Day 5 (Tuesday 10-25-2011): Route 26 to Benge, WA

Early morning frost - the first of the season!

The start of day five was my first experience with sub-freezing temperatures and frost over my tent and bike gear. Actually, that's the first night camping ever that I think I've been in sub-freezing temperatures. My sleeping bag was quite warm though and moving around picking up camp I continued to stay warm in my cycling gear. Even though I woke pretty early, I didn't hit the road until a tad after 9AM. I started heading northeast to hit Spokane, my destination and launching point to get to Glacier National Park. However, about half way through the day I decided that probably wasn't the greatest idea already being several days behind schedule for riding and several days late in departure time so I headed back south east again.

Farmland patterns

Unlike the boring, flat drive across I-90 from Spokane to the Cascades, the farmland in the middle of Washington is actually quite rolling with some steep kickers in some parts. Again, another day spent in almost complete isolation with only the occasional passing farm tractor, truck or car.

Silos

The JWT east of the Columbia

Towards the end of the day, I came across a state highway that went south for a ways to the next town or a slightly lesser distance to Benge on a rural paved road that was southeast. I figured closer plus south-east was better than farther and south so I decided to head to Benge for the night. Approaching where my Garmin said Benge was, it was getting dark and I did not see any signs of a town whatsoever. It ended up being a tiny, one church, one post office town hidden behind a slight depression. I headed over to the church to see if anyone was around and ask if I could stay the night. No one was home (or in the rest of the town it seemed) and I figured since it was open, they didn't mind visitors so I spent the night inside. I have read numerous places as well as heard from Dori and Mo (the touring cyclists I met in North Dakota) that churches are a good, safe place to stay the night so that eased my concerns about staying there unannounced as well.