Man, I slept great on that concrete floor! Sandy… not so much. Went to pee at some point in the night and barely noticed a big black shadow lift off the power pole above me. A huge owl… Maybe 15 feet away.
It appears we made the right choice by staying. Heard heavy rain and wind through the night, but no thunder. Glad to be indoors. Woke up to thick fog, makes sense since we’re in the creek bottom, but if we’d been outdoors and all, our gear would be soaked through. But amazingly, we are dry! Got going shortly after 6 am for the haul to Morengo, 14 miles.
Foggy Morning
Leaving Revere as the fog lifts.
A friendly little spider.
It didn’t take long and we hit the Columbia Plateau Trail intersection. You might remember we’d considered hiking out to it before camping the night before. I’m so glad we didn’t! The trail is swamped on both sides with water and there would have been no camping there.
Approaching the Columbia Plateau Trail
The Columbia Plateau Trail above, the John Wayne Pioneer Trail below.
It was a cool day and it rained off and on with some wind gusts. During one of our breaks Sandy noticed something just a bit further up the trail saying, “Is that a truck?”
Sure enough, although it wasn’t A truck, it was three trucks. We packed up to keep moving and sure enough, here come some young people with backpack sprayers, spraying noxious weeds. Surprising to say the least considering our remote location. I believe it was the Youth Conservation Corp of Washington. They were suitably impressed we’d started in Idaho. We were suitably impressed they were out in crappy weather in the middle of nowhere spraying weeds.
There were big views today. Like dreaming the Big Dream. Really showcased the vastness of the land.
The JWPT
Sooner or later you make friends with the sky.
Later, it got a bit breezier and cleared off and was a great day. We made Morengo about 3.30, after many breaks and at least two lunches! 😉 I retrieved the four gallons of water I had cached here easily and thankfully.
One of four, very much appreciated.
Tomorrow we’re planning to hike out to the missing trestle over Cow Creek and back. Then my Dad is scheduled to pick us up and take us back to Pasco for a zero day. We had considered road walking into Ritzville for our zero now that we’d been on trail a week, but given the cost of a motel and laundry, we decided the lowest cost option was just to return home. Not to mention we’d be more comfortable there. And it’s Mother’s Day… I’ll be with my mom and Sandy with her son. So that’s the plan.
Couldn’t be a better day after all that rain!
&c. 