Day 3 part 2- Edmonds to Kirkland. 24 miles, total feet climbed for the day 6943
After getting off the ferry our plan was to make it as far as we could until dark. We didn’t think we would make it all the way to Tolt McDonald Park, where there was a campground so that left us in a quandary about where we would camp in suburbia. Ultimately we decided to go off route a couple of miles to a hotel in Kirkland. The suburban segment between Edmonds and Carnation led us up and down many hilly streets and through many suburban parks. One of the most notable sections is the extremely steep section up Norway Hill out of Blyth Park in Woodinville. We didn’t even attempt to ride it and it took us close to an hour to walk up all the switchbacks. We were greeted at the top by some friends and trail angels with snacks and beer! We made it to the hotel by 9 p.m., all told 75 miles for day 3.
Day 4- Kirkland to Lake Easton 89.9 miles, 5233 feet climbed
Up and at ‘em early again, winding our way out of suburbia. My sweet friend, Dominique, surprised us at Tolt McDonald Park. He rode with us up to the start of the Palouse to Cascades (PTC) trail, where we began to climb up Snoqualmie Pass. He also brought us some very tasty French pastries, yum! After climbing the gentle railroad grade trail for 19 miles we were one mile away from the tunnel, 3 miles of darkness leading you out the other side on the top of the pass. We just wanted to get through the tunnel, a significant marker along the ride because then we would be east of the mountains.
But there was a roadblock in the form of a black bear about 30 feet away. We yelled at him and he looked at us and went back to munching the vegetation on the side of the trail. He wasn’t afraid of us at all and wasn’t interested in moving on. Keri and I each pulled out our bear spray just in case he got interested in us. I looked down at mine and realized I had a practice can, with no pepper spray in it. Oops. I held it at the ready anyways. After 30 minutes of munching the bear decided to mosey on into the woods and we quickly rode past that point. We made it through the tunnel and onto Lake Easton Campground without further incident and camped amidst a bunch of RV’s because we couldn’t find the hiker/biker site.
Day 5- The Colockum, part 1 62.8 miles, 1704 feet climbed
After leaving Lake Easton Campground we continued east on the Palouse to Cascades Trail to Ellensburg and then we veered north on farm roads and eventually onto forest development roads. We were now going to ride through the Quilomene and Colockum Wildife areas up and over the mountains and down to Wenatchee. On this ride everyone just refers to this area as The Colockum, which makes it sound beastly, like it was out of The Hobbit or something. And a beast of an area it is. Much of the road is covered with loose and embedded rocks called “baby heads” because of their size. The going is very slow, whether you are ascending or descending. Even a very skilled rider is going to find it demanding. It is also very beautiful in late May and early June because there are magical wildflowers everywhere!
This area also has open cattle grazing. Our second ‘wildlife’ encounter happened as we were starting up the road leading directly into the Colockum. We came upon a small herd of 4 cows and 4 calves. They were standing right in front on a cattle guard with barbed wire on either side so they blocked our road and we had them cornered, as there was no where else for them to go. They looked formidable. I suggested we get on the other side of the barbed wire fence in case they decided to charge us.
It became apparent to me that they were as scared of us as we were of them, so I suggested we move higher up the hill and hide behind some tall grass. This helped as two of the cows started moving back down the road, but wait, one of the cows was a bull!! They sniffed our bikes, which we had left on the side of the road, and then walked past and down towards their farm. That left two cows and four calves. After much calling back and forth two more cows and a calf went down the road. At this point we had been waiting for an hour. Time to make our move. We grabbed our bikes and went towards the cattle guard, the three remaining calves tripping over themselves to get out of our way. At that moment a jeep came bouncing down the mountain and I yelled to the guy “where were you a half an hour ago?!” He laughed at our predicament and told us we needn’t be so afraid of the cows. Easy for him to say from the protection of his car. We proceeded a little further along the route. It was 6:30 p.m. and a big climb lay ahead of us so we decided to call it a day, get some good sleep and an early start. There was a nice grassy spot where we fell asleep to crickets chirping and birds singing their evening song.
Annie Bikes 
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