The town of Mullan
Our plan for Saturday morning was to ride bikes to Mullan for cinnamon rolls, but it was raining. Eventually the rain stopped and Carolyn and I hopped on our bikes and rode 7 miles up the old railroad grade to Mullan.
The Bitterroot Cafe
Our neighbors two doors down told us about this place. She's a couple of decades older than me and rides here with her friends twice a week for breakfast. I'm impressed.
Now that's a cinnamon roll
The long climb from Wallace makes you earn your breakfast. In this case, Carolyn double scored with a t-shirt, too. The downhill ride home is a cinch.
Blues Festival
The town of Wallace thrives on weekend festivals and this weekend was a brand new festival for Wallace: Blues Fest. Previously, Blues Fest was held in Ritzville, WA, but something happened and the sponsors switched to Wallace. The town was packed with people (approx. 2,000 visitors) and bands simultaneously playing in various locations. Many blocks of the streets were roped off so that only those paying the Blues Fest entrance fee and wearing the colored bracelet could get in to see the premium bands up close.
Blues Fest attendees
I like the way the whole town of Wallace cooperates to create an inviting atmosphere to visit. The parking rules are lax. People can pretty much park anywhere. I've yet to see any policeman pull someone over or issue any sort of ticket, parking or otherwise. Other small towns aren't like that. I'm looking at you Nevada City, CA (We parked on their main street once when the kids were little to go in a cafe for sandwiches. When we came out, we had an expensive ticket because our car tires weren't properly turned into the curb).
Looking down on Wallace
After we rode home from Mullan, I started dismantling the downstairs bathroom by removing all the hardware and cabinets from the walls. In the afternoon Carolyn suggested we ride the ATVs up the technically tough Red Oak Gulch trail. She wanted to know if her success riding up the first time was due to beginner's luck or her skill. Carolyn made it up the trail successfully the second time.
View from Gold Hill
We rode the machines along the trail on the ridge all the way over to Gold Hill. A week ago over 4th of July, John and I were blocked here with a lot of snow on the trail. I wanted to see if it had melted and it had.
Parked on Gold Hill
We declined to ride the steep trail to the Gold Hill summit and parked on the shoulder to see the views.
A thunderstorm!
While looking out over Wallace there was the clap of thunder behind us. Off in the direction we came from we saw this thunderstorm. We needed to get off the mountain immediately. We raced miles along the ridge trail for Red Oak Gulch where we could get off the mountain. Soon the storm hit us with hail and a downpour, but we didn't slow down. We were instantly soaked and our boots quickly filled with water. We turned down Red Oak Gulch and it was practically a flash flood. Both ruts of the trail were boiling rivers of muddy water. We successfully made it back to Wallace. I caught the whole thing on video via a GoPro camera. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a short highlight film.
GPS track of the ride up Red Oak Gulch to the ridge to Gold Hill and back
The maintenance schedule for my Kawasaki called for changing the engine oil and both differential fluids after ten hours. That night I changed the oil. My next door neighbor came over to watch, talk, hand me tools, and hold a portable light. The front differential takes engine oil but the rear transaxle uses special Kawasaki hydraulic fluid.
ATV Week registration
On Sunday we went to church. Afterwards we made lunch and decided to wander over to the auditorium to see when registration would begin. It turns out registration had already started and some of the rides we wanted to sign up for (such as the mine tour ride) were already full. There were five long tables set up for each day of rides. There were five or six clipboards on each table for signing up for the rides on that day. The rides had descriptions and were categorized as easy, intermediate, and advanced. We individually signed up for rides on each day, some the same, some different. By the way, this auditorium is the old high school auditorium. When the new high school was built the old high school was torn down, except for this auditorium. The new high school has its own gym so this gym is used by the city for various events and for youth basketball, etc.
.Monday morning ride
Each ride has a departing time and location. Our first ride on Monday morning met in the parking lot between the auditorium and the high school. I could easily throw a baseball from this location into our backyard. The ATVs for a particular ride loosely line up and the ride leader makes an attempt to see if the people who signed up for the ride are there before heading out in a long string of vehicles.
