In which the Cross-State Ride continues East: Warden, Lind, Ralston, Revere

 We portaged to Warden in the morning, and took the remainder of the day "off".

46°58'15.8"N 119°02'31.6"W  Ewan to Warden

    directions: 

Head north toward Huntzinger Rd 0.2 mi

Merge onto Huntzinger Rd 5.2 mi

Continue onto Wanapum Rd 213 ft

Turn left to merge onto I-90 E

After the Vantage Bridge, merge onto Hwy 26 towards Othello

At the intersection with Hwy 17, go north on 17 towards Moses Lake

At Hwy 170 turn right. When this road reaches Warden it becomes W. 1st St.

Continue on W. 1st to N. Walnut, N. Elm, or N. Oak Ave. Turn left on any of these streets.

Camping is along the north side of Railroad Ave, back carefully among the trees

(In a travelling camp like this, there are always chores that need to be done)

Water is precious, and our camps in Lind and Ralston are "dry" (no water available), 
so everybody hooked their hoses together and topped up their tanks.

When the going gets less tough, the tough do laundry.  I was able to use a laundromat washer
in Warden, and then made  a laundry line from tension straps to dry everything.

We also took advantage of the hot showers offered at the Warden Fire Station near our camp.  

However, not everyone was intent on becoming clean.

"Nice, scritchy, volcanic dust.  MmmMMmm, gotta roll it that stuff!"

My horse isn't (usually) as much of a roller-pig as lytha's Mag, but she does have her days.  

Speaking of grooming rituals, we decided to spread the loveliness of purple hair around camp.

Morey wanted "just a little stripe"

Jerri now wants to do her whole head (but I was running low on purple stuff)!

I did a cultural excursion and discovered the Warden Public Library!

Ooooh, free wi-fi!  Ahhhhh.

The next morning, it's time to move on.   

46°57'56.6"N 118°36'41.2"W

    directions: 

Head south on Walnut, Elm or Oak toward E 1st St, which becomes Rd. 8 SE 1.9 mi

Continue onto Rd 8.5 SE 2.4 mi, road now changes names a couple of times. Stay on it.

Continue onto W Lind-Warden Rd 14.6 mi

Turn right onto WA-21 S 2.5 mi Turn right onto Van Marter Ave 0.3 mi.

Cross the trail, parking is near the grain elevator to the left.

However, there are very few hitching posts available.   Hmmmm.

Nothing could possibly go wrong, amirite?

Unless a gust of wind should suddenly lift that bin lid and send stuff scattering?  

Gahhhhh.

To be fair, none of the horses handled it well.

The Dragon pulled back in what I'm assured was "righteous alarm" and ripped the stitching apart in her bridle.

Unwilling to be captured by "just anybody", the Dragon allowed young Riley to grab hold
and bring her to safety.

Riley repaired this bridle with tools she had available

Fortunately, somebody let me know that bridle damage had taken place while I was still with my rig in the next camp, so I grabbed my extra purple bridle (doesn't everybody carry an extra purple biothane bridle?) to use going forward.

By the time I returned to my Dragon, all was calm again. 

And so, off we went!

Tumbleweed Alley

Horses can kind of weave in between tumbleweeds.  Wagons and carts don't have that luxury, as Chloe's story illustrates:

Further down the trail towards Lind: my personal nemesis.

Barbed-wire gates are designed in Hell to be open-able only by tall, heavy guys.
I am not any of those things.

The tension on that stupid gate released at exactly the wrong moment, and I gave myself a fat lip with my own knuckle.

First, my lip turned red.  By the next day,
it matched my hair.  Not a good look.

Other than recalcitrant gates, our day on the trail was without incident.  

There was a lot to spook at along the way, but the Dragon had already gotten that out of her system, and trucked along steadily like the Sensible Horse she (mostly) is.

The weather in camp at Lind was...challenging.

I have been dirtier in my life, probably. 

 But it took me several days to remember when I had been dirtier.  

(the answer:  that one year at Klickitat...)

We were happy to leave Lind behind, certain that our next camp would be cleaner.

