Sun, bike, trail...perfect Saturday

Yesterday I crossed off another item on my Pullman Bucket List, just in time as I have one week left in Pullman.

After conducting an interview for a freelance feature piece for the Moscow-Pullman Daily News at 8 a.m., I decided I needed to take advantage of the 65 degrees and sunny weather that finally decided to appear so I convinced myself I was going to ride the Chipman Trail from Pullman, WA to Moscow, ID and back.

Now, I don’t have a bike so I rented one from the campus Green Bike system. They aren’t the lightest or best bikes but it would serve the purpose well enough. I also checked out a helmet and bike lock and asked my mom and a friend what the bike laws are, I didn’t want to get a ticket for riding on the sidewalk.

And so I set out. It was smooth sailing most of the way, minus a few hard-core bikers telling me something was rubbing against my spokes, to which I could only reply, “Thanks, it’s a rental.” They laughed and continued on.

Once I reached the end of the trail in Moscow, I decided to continue on to the Farmer’s Market in downtown Moscow, across from the newspaper office. I took a break there and had some well deserved, I think, nectarine cobbler ice cream from a local creamery vendor. Once I had relaxed and stretched a bit, I decided it was time to head back.

About three miles into the return trip, I realized my pace was slowing so I decided to make it a leisurely ride and observe the beautiful green rolling hills and scatters of dark and light purple, orange, yellow and pink wildflowers lining the trail. With the birds chirping and singing, I couldn’t help but smile and thank God for all He created.

I made it to the edge of campus, where the hills begin and all of a sudden I couldn’t ride any longer so I took a ten-minute rest in the shade of a tree before continuing on the final two miles.

The couch in my apartment never looked so comfortable and I didn’t move for a couple hours.

Fast-forwarding to today, I realized even my well applied sunscreen was no match for the Pullman sun so my shoulders, arms and hands are quite red. At least I’ll have a bit of a tan to show off when I return to the Westside. Walking has proven a bit difficult but not as bad as I expected, in all honesty. I thought 20 miles and 50 ft. would’ve caused more soreness…well let’s say I think my bum absorbed most of the soreness.

Another adventure in Pullman comes to a close but it may have sparked an interest in bike riding, we shall see.