Typical long ride configuration
Monday's ride was going to be a long ride, over a hundred miles to Shefoot Mountain, Avery, and home via Slate Creek canyon. On 100+ mile days, we'd carry two extra containers of gas (4.5 gallons) to supplement the 5 gallon tanks in the machines. One thing different about ATVing vs. hiking, mountain biking, or dirt biking, is that weight is really no issue. The ATVs can carry hundreds of pounds of gear on their racks so we carried tools, tow straps, a small air compressor, tire patch kits, and a cooler with ice and cold drinks. It was pretty luxurious travel.
Regrouping on Moon Pass
In a group ride like this where there were 32 vehicles, the leader would occasionally stop and allow the strung out line of vehicles to regroup. On this ride you can see ATVs, UTVs, and side-by-sides.
Last climb to Shefoot Mountain
We rode up and over Moon Pass and then up Loop Creek where the majority of the Hiawatha Trail sits. We crossed over the end of the trail and eventually climbed up to Shefoot Mountain. That's Carolyn with the ponytail.
View from Shefoot's summit
Looking down into Loop Creek
One of the 100 year old Milwaukee Road trestles, now a bike trail, is visible in the lower part of the photo.
Carolyn at the old lookout foundation
On top of the mountain I saw evidence of an old lookout. It turns out a lookout was built here in 1931 and unfortunately destroyed in 1961.
The whole group on Shefoot
One thing interesting about this sport is that anyone regardless of age or fitness level can participate. There were families with kids and old folks and for the most part, all could ride lights out.
The town of Avery
From Shefoot Mountain we dropped down to the old (and now very small) town of Avery.
St. Joe river
The town of Avery was built as a railroad town in the early 1900's. It's named after one of Rockefeller's sons. Rockefeller was one of the biggest financial backers of the railroad.
Old rail station
The tracks were torn out in the 1980's and now the old rail station houses a museum, a library, and the town's post office. Back in the day, Avery was an important city. It was at this point the electric railroad from Montana ended and the electric engines were disengaged and replaced with steam or diesel engines for the journey across Washington (until electric motors were once again hooked up for the route over the Cascades). There were large switching yards and a lot of buildings. Passengers would get off the train, walk around, get something to eat, look at the trout pond, while the engines were switched. Now there are only a few buildings and the town mostly exists for outdoor recreationalists heading up the St. Joe River.
One of the old cars from the Hiawatha
Inside the car
The train ride over and through the Bitterroots through tunnels, over trestles, and winding through canyons must have been spectacular (and comfortable).
Carolyn in jail
The whole group rested in Avery for about an hour, eating lunch, and looking at the old buildings and museum. Folks not carrying extra gas filled up at the single pump in the town.
Slate Creek
From Avery we headed west a few miles and then turned up Slate Creek which eventually took us back to Wallace on a route I never knew existed.
GPS track of the ride to Shefoot, Avery, and Slate Creek
Back from the ride that evening, I needed to perform the first maintenance on Carolyn's Yamaha. The schedule calls for an oil change after the first 20 hours of use. I also changed the front and rear differentials. Unlike my Kawasaki, the Yamaha uses gear oil in the differentials. I washed and re-oiled both machines' air filters after such a dusty ride.
View from Gold Hill
On Tuesday morning I went to work on the bathroom. The bathroom walls have a horizontal metal seam that separates sections of the wall. We're planning to tile the area around the tub to create a shower enclosure so I needed to remove those protruding metal seams. I thought I'd be able to grip the metal with vice grips and just pull out the seam, but it became clear the metal seam was just the visible part of a much larger bracket behind the wall sections. I used a cutting disc in an angle grinder to cut the metal from the wall.
Carolyn and I registered for different rides on Tuesday. I signed up for Stevens Peak, but that looked too hairy so she signed up for Polaris Peak and Lost Lake. Her group left about a half hour before my ride. Our group took off and I was confused. The ride description said we were going to ride up Burke canyon and ride over the mountains to Mullan. From there we'd climb straight up to Stevens Peak. However, instead of heading up Burke Canyon on the other side of Wallace, we began driving up King Street to the Moon Pass Road. I thought I must be on the wrong ride. To add to the confusion, most of the riders stopped for some reason, but the two leaders kept on going. I raced to catch up but couldn't and finally convinced myself they were just two riders not associated with this group ride. I turned around and met the rest of the group. They said we were heading up a trail called Brushy, a trail I didn't know about. At the start of the steep trail, the woman in front of me on an older 300cc ATV said, "I hope I make it on these worn out tires." Not only did she make it, she climbed the trail much faster than me. It was the first lesson of the day that these were advanced riders and they could ride anything, ANYTHING, up these trails. It was the rider, not the machine! Behind me were two 72 year olds on Yamaha Wolverines. They turned out to be excellent riders.
