Ewan, WA to almost...but not quite Plummer, ID

May 28 - 55 miles 6 hours of seat time.

Sometimes you get support in best and most unlooked for ways. There were a lot of ways I could rejoin the trail. The original goal had been to get to Rosalia. Marshal and Amy had mentioned a bar where they got trail magic for a place to stay, and the owner going through some stuff, and I wanted to pay it forward by stopping in and getting a slice. This would have been the plan if I had worked the whole day Wednesday. Get up Thursday morning and drive out and then do 30-35 miles on the bike.

My coworkers knew it was the last day before I started this trip for real and the charge nurse got me out early. So we had an opportunity to get back to Ewan the night before and do a whole day of riding on Thursday. So the plan was to try to get to Plummer and get 60ish miles.

On the drive out, we had found a place on iOverlander that was supposed to be RV camping for $20. It seemed super convenient but the moment we rolled up to the location we saw the current clientele and decided there had to be better alternatives. A quick search lead us to a BLM camp site at Fishtrap lake.

We will come back here some day.

If 'J' had not gotten me out early it would not have been possible to find this place and enjoy it for the evening. We set up camp and made a fire and had a relaxing evening before resuming the ride. Thanks 'J'! I appreciate you!

Poodle would rather be free range.

Normally I'd finish the post with the Moment of Van. Bunny takes better pictures.

I still have a hate/hate relationship with the P2C/John Wayne trail, so my planned route was going to use local roads. The planned distance to Plummer, ID was supposed to be 59 miles but 2 things conspired against me. First, I took a left and went around the north side of Rock Lake, which I do not regret because I got this view.

The camera doesn't do it justice. The lake is 'surrounded' by 20-30' cliffs. I wish I had a drone with me.

Second, every time I would get out of cellular coverage, Maps would try to revert to a route that took me through Rosalia and added on even MORE miles to the trip than the unintentional detour I had taken at the beginning. Ultimately, I ended up navigating more or less on my own until I met Bunny and Poodle for lunch at North Pine.

After lunch and a nap, I headed East through Spring Valley towards Latah. What had started out as a pleasant 70F had turned hot and was now in the upper 80s. I was feeling the heat when I pulled into Latah and decided to have a rest in the shade at the Post Office. Getting up turned into a little bit of an ordeal, as I was light headed from dehydration.

I called Bunny as I started the first of 2 planned climbs to get into Plummer and asked for a pick-up in between them. I was pretty certain I didn't have the second climb in my legs, and between all the navigation issues and finding out that the camp ground was 5 miles past Plummer, I just couldn't face trying to do 70+ miles to get to Heyburn State Park.

We met at the intersection of Starr Road and Truax about 1 mile from the border of Washington and Idaho, and I got shuttled into the campground. Riding in the van, muscles around my rib cage started cramping letting me know that I had failed to stay ahead of the hydration curve. But I did get 55 miles completed and felt the day was a success despite falling short of the intended goal.