XWA Day 5 Canyons & Farms

Bikepacking

Jun 11

Day 5, I got packed up and rolling about 6am and had no idea where the other riders were around me as I didn't check the tracker. In hindsight looking at the tracker replay here, this was quite interesting. Jason (JM) was camped just behind me probably less than a mile. I saw him later in the morning and he was cruising as we passed by Tom's (TS) camp once again. This stretch was really nice riding up around the farm roads and then into the Douglas Creek canyon. I didn't mind the creek crossings as it was going to be another warm day. The final creek crossing down in the farmland I stopped and "iced" my feet while I ate some lunch. A farmer came by on a 4-wheeler and saw my bike laying on the ground and asked if I needed it hauled across. I just laughed to myself and told him that I already crossed (that stream crossing many others already that morning). Tom (TS) caught me on the farm roads coming out of Palisades and I could see him forever in the distance on the long straight road heading due East. This was another low point mentally as it was a very long slog through the farm roads to Ephrata. I think some of the hardest hikes/rides mentally are when you can see your destination from far away and it never seems to get any closer. The Dungeness Spit lighthouse hike in Sequim is a great example of this. I knew there was a downhill into Ephrata, but it never seemed to come. Finally, I made it into town on a fun short bit of single-track and rolled straight to McD's where I ate two Big Macs and fries and drank a coke and iced coffee (4th hot meal). I sat and relaxed in the A/C for a bit. I knew that I was going to stop again in Moses Lake so there was no need to stock up. I got rolling again and had a dry dusty stretch along the Drumhiller/Hiawatha jeep track. Once I popped back out on the better farm roads I stopped to lube my chain as the dry moon dust was taking a toll. It was easy riding into the Moses Lake Love's truck-stop and I got another yogurt parfait and ice-cream cookie sandwich. Again, I had plans to stop the next morning in Othello, so I didn't stock up much. I continued on past the Memorial Day ORV party camps out at the sand dunes (I also picked up a trail angel beer here that I couldn’t drink, but it’s the thought that counts). Then onto the infamous Carp Crossing. It looked super deep and full of sharks and the mosquitos were eating me alive. I chose to walk around through the bushes down and up the steep bank through the creek and to the other side instead of doing the swim. I unloaded my front and rear bags to make the bike lighter and crossed first with my bags and then second with the bike. The mosquitos were eating me alive as I was doing all this and the sharks (AKA carp) were rising and eating them, but not fast enough. I finally got the bike reloaded and rode away as fast as I could. It was a nice evening ride through the beautiful seep lakes road and I had planned to camp here. In hindsight, I probably should have pushed on further to around Warden. I thought my camp was well protected, but a huge storm front came through with really strong winds that threatened to break my tent. I woke up and pondered what to do and ended up sitting and holding up the tent poles so they didn't break. It felt like a dog had grabbed hold of my tent like a chew toy and was trying to shake the living daylights out of it. Eventually there was a bit of a lull and I was able to quickly take down the rain fly (for less wind load on the tent) and gather my gear that was outside the tent (lucky it only blew a few yards away into some sage). I brought everything inside the tent and tried to go back to sleep. It started raining and I spread the rainfly out over me and the gear on the inside of the tent. Eventually the wind died enough that I was able to get the rainfly back up and it rained pretty hard after that. Not a great night sleep, but a cool campsite otherwise.

DAY 5: 100mi, 4400ft elev. gain, 14.5hrs, Rock Island Grade (RIG)-Seep Lakes