Contiguous to the Paradise Path and Latah Trails we documented in Part 1 of this post lies the Bill Chipman Palouse Trail.  This rail-trail runs west from Moscow, Idaho, where we stayed, mostly downhill to Pullman, Washington, home of Washington State University.  Another 10' wide, paved, and well-maintained trail, it was a joy to ride.  Despite running close to the highway, we really didn't notice traffic noise, just the rustling of the wind in the field crops.  And once in the city of Pullman, the Chipman Trail connects to other trails that loop around town. 

Here is the entrance to the trail in Moscow, close to our hotel (La Quinta -- a great place to stay for those wanting to ride the area trails). 

At the trailhead, there's an informational sign providing a trail map and telling more about the trail's namesake, Bill Chipman.  I was saddened to read in the first link above that Mr. Chipman died in a tragic car accident, same as my father.  The area citizens gave the trail his name to honor his memory.

One of the interesting sites along the Chipman trail just outside of Pullman is the unique Jorstad's homestead.  I am sure they are used to having cyclists stop and take photos, just like we did.  You just have to see it for yourself.

Upon arriving in Pullman, we were delighted to see that we could continue riding various trails looping around the city.  College towns are generally among the most bike-friendly, and Pullman was no exception.  We especially enjoyed checking out the community garden at historic Koppel Farm.  

Just look at this cute hand-painted sign!

Here's how the homestead is preserved today.  Charming!

Pedaling onto the Downtown Riverwalk, we checked out the old historic "Pufferbelly" train depot.

Then we continued riding through town on the Grand Avenue Greenway.

By the time we reached the end of The Grand Avenue Greenway, we were getting hungry, so turned back towards downtown and looked for a spot to get a bite to eat.  There is yet another continuation of the loop trail that we didn't take, Terre View, which connects to the Arbor Link trail and finally back to the Chipman trail.  (See a full Pullman loop trail map here.)

Conveniently located right over the bridge, we found this great little taco place, Taco Del Mar.  This would certainly do, especially since there was an outside seating area where we could keep our bikes with us.

My Baja fish tacos were delicious!

And Barry had no problem scarfing down this huge chicken and bean burrito (along with some of my beans and rice!)

We had a perfect view of this fantastic mural on the side of a coffee shop across the way.  

Once we'd gorged ourselves on delicious Mex food, it was time to head back uphill towards Moscow, after a couple more shots of the Riverwalk area.

But that's not all the fun we had in Pullman!  We had dinner in a very interesting spot, but I'll save that for another post.

This past week we took a side trip from Walla Walla up to Moscow, Idaho, just over state line.  There are several interconnected bike trails in the area that we'd read about and wanted to ride, and we thought it would be fun to check out a different area for a few days.  It was!

We had two full days in the area and ended up riding the trails both days.  Our hotel had great access, just half a block or so, and we could ride in either direction -- east towards Troy or west to Pullman, WA. We ended up riding from Moscow to Troy, back to Moscow, west to Pullman, then back to Moscow, both days since it was so convenient and easy to get to the trails without having to drive our bikes anywhere.

In Part 1 we'll show the trails we rode from Moscow east to Troy, and in Part 2, we'll cover Moscow to Pullman.  Here's a map showing the area.  The portion of the trail covered in this post is highlighted in blue.

Heading east, we first rode through the cute college town of Moscow and the edge of the University of Idaho.  A two-mile connector trail, the Paradise Path, provides the connection through town between the Bill Chipman-Palouse Trail that runs west to Pullman and the Latah Trail, which runs east to Troy.

Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos of downtown Moscow as we were there only briefly in the morning, and the light was not great.  But it is a charming downtown with bike lanes, and I wish we'd had more time to check it out on foot.

Leaving the Paradise Path, we started pedaling on the Latah Trail towards Troy.  This paved rail trail is 10' wide, smooth, and beautifully maintained, with restroom facilities, benches, and interpretive signage along the way. And the scenery is splendid!  

