We drove to Pine City to begin our ride today. There were several parts of the trail after Ralston that didn’t go through, so we skipped them, not wanting to do any out and back rides; our goal was to keep moving East.
Pine City is a community of only a few homes left after the 2020 Babb Road Fire. It has a grain terminal. Mary Ann and Matt started at Pine City, but didn’t get far before they came to a burned out bridge and had to turn around. Fortunately I had stopped at the bridge to watch them cross and they hollered up that the decking was burned so I went back to the trailhead, picked them up and we all went the 3 miles to Malden and they began again.
Malden is a small town of about 216 and in the fall of 2020 80% of the town was destroyed by the Babb Road Fire. There has been a good job of rebuilding, with a new Fire Station/Community Center and new restrooms, parking, etc. at the trailhead. Mary Ann and Matt did get on the trail and successfully rode a ways and I met Mary Ann down the road and we switched. That went on the rest of the way to Tekoa (pronounced TEE-ko). Matt wanted to ride the last 6 miles to the Idaho border, so Mary Ann and I drove through the back farming roads in the countryside. It’s beautiful and very remote!
So that’s the end of our ride on the Palouse to Cascades Trail. The pictures will tell more of the story. Thanks for following along.
Tomorrow we will ride on the Couer d’Alene Trail across the panhandle of Idaho. We got an RV spot in Harrison, ID, right on Coeur d’Alene Lake and just a few feet from a trailhead.
More tomorrow…
Sherri, Mary Ann & Matt
