Day 7 Fourteen Miles

November 11th Happy Veterans Day. I drove 85 miles to the town of Cle Elum Washington, my goal was to ride 14 or so miles on the John Wayne Trail or the Iron Horse State Park which its also called. The trail follows the former roadbed of the Chicago , Milwaukee, St Paul & Pacific Railroad for 300 miles from North Bend to Tekoa Washington which is on the Idaho border.

I camped along the Yakima River on a spot that I found a few years ago. I carried overnight gear and enough food for 1 dinner and breakfast. I saw quite a few Mule Deer and had about 50 wild Turkeys
roost in some Ponderosa Pines up the hill from me. A nice fire was built and the darkness came early on this November day. It was warm for this time of year and some rain fell during the night. I brewed up some camp coffee and enjoyed it as my dinner was getting ready. This would have been a perfect ride if I did it about 3 weeks earlier as the trees would have been all in color but October was very wet. It was a great short trip and just what I needed to get away from all the recent craziness of the stupid political BS.