Day 2: North Bend to Cle Elum

Distance: 58 miles

Elevation: +4541 / -3071

Temperature: 88

Today began with a trip to the bakery in North Bend, and then we went up - for about 40 miles. Fortunately it was mostly railroad grade, since we followed the Palouse to Cascade Trail all the way to Cle Elum. The scenery was spectacular!

Salmon Berries, Forget-Me-Nots, Western Skunk Cabbage. Aren’t they beautiful!

Salmonberry picking!

Keechelus Lake. We followed this for quite a while, and it never ceased being incredibly beautiful!

The Avalanche Shed: This was used to protect trains and track from avalanches, since the avalanche would go over the shed and leave the train safe.

Snow! This was incredibly welcome as the temps kept rising! So, it seemed appropriate to play a bit, and make snow angels, of course.

And the Snoqualmie Tunnel was very cool! Over two miles of old train tunnel. The only lights were our own, and the 20 degree drop in temperature was welcome in the middle of the day! Obviously, there aren’t many pictures of the inside, because, well, it was dark. However, we were a bit happy to get through to the other side!

Overall, it was an incredibly beautiful day on the trail, with waterfalls and Mountain View’s around every corner. Steve and John even each saw a bear at different points in the day, which kept us on our toes. However, after 54 miles of gravel and increasing heat, we were all more than ready to get to Cle Elum and get off of our bikes.

Tomorrow we head to Othello, WA!

Highlights:

Riding on the Palouse-Cascade Trail was like hiking on a bike. Just incredible.

Waterfalls around every turn

Snoqualmie Tunnel

Beautiful wildflowers everywhere

Lowlights:

The ice cream place wasn't open at the old train station. Ice cream is important.

The hill leaving from North Bend was a doozy.