On top of Gold Hill above the clouds
The Brushy trail connects with the ridge trail not far from the Red Oak Gulch trail. We raced along the ridge to the top of Gold Hill, where Carolyn and I rode on Saturday. This ride was nothing like yesterday's group. Instead of leisurely line of ATVs, it was a fast-paced ride. Instead of the leader dropping red cones at trail junctions, it was up to the rider ahead to wait for the rider behind at any junction. In this picture, the man in the jeans jacket is the ride leader. It turns out he led the most difficult rides the whole week. His whole family were the studliest riders I rode with all week.
Stevens Peak from Gold Hill
Through a telescopic lens on Gold Hill, Stevens Peak doesn't seem that far away. Stevens Peak is the highest mountain in Shoshone County. The front side is practically a shear drop straight away to several lakes tucked in the cliff bowls. The back side is more gentle and there's a trail nearly to the top. From Gold Hill, there's a massive canyon between here and there. We'd have to drop down from Gold Hill toward Mullan, cross the canyon, and head up the other side.
View of the group
The road we needed to take was blocked by significant amount of snow. We'd have to ride down a steep sketchy half-trail to get around the snow, one of the two scariest moments of the ride. There was a 50' fire tower lookout here built in 1938, but abandoned in 1948.
Kid on board
This couple took turns carrying their two-year old on their backs. I was riding scared to death most of the day, but they were such experienced riders they must have been comfortable carrying their girl. Besides being good riders, they had the best machines, CanAms, and they were always at the front of the pack.
Coming down the trail
When we dropped down a steep section from Gold Hill to avoid the snow, the group leader and another stood by at one off-camber steep section to apply hand pressure to each machine to prevent them from rolling over. I was really scared on that section because I don't yet have a good feel for what an ATV can do. I was in 4wd-low and had the brakes on, but somehow my death grip on the handlebars caused my hand to press on the thumb throttle at the same time. So here I am trying to go as slow as I possibly can down this hill and my engine is revving and making the machine accelerate downhill. I couldn't figure out why until I realized I was pressing on the throttle. Fortunately, I lived to tell and learn.
Flat tire
At the bottom of the canyon just before we crossed the creek, one of the 72 year old rider's machines got a rear flat. In an instant a bunch of experienced guys jumped off their ATVs with patch kits and compressors and had the leaked plugged within minutes. Then we started climbing a rocky trail straight up the mountain. So many thoughts went through my head. Based on my experience hiking and riding mountain and dirt bikes, my brain was flashing, "There's no possible way any vehicle on earth can go up this!" If it wasn't for the fact that I was seeing the ATV in front of me climbing this loose rocky impossibly-steep trail, I would claim there's no way to go up this trail. At the same time, my machine was climbing the trail with no problem, which I couldn't believe. Our group's trail dragger was the leader's son. He was riding a 2wd sand machine ATV - a raptor - and he was so skilled he could ride it up all these impossibly steep rocky trails and snow covered trails. One question that no one could answer, what were these trails made for? Clearly they pre-date ATVs by decades. What kind of vehicles could have ever negotiated them before ATVs were invented?
Stevens Peak
Eventually the trail climbed out of the steep canyon and we regrouped under Stevens Peak. With our destination so close, I was itching to keep going so we'd have time to climb to the top of the mountain. However, we stopped here as a group and dinked around and ate lunch.
Lone Lake
Shoulder of Stevens Peak
After lunch we rode up the ridge of Stevens Peak where we regrouped here. On the right side of the picture is the continuing trail up Stevens Peak.
Checkout ride
The guy with the baby (sans baby) scouted out the trail up Stevens Peak. The trail climbs steeply and even more steeply to the very top of the picture. At that point it loops around a rock and heads back down. He rode his high-power CanAm up and back to scout out the trail. He came back to say, "It was easy. Did it all in 2wd. There's room for 4 or 5 machines to park up there."
