COLFAX, WASHINGTON: Cougars, Vandals and Codgers

August 16, 2019

Signs like those pictured above were posted on streets and in front of businesses all over town. It was back-to-school week at Washington State University and apparently every student--not just the student athletes--is a "Coug." There were Cougs everywhere I went last night and they're out again this morning. Most of them are with their parents, who also swarmed the city of Pullman last night in order to drop their kids off for another year of college.

The bad news for me is that all of those parents stayed in town overnight. Accordingly, all the hotels and motels jacked up their prices at least 30% and I was lucky to get one of the last rooms at one of the dumpiest motels in town. I can handle dumpy--I just don't like having to pay a premium price for it.

Adding to the motel room frenzy was the fact that Pullman's annual National Lentil Festival happens to be taking place this weekend. I wondered how many people attend the National Lentil Festival and what they do there. I pictured a bunch of nerdy lentil fans eating bowls and bowls of lentil soup, selecting a Lentil Queen, exchanging hilarious lentil stories with lentil lovers from all over the country, and marching in a parade dressed up in the costume of their favorite lentil. Sort of a Comic-con event for lentilists, if you will.

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My three week tour unfortunately has to come to an end tomorrow. That gives me today and tomorrow to ride the final 85 miles to the northeast side of Spokane. If I really wanted to put forth some extra effort, I could conceivably ride the whole thing today and surprise The Feeshko with an early arrival. But since I haven't put in much extra effort over the course of the tour so far, and since I'm not emotionally ready for the tour to end, I've decided to do something different. You guessed it! I'm going back to Idaho.

The "different" part of that decision is that Idaho is seven miles in the wrong direction. Why in the name of holy logic would I do that?

It would be more in character for me to say "I MUST go there because I forgot to take a picture of the 'Welcome to Idaho' sign two days ago after I crossed the Snake River," but the true reason is because I wanted to check out the Bill Chapman Palouse Trail. It will be the first rail trail of my trip, and it's supposed to be a good one.

While searching for the trail I passed Washington State University--home of the Cougars. (GO COUGS!)

I can't honestly say I know exactly what a lentil is, but I had lentil soup once and I remember it being pretty good.

An artistically-framed photo, even if I'm the only one to say so.

My entire team made it to Idaho and got the all-important photo at the state line.

Just beyond the border was the city of Moscow, home of the University of Idaho Vandals. I didn't see any "Welcome Back Vandals" signs. That might have been a good thing because some unsavory people might have taken those signs the wrong way and assumed they were an invitation to spray paint and otherwise deface the city's buildings.

By the way, this is the second Moscow I've visited during my bike touring career. No, the first one wasn't THAT Moscow. It was Moscow, North Dakota. (Population 17) Having seen enough of a much bigger Moscow, I turned around and headed back to Pullman into a significant headwind. I had a feeling that the wind might have been why it was so easy to bike TO Idaho.

To this point I had been biking for an hour-and-a-half and I was right back to where I started, and I still had the same 85 miles to cover in two days. I'm ready to do it, and the anticipation of getting back into the heart of the Palouse made my job easier.

"I love the Palouse," said G-2 with a stem of wheat between his teeth. It was a nice touch.

The very next town was Colfax. I liked it. There was a long descent into the town and I could see it was in a valley completely surrounded by high hills. I took a break in the city park. I uploaded some pictures at the library. I was impressed by the main street. It extended for many blocks and was surprisingly bustling for a town of only 2,500 people. Most impressive, though, was a thing called the "Codger Pole."

I'll save you the trouble of trying to read the sign in front of the Codger Pole by condensing it into a shorter version:

Way back in the olden days--1938 to be exact--the Colfax High School football team played a hard-fought game in a snowstorm against the team from St. John. The Colfax dudes got beat, mostly cuz an unstoppable St. John running back stomped all over them. Afterwards, in the locker room, the Colfax dudes were saying, "Man, if we could have one more chance against those bastards, we KNOW we could beat 'em."
Fifty years later, a bunch of old geezers from both teams arranged a re-match and, surprisingly, quite a lot of them were still around to play the game. The Codger Pole was carved by a local dude to commemorate the event.

Indeed, they played the game, but one must wonder how well-executed and how hard-hitting it was, considering the players were nearing their 70's. How fast could they run? How crisp was the passing game? How many sacks could the quarterback take without breaking a hip?

Obviously, the pole is more important than the game itself. It contains the image of every old codger from both teams. It was amazing roadside kitsch made even more amazing by the fact I never saw it coming.

Is it art? Is it roadside kitsch? It doesn't matter--I like both.

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Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 719 miles (1,157 km)

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