XWA Finish: Famous (Potatoes) Mud

Bikepacking

Jun 14

Day 7, I got up early and packed up and got rolling by 5am. I was again having a ton of right knee pain trying to get warmed up. Once again, I alternated walking and riding to try and get warmed up. The pain was still pretty strong so I took Advil for the first time on the trip to help me work through it. I loved the farm roads around the Rock Lake area. These were fast easy riding and really pretty country. I could tell that I was transitioning into the green rolling hills of the Palouse. I finally dropped into Pine-City/Malden area and saw the remnant devastation from the 2020 fire. Such a terrible tragedy to these communities and they are still dealing with recovery. A few houses were being re-built as I rode by. It would be great if these towns could help recover by reviving the trail here as it's really beautiful with several trestles across the creek that are now closed from fire damage. I could see this area as being a nice destination to ride/hike the trail for many folks bringing new outdoor recreation tourism opportunities to the area. Once I was detoured around all of the burnt trestles I was back on the PTC trail to Rosalia and it was pretty nice riding. I rolled through Rosalia and it seemed like the town was empty (where was everybody?). I stopped for a bit to eat on one of the high trestles just past Rosalia and enjoyed the scenery. Then I made a hard push for the finish. Just past the Tekoa trestle I ran into the first sticky mud bog and clogged my tires. I tried cleaning them by riding back and forth through a puddle a few times. After that, I was much more careful to try and avoid the sticky mud. I was very fortunate to hit the “Victory Lap” between storms and the mud was just dry enough that I could ride and hike-a-bike my lap without major mud problems that many of the other XWAers faced. I finished the XWA a little before 2pm and according to trackleaders it was roughly 3d9h16m of riding time. The amazing XWA Tekoa greeter John H. was there to welcome me as well as Jason (JM) (waiting for his ride) and my family. What an amazing journey! I give thanks to God that He provided amazing weather for this trip: dry days on the West side, cool days on the East side, and perfect timing between storms for the “victory lap” as I did not have to fight vey much mud. For those that aren’t familiar with WA weather, the typical pattern is rain on the West-side and dry-hot parched days on the East-side. In the end, I accomplished my goal and am very humbled and grateful to do so. I’ve tried to set goals to push myself outside my comfort zone and try something new. The XWA certainly did that. I will keep striving and reaching for new goals, some may succeed and some may not. The important thing is to keep reaching for those goals and keep moving forward (even if moving very slowly or sometimes backwards).

DAY 7: 70mi, 3400ft elev. gain, 8hrs45min, Middle of Nowhere-FINISH (Tekoa)