The group on the shoulder of Stevens Peak
When I head out in the mountains, whether hiking, biking, or on motorcycle, I'm all about the destination and this ride was no different. Stevens Peak was right in front of us. From the top we'd be able to peer down on five different alpine lakes tucked beneath the peak. I asked the tour leader if we were going to go up there and if so, could we hike to the top. He said we didn't have time, but said I could ride up the trail if I wanted. I did ride up the trail and it scared me. I took this picture from nearly the summit. A couple of others followed but most of the group stayed on the shoulder. I'm mildly disappointed I didn't stand on top of the mountain, but that'll leave something to look forward to next time.
View from nearly the summit of Stevens Peak
A topo map shows a single-track trail continues across the back of Stevens Peak (on the open slopes) to connect to more trails. I wonder how much use that trail gets? You've got to be pretty gutsy to try it on a dirt bike.
Tough snow section
Instead of going home the way we came, the leader and his associates decided to continue up to the Lookout Pass ski resort and then up and over a ridge and down the Champion Creek trail. I was psyched for that because I had signed up for the advanced Champion Creek ride later on in the week. Riding that now would allow me to sign up for a different ride. We rode down from Stevens Peak to the old Northern Pacific railroad snaking around the mountain. We rode up the railbed up and over Lookout Pass and turned up another unmarked impossibly steep and rocky trail. After a few miles of climbing we hit snow, which we were able to ride through. Eventually we were blocked by a tree across a steep part of snow covered hill. The leaders chainsawed a path through the tree, but to get around that section required a climb through the snow, then a sharp left technical turn around rocks or trees. The leader's daughter blazed the way and cut through the snow with no assistance. Then the baby man went and with two blips of the throttle made the hill and turn. The woman with the baby strapped to her back made it through as well. The next several people needed help pushing their machines. The guy in front of me got stuck. This was the second of the two scariest parts of the ride. My heart was beating in my throat when it was my turn. I accelerated and climbed and clawed through the snow. When I got to the sharp steep turn, my Kawasaki continued to hook-up and I made it through with no assistance. I caught it all on my GoPro. In my case, it wasn't the rider's skill that got me through, it was all the machine. In the case of the trail dragger on his 2wd sand machine, it was all skill.
Bent aluminum rim
We worked our way up and over a ridge and didn't stop. After looking at the route on Google Earth, there are several places along the ridge where we could have just peered over and seen those five lakes below. Next time for sure. We rode down the steep and brushy Champion Creek trail until we crossed the creek and came out at the bottom of Moon Pass Road. While crossing the creek, a guy in front of me must have hit a big rock and bent the inside of his rim so that it was rubbing his brake caliper. He asked around for a certain size socket and between the group, had the tools out and the wheel off in seconds. He used a hatchet to pound the rim back into place, but went too far and cracked the rim so all the air leaked out of his tire. He put the flat tire back on and rode the 20 miles home slowly. Meanwhile, I blasted home over Moon Pass Road.
GPS track up Stevens Peak
This GPS track shows the first part of the ride up Moon Pass, up Brushy trail to the ridge to Gold Hill, then up to Stevens Peak. Then the battery died on my GPS. I had a number of technical issues with my GPS and phone. I had prewired and cable-tied a GPS usb and micro-usb cable to the ATV's front rack. Power was delivered by a $1.29 USB cigarette lighter charger from eBay. No surprise the charger burned out the first day. The second day on this ride, the internal batteries in the GPS ran out of juice. I'm sorry I missed the track because I would like to see exactly where we climbed up and over the ridge down into Champion Creek.
Mine tour guide in front of the foundation of the Wallace mill
On Wednesday Carolyn and I were again signed up for different rides. At 7am she happened to look out an upstairs window and said, "Hey the auditorium door is open. Let's go over there and see if there are any cancellations for the mine tour." The mine tour was a ride both of us wanted to sign up for, but the ride, offered only on two days, was limited to 15 riders and both days were fully booked. We walked over to the auditorium and Carolyn found that someone had crossed their name off of the sign-up so she grabbed that slot. Moments later, a member of the group sponsoring ATV week asked Carolyn if she'd be the trail dragger for the mine tour. She didn't feel comfortable doing that, but she said, "My husband will", and that's how I got to go on the mine tour, too. Since Carolyn attended the High Mountain ATV Club pre-meeting the Friday before and volunteered to help, everyone knew her and they really got Carolyn involved in helping out. Our mine tour was led by the director of the Wallace Mining Museum. We met at the museum and all of us got to go inside and look at all the exhibits for free. We sat in old theater seats and watched a movie of the history of silver mining in the area. Then the director took us on our ATVs to one historical site after another. The guide would typically talk about a site, then show us old maps and actual photographs of what we were looking at now.
