Day 4: Scooteney reservoir to Palouse Falls State Park, 52 miles, 8hrs.
I woke up with numb feet and frozen fingers. Quickly warmed up by doing burpees and boiled water to make lots of tea. I had breakfast and then talked to my neighbor’s; they ended up helping me out with a battery operated air pump. My tires have been low since after the Iron horse trail. With a restless night I don’t know how I had so much energy. Maybe it was the two packs of oatmeal. After saying goodbye to Jim, the park ranger, I left up Paradise Rd. I didn’t know why I took this road. It started with a nice hill, that’s definitely paradise right?… Mostly fields of various grains and corn. The road turned into gravel and I thought “great, I’m always on gravel these days.” Next thing I couldn’t believe happen, I spot a small puppy caught in tumbleweed and sage grass…I fishtailed from stopping so fast and scared her, she whimpered so loud it burned my soul full of sadness. I picked her up carefully knowing good well she was hurt. In fact I’m pretty sure she had some ribs broken and her back right leg seemed dislocated or broken as well as a big dried up gash. She looked starved; I pulled out some crackers and my tea cup and gave her lots of water. She was in fact the cutest pup. A man stopped in his truck asking if everything was okay and I explained that I found this pup, he simply says, “Oh ya, people dump them all over this place, all the time.” He didn’t offer to take her and just left. Wow. I couldn’t believe how much hate filled my mind. I knew then it was up to me to save this girls life. So I placed her in my backpack and we rode. We rode 7 miles together, through gravel roads and hill after hill. We finally were getting close to Connell and this huge semi-truck went roaring by, you should have seen lil Sage’s eye balls. They got so big and she looked at me and I knew she knew she was safe. She was my riding buddy and writing this now I miss her more. I took her to the police station where they greatly took her but I did hear one of the ladies say they hoped the pound wasn’t full…finding her broke my heart. I can only hope she finds a nice home. I wish I could have helped her more. After Connell, I left and headed East. Much of the views were hay fields, all over…it was so dry and hot I had my camelback in my mouth a good bit of the time. I got over a nice little pass and saw magnificent views of the canyon below. I’m pretty sure I became a bit cocky because I had a two hour conversation with myself. About all the things. Once finally seeing the Palouse State Park sign I was so ready to be there. But I was still 12 miles away! I saw a rattlesnake just off the shoulder that scared me literally up the entire hill, now talk about motivation! Once pulling into the park, the feeling I got was so relaxing. I hopped off my bike, chatted with a couple camping next to me and then went on a small walk to see the falls. The falls were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I wish everyone could have seen this with me. Watching the moon rise above the ledge was unreal. I was planning on staying at Palouse for two nights but I couldn’t because there was no electricity. The bathroom they had was a biffy and that was that. So I laid down to sleep after an apple and some trail mix for dinner and thought about where I’d be heading tomorrow. Looks like I’ll be heading north. I feel like a true tourist!