Success at last! This was my third attempt at the Palouse to Cascades state park trail. The trail runs for ~300 miles from Cedar Falls (near north bend) all the way to the border with Idaho (near Tekoa). This trail is a beast - but after three attempts, I finally made it.
Before I jump into this trip, a bit of history. There is a bridge that goes over I-90 as you are going east from Seattle. It’s a pedestrian bridge, but it seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere so it’s notable and it has a big sign on it that says “Palouse to Cascades”. About two years ago, this sparked my interest and I discovered that this was a trail that followed the old Milwaukee road rail line across the entire state of Washington. Having done the Seattle to Portland bike ride the year prior, I was intrigued and interested in doing this trail - which is only marginally longer than STP (~300 mi vs ~215 mi). I put together a plan which involved dragging Angela along with me and even included bringing Sara with me in the trailer the first day. You can read more about it in the post below, but the bottom line was that I grossly misjudged the trail - not realizing the ruggedness of the trail and how it would impact me and my bike.