Granite Mine tailings
Carolyn, John, Eric, and I had already "discovered" a number of the sites we visited, but this time we got to hear the history of the site so it was really interesting to Carolyn and me.
Staging in front of Tiger and Custer Peaks
Carolyn is on the right-most ATV.
Picking up the cones
As the trail dragger, I had to make sure no one straggled or got lost. Whenever we'd get to a trail intersection, the leader would drop a cone on the trail he took. Since there was a lot of dust, the group would gradually space out and the cones were like bread crumbs so followers would know where to turn. I'd pick up the cones in the back.
The elusive huckleberry
Wallace milks the huckleberry to the max. There's huckleberry jam, candles, candy, milkshakes, soap, etc. Local folks pick huckleberries, but everyone has their own secret location. When we stopped for various mine lectures, Carolyn and I would scan the hillsides for huckleberries and pick them and eat them while listening.
Interstate Mine tailings
Logging and mining are visible in this photo.
Carolyn and Tom
Each ATV week participant had to wear a numbered badge. There was a similar badge zip-tied to our ATVs. I guess they didn't want anyone trying to sneak into the group rides for free.
Carolyn
GPS track of the mine tour
The mine tour lasted about 8 hours and covered 50 miles. Most of the time, of course, was standing around listening to leader. It was a worthwhile tour.
The Flintstones
On Wednesday evening there's an ATV parade through town. Last year the theme was Christmas in July. This year the theme was Halloween in July. At 5pm everyone met dressed up under the freeway on the east end of town.
John and Natalie's house
The three hundred machines were led on a route that snaked through town. It turned up by the public pool and went by John's house. At the start we were given bags of candy to throw to kids (and adults) lining the streets.
Carolyn and our house
The parade went down our street, too. Carolyn is dressed as a Dharma Initiative worker (from the TV show LOST). Carolyn's ATV is a "special edition" with a unique color. Probably every male participating in ATV week eventually came up to Carolyn and started the conversation with, "How do you like your ATV?" They'd ask her all sorts of technical questions about the machine but Carolyn rarely knew the answers. Carolyn said the most popular questions were, "Power steering?", "Straight axle or independent?", and "Fuel injected?"
View from our house
The parade went down Pine Street in the direction of the train station. Eventually we ended up at the visitors center on the west end of town where there was free pizza and drinks. That night I continued working on the bathroom by prying off all the window trim. Then I filled the gaps with drywall mud and fiberglass tape.
Clear Lake
On Thursday we signed up for a 150+ mile ride to Middle Sister lookout. Carol was our guide. She said we'd need to ride quickly and regroup less often in order to cover the 150 miles in a single day. We climbed over Moon Pass, up Loop Creek, up to a trail that followed the ridge along the Idaho and Montana border. We took a break on the trail overlooking Clear Lake in Montana. From here we dropped down Quartz Creek and eventually popped out at the St. Joe River. We drove up the winding road a few miles. The river and the canyon were unbelievably gorgeous with cliffs and tall cedars. I was looking at the river saying to myself, "We've got to come back here and canoe down this river." Just then a group of five canoes came around the river bend. I was jealous!
Dismal Lake
We crossed the St. Joe and headed up Bluff Creek until we stopped at Dismal Lake for lunch. I saw nothing dismal about this lake.
Frogs galore
The lake was full of frogs of all sizes.
A dad and his daughter
This guy and his daughter came from Whidbey Island. They were driving a Razor side-by-side. The dad let the daughter drive a significant portion of the ride. Someone built this primitive dock and a Gilligan's Island-style raft. I paddled the raft out a ways. Who would have built this stuff miles and miles from nowhere?
Middle Sister lookout
The published destination for this ride was the Middle Sister lookout. I tried to make it jokingly clear to the leader that we were going to the destination no matter what. She said snow could be issue. I said we'd hike the rest of the way in if need be. She acted as if that would be humanly impossible. Because of time, I could tell she kind of wanted to skip the side trip to the lookout, but I was pretty persistent that we were going to the lookout. We climbed the Middle Sister peak from Dismal Lake.
