August 12, 2019
LEWIS & CLARK TRAIL STATE PARK, WASHINGTON: Eight Palouse Photos Edited Down From Fourteen Palouse Photos
It sucks having to play all the roles of journalism by myself. I'd like to just be the reporter and leave the photography to some guy who is actually good at it and who would be willing to follow me around wherever I go. I've come to realize that's never going to happen, so, by necessity, I've evolved as a photographer. That is to say, I take MORE pictures now, but I certainly haven't evolved quality-wise.
It's comical to think back on my first couple of tours in which I averaged about two pictures per day. Some days I took zero pictures. I didn't believe photography was a good enough reason to halt my forward momentum.
As I said, my thinking on photography has evolved. I've been stopping increasingly often to take pictures, and I'm starting to worry that I stop TOO often. Too many pictures requires me to assume the most difficult job in journalism--EDITOR. Today I had to make the difficult decision to eliminate almost half of my pictures from this journal page. The only thing that made my job a little easier was that there were an awful lot of pictures with my cartoon alter-ego. They were the first to reach the chopping block.
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Technically, those first two pictures relate to "Over-Sized Loads" more than they relate to the Palouse. Still, you can see the beautiful Palouse landscape around and through the trucks.
Of course there is a story that goes along with those huge trucks. I was cruising along, minding my own business, when a car with flashing lights honked loudly at me from behind. As it passed, I saw the sign on top. "OVER-SIZED LOAD" From experience, I knew to look back. I can quickly distinguish the difference between a regular over-sized load and a DEADLY over-sized load, and this was one of the latter.
I pulled far to the side of the road, dug out my phone, and took the first of the pictures above. I took the second picture immediately thereafter and it was already well past me. That's how fast those sons of bitches barrel past you. Minutes later, the same thing happened again and I was forced to hug a guardrail to avoid getting my body sliced in two by another rotor blade of a wind turbine. I'm smart enough to know that wind turbines have three blades, so I didn't move until the third one went by. Good move, me.
I am familiar with the Loess Hills of western Iowa from my RAGBRAI days. They are beautiful in their own right, but the loess hills of the Palouse are bigger and better. Sorry Iowa.
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The Palouse is beautiful, is it not? I usually ride as fast as I can--which isn't really all that fast--but while cruising through this countryside I often caught myself pedaling slowly, looking from side to side, and marveling at how the wheat farmers could possibly cultivate the sides of those steep hills. Generally I was riding the busy Highway 12, but I did take a couple of forays onto some side roads to get a better feel for the quiet Palouse. Need I say, IT WAS GREAT. But, oh man, those roads were STEEP, much steeper than Highway 12 which mostly winds around those steep hills. There is, however, a moderately long hill out of the town of Dixie.
Speaking of towns, Waitsburg is a good one. ("Waitsburg A-Waits You" reads the sign at the edge of town.) I veered left off the main route to the downtown of one of the friendliest little places ever. Well, at least the five people I talked to were the friendliest. I bought some food supplies and then sat in a chair outside the local grocery, in the shade, while drinking my whole milk and eating a little bag of M & M's.
About five miles outside of Waitsburg is the Lewis and Clark Trail State Park. It's in a wooded area made green by the Touchet Creek. Any place that invokes the names of Lewis and Clark deserves my attention. I learned that those explorers passed through here on their way back to St. Louis after their amazing journey to the Pacific Ocean. The park ranger told me they get a lot of cyclists here who follow the Lewis & Clark route. I didn't even realize I was on the Lewis & Clark route.
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Camping here is a little boring. The sites are decent and fairly private, but Highway 12's traffic is always audible. And there are no views of the main attraction--the Palouse. The park claims to have some fine hiking trails. Not so. They're just groomed paths through many view-blockers and tons of mosquitoes.
Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 567 miles (912 km)
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