LAKE EASTON WA

#3 WITHIN OUR 100 MILE RADIUS

Staying within our 100 mile radius, we accepted our friends Shelly and Lizette’s invitation for a camp out at Lake Easton. They had initially planned this weekend for our Rainbow Riders camp and bike outing on Lopez Island. That plan was made way back in pre-Covid 19 days. Having to trash that plan, once campgrounds were opened up, they offered this option closer to home and for fewer days. Susan and I are the only ones who took them up on their current plan. Others missed a great weekend on the lake and in the woodlands.

We arrived midday on Friday and as it turned out, Shelly and Lizette would not be arriving until Saturday morning. Susan and I took advantage of a fairly nice but cloudy day to ride around the campground, Susan with fly fishing gear in tow.

Not really expecting to catch anything, Susan was happy to at least cast in a line a few times. Here she is geared up of course...



...and casting. It may look like a strange “cast”, but it is a specific kind of rod for a specific kind of fishing. Don’t ask me to explain that.

Nothing there to catch, so we moved on through the rest of camp. There are many campers here, more than we expected to see. It is a clean and nicely kept campground and the lake is of course inviting for anything, including just looking at. Across from us, in the distance, we found this train bridge in the mountain setting.

That would do it for our first day of adventure. The following day brought the sun and blue sky, and Shelly and Lizette. We all packed our lunches, got our bikes and selves geared up and took off for a ride to Roslyn. At first we were on the road through the town of Easton.

Relic of a train car along the roadside.

A store was once in operation. I think that has been gone long before Covid 19.

In just under a mile and a half we were at the outskirts of town and entering onto the John Wayne Iron Horse Trail.

The masked riders were ready to roll.

Oh, I didn’t mention that this trail is not paved. The starting picture makes it look much more pleasant to ride on than it actually is. There is gravel of some sort all along the way. Occasionally the gravel is deep enough to grab your rear wheel and slide you to the side a bit. I know one must continue to spin one’s wheels through any gravel, and I did this successfully so had no falls. However, lumpy, gravelly, stone strewn trails as you may recall, are not my favorite places to ride. I hate them.

We were duly warned of railroad tracks.

And of Elk in the area. The elk on this sign was the only one we got to see.

There are a few bridges that cross creeks and small rivers, and at least one of those offered the deepest of the gravel!!! I would walk that one on the way back now that I knew about it. And yes, we would be riding this 8 mile stretch of the trail again on our return. 

This bridge took us across the Yakima river, you can see some of our blue sky and a few fluffy white clouds, and three of us on the bridge.

After what seemed to me and interminable amount of time on this unpaved marvel, we reach land and enjoyed pavement riding for five miles, into Roslyn.

A friend’s mother (who became our friend as well), Peg Phillips, played the part of Ruth Ann in the tv series “Northern Exposure”. Most people who live near Seattle or someplace near or in the PNW are familiar with this tv show that was mainly filmed in Roslyn. The town was the main setting for the show, and at the beginning of each episode was this mural.

We found a small park where we could have our lunch, sat our distance apart for some chatting and eating, and headed back to the dreaded trail. We have each been to Roslyn in the past and there was nothing going on, nor any place we would feel comfortable going into for a refreshment even though this county (Kittitas) is in phase 3 of the pandemic opening phases. I so enjoyed the five miles of paved riding back to the trail. 

I told Susan afterward that (even though I did have a bit of a melt down halfway back along the trail) I was glad I rode it, but not glad that I had to ride it! Now I can say I have ridden on the Iron Horse Trail ;’-).