really be a destination one day. Lovely mix of fields, forest, and streams.
Chehalis proved a bit shut down on Sunday morning. I ended up having breakfast at the Safeway and added too much stuff to my panniers. I have enough food for a week. Does anybody do that? And it was already pushing 85F. Bleah.
So I decided to push on to Onalaska in order to get to Morton for the evening. Man, oh man - Highway 508 sure has the weekend traffic and little to no shoulder. Had to concentrate which I would prefer not to do. I like that totally zoned out approach.
Anyhoo, I got to Onalaska and sat in front of the Quik Mart for a good 45 minutes with my fruit punch Gatorade. Sizzlin'. Probably close to 100F. I was a little woozy and didn't even want to head into the middle of town to search out what might be available.
When I finally did get up the energy, I stopped by the community church which was just getting out and asked if I could take a rest in the churchyard. They told me about an old growth park just a block away. (And gave me a brownie !!) So I found some delicious shade and tall grass and promptly fell asleep.
It's one of those simple pleasures of touring to be so relaxed after a couple of hours of heat and exhaustion. I drifted in and out of sleep. Cool breeze. Giant trees swaying.
Afterwards, I had a mid-afternoon lunch at Lisa's Diner across the street - the owner is from Louisiana. Spicy jambalaya and cornbread and a huge chocolate shake to top it off. Probably had too much because it sure was tough getting back on the bike.
Like yesterday, the challenge was to get 24 miles in before dusk. And like yesterday, the first 10 or 12 miles were pretty exposed and hot, but at least the sun was behind me. The last half was in the shade - with the low sun and trees - but I was done wore-out when I got to the park in Morton. I paid my fees, set up y tent next to the Tilton River, took a shower, and was out.
Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 132 miles (212 km)
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