Dust
I think Bugs and Moose decided to take another half-day in town. So I said goodbye to them in the morning and headed off across the Columbia to start the long 45-mile roadwalk to the Kettle Crest Trail. Thankfully, this was mostly on forest roads, which tend to be shady and less hard on the feet.
It was another hot morning, and my pack was heavier than it had been for the past week or so. The first few miles really dragged on, and I decided to break for a long morning nap when I hit the Deer Creek Campground only 5 miles in (C395P). I got water and laid there for a long time, alternating between sleeping, reading, and snacking.
I didn’t get going again until a bit after noon. I felt recharged and ready for some gentle roadwalking. At some point I started seeing some footprints in the hard-pack road dust… One set of big, flat prints with diamond-shaped studs, and another set of medium-sized, Merrell-looking prints. It had to be Morning Star and Cookie Monster! So at every intersection, I checked their footprints to make sure I was heading the right direction.
The storm that I slept through a few nights before was the last gasp of Eastern Washington’s rainy season, and I was now living in the dusty, dry climate that would be my reality until I crossed over the Cascades.
The sight of grazing cattle would also become normal in these open-range sections of the Colville and Okanogan national forests, but they took me by surprise at first. I didn’t know ranchers could just let their cows roam all over the forest! I was very curious about the ecological effects of open-range cattle, especially as I would be drinking out of the very same streams they were shitting in.
I got tired again in the late afternoon and laid down on the side of the road. A cattle rancher in a four-wheeler stopped by to check on me, and we had a little chat about the PNT.
I had a pretty uneventful evening. I listened to an episode of My Brother, My Brother, And Me to keep myself company as I searched for water to camp by. I eventually found a weird little trail clearing next to a stream. The dirt was lumpy and covered in cow pies, but it would have to do.