We awoke to find rain pattering down upon the tent. The early hours thunderstorm had left a train of rain clouds to welcome us to the new day. It was not thundering so it was a viable day for a bike ride but it slowed everybody down, especially as we knew that the sun was expected to peek out at approximately 10am (rain radar is especially useful when deciding at what point we will get going). The other cyclists had the same info so we all left at about 10am after the rain had stopped. As usual when a group of cyclists were together, we discussed the world's problems and made a decent attempt to solve them. The upcoming election was discussed - how are people persuaded to vote in a way that is not in their financial or, more widely, human interests? How rational are we when we respond so easily to the 'dog whistle' of politicians? How do you protect public servants and their statements of expert knowledge from politicians self interest? (Ibsen's An Enemy of the People...). By this point we felt that the rain had indeed stopped and we all got going but having had several thoughtful conversations. Our route went via a brief visit to the supermarket to buy more Seattle garlic sourdough bread, which was so tasty we were a bit addicted, then we headed along the 31 for a short while and then up the 20 (which is also National Bike Route 10, the USBR system), this road climbing about a thousand feet before plateau-ing, a nice steady climb. Most of this road was being remade and we wove our way past asphalt being laid, smoothed, flattened, oiled, etc. We were offered a lift past the roadworks by a site manager ('if I were to offer you transport to tge end of the project would you be interested?'...) but we want to cycle every inch of our transam so this kind offer was declined. In fact both of our previous transams had points where we were given short rides in the back of vans to get us past sections of closed road.... so is it possible we'll manage to cycle every inch...? Then past a waterfall - Crystal Falls - early lunch. These are a modest waterfall, but picturesque. Then predominantly downhill the rest of the day so that although we started by going a thousand feet up we ended up some hundreds of feet lower than when we started. This is because we were descending into the Columbia River Valley - last visited in the 2004 transam - though at the coast then.
Just before Colville we were amused by a severly sloping barn - looks like it should collapse. Wonderful, see photo, hope it collapses in an orderly safe fashion. We went through Colville - the name is nothing to do with coal but the town is all about mining and logging and a Mr Colville (of the Hudson's Bay Company) - and then to Kettle Falls where I'm now typing in the city park, near the railroad tracks (low traffic levels, I've only seen one train). We swam in the pool for $5, though the weather was not hot, and then shopped (still buying garlic sourdough) and pitched our tent still damp from last night's rain - we visited the town hall to get permission to camp, zero charge. Kettle Falls is at the foot of tomorrow's big climb - about 4000' - to cross some of the coastal range that separates us from the coast. Perhaps 300 miles still to go. We are here. [Later...] this campsite, Happy Dell Park, is one of the noisiest sites we've had. Train on one side roads on two others and a car park on the fourth side - used all night. I think vehicles have less noise regulations to deal with in the USA.. My car makes a small fraction of the noise of the average vehicle here.... Guy now has a real book to read, jointly chosen and owned for $2 from the library sale yesterday, entitled 'Plainsong' by Kent Haruf. Colorado life.