Driving From Monroe To Tieton

I drove from rainy, foggy Monroe WA the other day (October 3rd) over Snoqualmie Pass on I-90. I pulled over at a rest stop (Indian John) to use the restroom and felt tired, so I slept an hour. I woke up around 7 and decided to just stay overnight in the rest area parking lot. I ate some of the pizza I made (see the photo in the last post!), watched an episode of Squid Game, and went to bed.

The next day (October 4th), I woke up and drove a bit down the road to a local coffee shop, got some coffee and a breakfast sandwich, and worked till just before noon. While I was there one of the workers sliced off the tip of their finger with a mandolin while cutting onions 😬 I passed on some insights from my recent drill-related injury. They won’t have a fun time the first time they take off the bandage, hopefully they figure out how to get it off without it sticking/hurting too much.

After work I drove to Tieton (pronounced Tie-eh-tawn), northwest of Yakima. I met up with some friends of the family, the Claussens. Phil was the only one home and he’s got a bad cold, so I didn’t talk to him for too long, but caught him up on what I and my siblings have been up to. I then went for a bike ride through the hills to the east of Tieton. The paved roads quickly give way to gravel on most routes out of town, and then after crossing and passing a couple gates, the gravel increased to the size of my head. It was quite the adventure, and it was a hot slog to the top of the mountain. Once I was on the ridgeline there was a nice breeze though, and I picked my way to the other end, where the comically large gravel finally started to subside. From there there was a beautiful descent with gorgeous views of Tieton River. I made my way all the way down to Highway 12 at Windy Point. The route I was following kept going, following the river farther east before heading back into the hills and looping back north and ending about halfway back to the 410-12 junction. It was about 4 at that point though and I was worried about it getting dark. I hadn’t brought any lights. I rode 12 north then east, and then south and west back into Tieton. There’s a pretty good climb from Naches up towards Tieton and a couple other rolling hills coming into town, and overall I was tuckered by the time I got back. Having not been on a bike in… months? – 30+ miles was biting off a bit more than I could chew.