View from the lookout
The lookout hadn't been opened for the season and the windows and trap door were still shuttered. I climbed the stairs to the bottom of the cabin and took this photo of the group. Since the group was relatively small, we were able to move quickly without waiting for a lot of people to catch up. Until this point, Carolyn and I rode right behind the tour leader so we really ripped and didn't have to deal with much dust from the vehicles or slow pokes.
Heading out
The group left to go help one of the riders who was having technical difficulties with his ATV. The guy knew the ATV was having problems before the ride, but decided to take the machine on the longest ride of the week anyway. His 2-cycle machine kept fouling plugs and he constantly had to rotate between four or five sparkplugs.
Gassing up in Avery
We rode many miles of dirt roads before heading down Fishhook Creek, another beautiful canyon we'll have to revisit. The canyon has steep rock walls and is just wide enough for the creek and a dirt road as it winds down to the St. Joe river. At the river, we rode east a couple of miles to Avery. The ride description included "tunnels and trestles", but the ride leader suggested taking Slate Creek or another alternate route home. Again I was friendly and jokingly persistent that we take the tunnel route home. Other riders agreed so the leader decided the tunnel route was the way home. She suggested I ride in front so I could capture a dust-free GoPro video of all the tunnels.
Milwaukee route home
The tunnel route is the old right-of-way of the Milwaukee railroad and is actually a continuation of the Hiawatha Trail, but this section of the railbed has been turned into a road for automobile traffic from Pearson down to Avery. The ride is very cool because it goes through six or seven tunnels and over a few high trestles. This section of the ride was Carolyn's favorite part of all the week's rides. This tunnel is unusual because its face is cut into solid rock and doesn't have a concrete portal like all of the other tunnels on the route.
GPS track of the Middle Sister lookout ride
The ride was 151 miles long and took us 9:35 hours. We climbed 15,579'. I was pretty tired after this ride and didn't work on the bathroom that evening.
Pancake breakfast
On Friday morning I worked on the bathroom again. I noticed the formica covered masonite walls weren't that solid, at least not solid enough to support tile. I solidified the wall by driving a nail every 6" into the solid wood backing over the whole area to be tiled. Then we went to a pancake breakfast at the high school cafeteria. The hundred buck entry fee for ATV week is really a good entertainment deal. Besides a week of all-day guided rides, it includes two t-shirts, a pizza dinner, two pancake breakfasts, and a steak dinner. Another thing I noticed was the relaxed and unstressful atmosphere of the organizers and participants. I've seen a lot more panic and stress at a ward dinner than I saw at all of ATV week combined.
Sunshine mine accident memorial
Today was our last ride, a ride to the top of the Silver Mountain ski resort via the infamous trail 16. We rode from Wallace west past Osburn to the Sunshine mine accident memorial at the entrance to Big Creek canyon. After regrouping we headed up Big Creek.
Sunshine mine
We rode past by the Sunshine mine, one of the biggest silver producers currently in the USA. Eventually we turned up the ATV trail numbered 111. Climbing up the trail my coolant overheating light flashed on. Shortly thereafter, my instrument console lit up like Apollo 13. I pulled over in the first place I could and steam was jetting out from underneath my engine. We let everyone pass by. The trail dragger said we couldn't bail out. I said sorry, we're turning around and going home. It wasn't negotiable. He realized my machine wasn't going to keep going so he let us bail. I used a tow rope to connect Carolyn's ATV to mine and we towed my machine 17 miles back to Wallace.
GPS track of the ride up Trail 111 to the intersection of Trail 16
Back home I washed the ATVs and bought a gallon of antifreeze at the hardware store. I filled the coolant overflow tank which was now empty and then rode the machine a couple of laps around the block. The overheating light came on again. I searched the internet and found that overheating with this machine is a common problem, supposedly solved with the 2012 model by a bigger radiator. Most of the overheating problems are caused by dirt in the radiator. I washed the radiator out again.
Scared Gypsy
Shortly after washing the machines a thunderstorm rolled through. I felt sorry for the group we abandoned because I was sure they were caught in the mountains in the storm. Gypsy is really scared of thunder. First she hid under some bushes. Between lightening flashes she ran out to be where I was and hid under Carolyn's ATV.
