Day 7

May 29
Today I rode from Elma, WA to Lewis and Clark State Park, just north of Toledo, WA. You may have noticed that I haven't posted very many pictures. Well that's because there's not that much to take pictures of, but today I'll demonstrate this to you by showing you several uninteresting pictures.

Just about 15 miles out of Elma I waved to a farmer who was checking on his cows. He waved back and asked me where I was going, so I stopped at talked with him for a while. He was a goofy looking guy who looks like he spends a lot of time alone on the farm and was excited to see someone else. He thought it was curious that so many cyclists rode by his house and I told him about the maps that I bought and that they are very commonly used among touring cyclists. He added, "And if they took a different route they wouldn't get to see all these wonderful farm animals!" Who wouldn't want to see a bunch of cows.

 I don't know how the conversation got to this point, but at some point he started telling me about plowing. Whenever you plow, you kick up a bunch of mice that were living underground, so the crows always gather around behind the plow to get the mice. Apparently there is occasional eagle sitting on a tree a ways away while this is happening and it will fly in, scare off all the crows, and have all the mice to himself. The things you learn from farmers.

The road 5 miles after the farmer

People in these parts are so resourceful, they use old garden hoses instead of barbed wire

I kept riding and passed through Centralia, WA where I ate lunch. After lunch the road rudely greeted me with a 2 mile long, 500ft climb.

Looking back on the climb

After the climb I was hoping for a nice long downhill, but instead, there was a bunch of flat riding and then a really steep 15% grade, really short hill that I got to go down. I hit 39.8mph, which is my top speed for the tour so far!

The road not too far from camp for the night

I arrived at Lewis and Clark State Park, set up camp and did a bunch of reading and eating till it was time for bed. It was a pretty boring day, but it was nice to be camping again. I feel like I have so much more time in the evening when all I have to do is eat and read. It's more relaxing that way.