46°59'09.1"N 118°20'46.4"W Lind to Ralston 

directions:  

Head north out of camping area, turn left on Wahl Rd. 

Turn right onto Van Marter Ave. 

Turn right onto E. 2nd Ave (E. Hwy 21) 

Cross over 395. 

Turn left onto E Lind Ralston Rd 

Destination will be on the north side of Lind-Ralston Rd. between the trail and the road, south of the grain elevators. Do not park close to the grain elevators.

SPOILER: THE NEXT CAMP WAS NOT CLEANER

The trail was pretty!

About 80 miles on these shoes, with wear showing on the shoe, the pad and her hoof.

Camp was pretty also.  Ralston is a not-very-wide-spot in the road, but it's very pretty.

Ralston camp panorama

The Ralston-to-Revere leg was 25 miles, the longest trail day of the entire trip. 

47°04'58.1"N 117°55'38.8"W  Ralston to Revere

directions:

Head northeast on E Lind Ralston Rd toward WA-261 N 0.1 mi 

Turn left onto WA-261 N 

Go under I-90, Hwy 261 becomes S. Division St. 

Turn right on Bauman St (near Zip’s Drive In) 

Follow Bauman to E. Wellsandt Rd. 

Turn right on E. Wellsandt Rd. Go back over I-90. 

Stay on Wellsandt for a long time. 

Turn right on Hills Rd. Hills Rd. becomes E. Urquhart Rd. E. Urquhart becomes Harder Rd. Harder Rd. becomes Mc Call Rd (becomes gravel road) WATCH FOR THE TURN TO GERING! 

Turn right on Gering Rd which becomes Lakin Rd. 

Turn right onto Revere Rd. 

Turn left onto Wagner Rd (Davis Rd) Camp is on the left, before the grain elevators.

From this point on out, I got to ride with Andrea and her young gelding Chance.  They usually ride wih the leads, but Andrea needed to widen Chance's experience with other activities...such as sharing the trail with weird stuff.

We got to explore new trail on this leg of the trip:  the Cow Creek trail, a privately-owned stretch that connects two pieces of the Palouse-to-Cascades trail that have been chopped up by historical changes.  We are told that Cow Creek will soon be open to other trail users as well, which is excellent news.

On the long-mileage days (where possible), the Coyote Lounge (aka the porta-potty trailer) sets up shop partway, to allow riders a sanitary break and give the horses access to water.

Gaylord and Janine, the drivers of the Coyote, always have chopped carrots and licorice available as snacks for horses and riders.  I would have to be VERY hungry to eat licorice, but Fiddle thinks that Red Vines are okay sometimes.

The Dragon shares a big water jug with her New Best Friend, Chance

One of the blue-chip experiences of travelling rail trails is finding date nails--nails used by the railroad company to keep track of the age of various timbers used in building the tracks.  Andrea tutored me in the art of hunting for date nails, but when we disturbed a nest of yellow-and-black bugs, we decided to trot away....

...and not more than a mile further down the trail from the insects, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

a date nail!

Fiddle assumed that I'd seen a chanterelle mushroom, and skidded to a halt with the ease of much practice.  I scampered back and, YES!  A date nail from 1931.   It came home with me.

Arriving in camp at Revere, it was time to check shoes again.

A little more than 100 miles on this set of shoes...and another 100 miles to go.  Ruh-roh.

Fortunately, Mel had agreed to come visit us in camp and re-shoe the Dragon midway.

Farrier Mel to the rescue!

With new shoes on the front (rear shoes were worn but not worn out), we set off the next day to explore the Escure Ranch, which is adjacent our 3-day parking spot in Revere.

A whole passel of Tennessee Walking Horses...and a Dragon

The creek and waterfall are reported to be great fishing spots, but Fiddle doesn't eat fish

Back in camp, some frivolity.

Guy is our drag rider, and he likes to dress Junior in drag.  It's a lame joke, but we like it.

In the evenings, I climbed up the steep hill behind camp to call home.  It's a pretty view, as long as you don't mind watching carefully for snakes on the walk up.

Next up:  we continue moving East.