Finally making progress
Now it's late Friday afternoon and I could turn my attention to the bathroom. I used a sander with 60g to rough up the paint and formica so there'd be some tooth for the tile mortar to stick to. I set up a tile saw in the backyard. I wanted the tile to come up to the window as a full row, so I started the row on a board nailed to the wall. I worked up from there and tiled the wall and inside the window. I let the mortar dry over night.
Carolyn working at the ATV rodeo
On Saturday morning there was another pancake breakfast at the high school. After that I continued tiling down the wall, nailing the board to support two rows of tiles at a time. While waiting for the mortar on two rows to dry, I'd mow the lawn or walk over to the ATV rodeo to see Carolyn. The ATV rodeo is the culminating event of ATV week. There's an obstacle course, a drag race, a sled pull, and a barrel race. Carolyn worked at the barrel race all day logging times for the many different ages and machine classes. I'm not into that kind of riding so I didn't participate. I spent most of the day tiling the bathroom.
The barrel race
Working down the wall
I kept plugging away on the wall, two rows at a time. During one of the tiling lulls it occurred to me that my ATV's radiator might be low on coolant, not just the overflow tank. Indeed that was the case. I filled the radiator and took the machine on a couple of laps up to John's place and back and the engine stayed cool. The question is, what made the coolant boil out in the first place? Was the radiator plugged from dust from 400 miles of riding in a dust cloud? Is the radiator fan intermittently bad? I don't know. The next time I'm in Wallace I'll have to go on a long ride and try and determine the cause of the overheating problem so I can avoid it in the future or get it fixed under warranty. At this point I took a lunch and a cold drink over to Carolyn. She was her usual pleasant and happy self and grateful for the drink.
Sled pulling event
The tour guide on the ride to Stevens Peak fabricated this small-scale sled pull device. His son, the tail dragger that rode the 2wd sand ATV on that same ride, is the guy on the back of the yellow machine.
Drag races
The drag racers were pretty serious about the event, including this guy, the guy with the baby. In this photo he's pretend racing his 2 year old on her electric ATV. The 2 year old could really ride that thing.
Done tiling
I went back home to tile some more and finished the bottom rows of the back wall. Then I worked my way up from the bottom on the left wall. Since the tile could rest on the row below with the bottom row on the tub, I could work my way all the way up the wall without having to wait for the mortar to dry. Then I started working on the right wall. I was under a time crunch because of the ATV steak dinner at 6pm that night. At the second row of tile, things got complicated because of the tub spout and knobs. I realized that the depth of the tile would make it impossible to reattach the tub spout to the extension pipe. I'd need to replace the current pipe with a slightly longer pipe. Unfortunately, even with the biggest pipe wrench I couldn't loosen the existing extension. There's a trap door in the wall in the room on the other side of the bathroom. I used a propane torch to heat the pipe fixture. That did the trick and I was able to loosen and remove the extension pipe. I jumped on my bike and rode to the hardware store and got a new extension. With the new extension installed, I kept installing tile up the wall. The distortion of the photo makes the walls looked bowed, but they're actually perfectly straight. The next time we come to Wallace we'll have to grout these walls. I finished tiling in time to get ready to attend ATV week's closing ceremonies and steak dinner.
A wedding
On the way to the auditorium we walked a lap around the town. As I mentioned above about town cooperation, this wedding is another perfect example. The wedding organizers were able to block off the whole street and setup a wedding party. We heard the bells at a church down the street announce the marriage and saw a lot of people walking to this reception afterwards.
Closing ceremonies
The steak dinner and closing ceremonies took place in the old gym/auditorium where registration took place. The dinner was pretty good. By this point we knew a lot of people and enjoyed talking with everyone at our table. People were still coming up to Carolyn and asking her about her ATV. It was pretty funny.
On Sunday morning we packed up everything so we could head for home immediately after church. The drive home was uneventful until we hit Cle Elum where we were delayed by slow moving traffic for nearly an hour. Grrrrrr! Normally we'd leave Wallace late so we'd hit Snoqualmie Pass in the evening to avoid the traffic, but we needed to get home because Carolyn is leaving for Pasadena for the birth of Paige and Chris's new baby.
This week in Wallace was one of the all-time most-fun summer weeks of my life. Carolyn spent three contiguous weeks in Wallace and she had hard time leaving.
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