Cassandra: (Mon June 25) Last night we slept in Pullman. We were staying with another girl we found on Couchsurfing.com, this one a phD student in sociology. She was really nice and welcoming and had a cat that ran all over the place in the middle of the night. It was going crazy! As a result of that and taking pretty late, we didn’t get a full eight hours of sleep. The alarm was set for 8 am this morning and we actually got our earliest start yet, even with our detour to a local coffee shop so I could get on the Internet to check in to my online chemistry class.

It was shortly after 10 am when we got on our bikes for the ride out to Moscow. But first we had to follow part of the Loop Trail through Pullman. It was confusing in spots and sometimes hard to follow, but about a mile and a half later we did find out way onto the Bill Chipman Trail to Moscow. The weather was pretty cloudy, although it was looking better out towards Troy, our final destination. I wore my arm warmers for the first time with my sleeveless shirt, and I felt pretty great.

The ride out to Moscow was beautiful; it was 8 miles of pretty flat, paved trail, following the highway in spots but also sporting a knockout view of the local fields and hills. I mastered the art of taking pictures while still riding my bike, because I wanted to capture and remember everything. The Palouse is probably my favorite part of Washington.

After getting in to Moscow we continued on the Paradise Trail, which weaved for about a mile and a half through the University of Idaho campus and the local roads before seamlessly turning into the Latah Trail. We couldn’t for the life of us figure out how Latah should be pronounced, so we nicknamed it the Ta-ta trail. This was probably our favorite trail of the day because it turned from Palouse to pines and was stunning. At one point Lisa remarked to me that it was strange that we hadn’t seen any snakes in Eastern Washington. Less than a mile later I swerved and screamed when I almost ran over a snake. It was small and probably harmless, but it sure did scare me. I stopped to take its picture, remembering what my mom had said to me on the phone the other day. “If you see a snake in the road, don’t stop to examine it.” I remember thinking at the time, “Duh. Why would I do something dumb like that?” But I found myself trying to get closer to the snake to get a better picture. We rode on and saw a second snake shortly.

Our ride took us out to Troy, where we biked around the small town and then ate lunch in the local park. By this time the clouds were pretty much gone, the sun was warm, and it was a perfect Eastern-Washington kind of day. After eating a sandwich, a granola bar, and some fruit gel I was ready to hit the trail again.

The way back seemed to go really quickly. Before we realized it, we were back in Moscow. Instead of just continuing on to Pullman, though, we had a plan to stop at Walmart and the Goodwill. It felt funny shopping in our biking gear, but it was a fun detour. Suddenly I had an intense craving for a cheeseburger, and not just any cheeseburger. I wanted a cheap one. So we looked around for a McDonalds but the only one we could find was closed for construction.

We headed back to Pullman with the McDonalds plan still fresh in our minds. Lisa is a vegetarian and generally doesn’t eat places like McDonalds, but she was willing to go along with the plan and indulge me. We got back to Pullman without finding another McDonalds and set off on a north-bound highway in search of more fast food chains. The only thing we could find was a Jack-in-the-Box, so that had to suffice. I generally don’t like to eat fast food, but let me tell you, that burger and the chicken nuggets I ordered were super tasty. I think my body was just craving protein.

We have finished biking for the day and are now getting cleaned up and ready for a walk-about around the WSU campus. Tomorrow we head to Walla-Walla for some biking around the vineyards.

A note about today’s ride: my legs felt a little bit sore today, but the main issue was actually my crotch. I finally had to pull the bike shorts down some because I felt like I was suffocating from the lack of breathability. Lisa’s butt was helped by the day-break we took yesterday, but she was still sore.

Our ride today:
Time: approx 4 hours
Distance: 51.5 miles
Average speed: 12.8 mph
Max speed: 25.9 mph