August 5, 2017
Seattle, Washington to Kellogg, Idaho
The ecological zones change with remarkable speed as one heads East out of Seattle. (Heading West would of course be even more dramatic, as you would be in the sea). The speed, of course, is relative to going in a car, but even by bike things would change quickly.
First up are the coastal mountains. Though nothing like the Rockies and certainly not snow covered, they are notably pointy and rugged looking. The highway, I-90, uses Snoqualmie Pass to get through them. The roads and landmarks along here are very familiar to us, especially since we once plotted to cycle through this way.
On the West side of the pass it may be hilly, but it is still essentially the coastal forest. But once over the top, the trees briefly switch from fir to pine, and then even the pines thin out. Soon the trees give way to scrub bushes, then sage, and finally just grass.
The grass desert is actually very productive. The heat makes for good hay, and a little further north is prime soft fruit growing territory.
We stopped in this desert area and smelled the acrid bushes. Avi and Violet quickly spotted extremely cute chipmunks, who seemed to occupy holes in the ground. The open land is also conducive to wind turbines, which could be seen in fair numbers on the ridges.
The road then entered about a 20 km descent, down to the Columbia River. The Columbia starts in Canada, at the Columbia Ice Field, and it rolls on down to formn the boundary between Washington and Oregon, before entering the Pacific at Portland. It is by far the largest river in this region.
Because of the forest fires in Canada, the bridge over the Columbia was obscured by haze. Even so, the views are dramatic. On a ridge just beyond the bridge there is a sculpture installation comprising perhaps twenty iron horses, shown as running in a line. We climbed the ridge for a closer look, and found the pieces as dramatic from up close as from far off.
The grass desert continues for a long time beyond the river, and though there are a few tiny towns the area is essentially empty. We couldn't help thinking about how it would be to cycle here, mainly coping with a lack of water sources.
Moses Lake, however, is a fairly large centre. At least it features a choice of a dozen or so food outlets. We chose Denny's. The highlight here was our waitress, a lady of Spanish background. She was really on top of what we might need, and very efficient. Unfortunately again the food was high calorie and highly salted and seasoned. We are going to need some kind of strategy in order to survive 14 days of American restaurant food!
Denny's of course is not the bottom. The bottom is the fried and continuously kept warm offerings at the gas stations. Oh well.
Violet kept asking how long until we would arrive at Kellogg. We kept answering by checking the road signs for the distance to Spokane, and then figuring an hour and a half beyond that. We used it as a teaching moment - for example, 112 miles to Spokane and we are going 80 mile per hour, so.... As so often happens, Violet was fast asleep when we actually passed Spokane!
We chose Kellogg as our headquarters because it is home to the Silver Mountain ski and mountain bike resort. The resort's lodge features an indoor water park. Now for the kids cycling is fun, but they adore water!
We checked in and naturally went directly to the water park. As befits this mining valley, it has a mining theme, with spilling giant wooden buckets, channels and flumes, a lazy river, and suchlike. This was naturally a big hit with the kids, but I surprised to see Dodie dragging us all onto a rubber raft that then plunged at crazy angles through a totally dark enclosed tube. Even more surprising, she is threatening to go again!
With all the nearby attractions it will take us a little while to get into cycling. However we will in fact get on the bikes first thing tomorrow and go find the gold mine tour that is a few kms east of town. But then we will be back for more water parking and even a trip up the adjacent mountains on the extremely long gondola line that begins at the resort. We will have a peek there at the mountain biking trails, but we expect really to stick to the flat rail trail.
Tonight, the bikes are stashed in the resort's bike storage. It is a very crowded room. With the rail trail and the mountain trails this is a pretty serious cycling venue!
Bonus, a few added perspectives taken by Avi and Violet
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