On the Latah Trail Foundation's website, you can see trail maps and read much more about the trail's history.

Below is an example of one of the interpretive signs along the trail.

On our first morning of riding, there was a heavy cover of smoke that had blown in overnight hanging over the Palouse Hills, almost completely obscuring them from the trail.  Fortunately, it cleared out as we rode, and conditions improved as the morning went on.

The rural area just outside Moscow is primarily wheat fields, but as we approached the small town of Troy, the trailside environment rather abruptly changed to a shady evergreen forest.  It smelled as pretty as it looked -- like Christmas trees!  I really enjoyed riding through this green area, taking deep breaths of the sweet air, and listening to all the birds twittering away in the trees.

The 2676' summit of the trail is in the forest just a couple of miles west of Troy, but never fear, the elevations of Moscow and Troy are 2583' and 2400' respectively, so there's not a lot of strenuous climbing on the trail, just a few rollers.

After a nice downhill run through the forest, taking in the wonderful pine aroma and cool shade, we arrived at a small city park in Troy (with restroom facilities) and grabbed a photo by the Troy sign.  
(Note:  I'm not sure why the elevation here says 2500'; other sources I read said 2400'.  Must depend on where in town they are measuring from.)

We noticed a short extension to the trail across the road and continued along.

After riding the extension out and back, we re-joined the Latah Trail at mile 0, now heading west.

We rode back through the piney woods...

...and transitioned to the pretty fields...

I had to stop and snap a photo of a quail family on the trail -- just one of several family groups we saw in the two riding days.

Once the smoke cleared out, the views of the Palouse Hills were much better, wouldn't you agree?

Soon we were leaving the Latah Trail behind and returning to the Paradise Path in Moscow.

We pedaled through a nice park, where we took a short snack break.  The light sprinkles of numerous weeping willows cooled us down as we rolled through -- the afternoon had turned into a hot one.

In Part 2, we'll take you along on the Bill Chipman Palouse Trail to Pullman, Washington, so stayed tuned!

I am a bit behind on the blog (as usual!) with several posts planned but not yet written.  We've just returned from a fun side trip to Moscow -- Idaho, that is -- but that will have to wait for a later post.  In the meantime, I realized I wanted to write a short post on a dinner we had in downtown Walla Walla before the trip to Moscow.

Since arriving here in July, we've preferred to cook and eat at our vacation rental (that has a very nice kitchen) since we ate out so much during our cross-country travel in the month of June.  But on this night, we finally ventured out for a bite.  But not in our car, nor on our bicycles -- we took the local bus again, which is free for the entire summer here.  Can't beat that deal!

It was a beautiful evening to be downtown, and the Thursday night farmer's market was in full swing.  I was in the mood for pizza, so we decided to try Sweet Basil Pizzeria.

The restaurant wasn't exactly what I expected.  I thought it would be a sit-down place where servers came to your table to take your order.  Nope.  Here, you order at a counter, one place for pizza, salad, and other foodstuffs, then farther down the counter, you order beverages and pay. 

A lot of the pizzas are sold by the slice.  You can order a full pie (small or large) or slices of pizzas that are already made, which you can take a look at in a case.  We split the difference:  I ordered two slices and a salad, and Barry ordered a small pie and a salad.  We also got a small pitcher of Sierra Nevada "Summerfest" lager, which really hit the spot on a hot night.

You take your beverages, find a table, put your number on it, and when your food is ready, servers bring it out to you.  The dining room was kind of noisy and lacked atmosphere, and normally we would have sat outside, but it the outside tables faced west, and in the hot, late afternoon sunshine of August, were not too appealing.  If it had been a bit cooler, we would have chosen a table outdoors if we could have gotten one -- there were only a few.

The food ended up being really good.  

I tried the potato pizza with bacon, cheddar, and scallions.  The slices were served on paper plates.  It's definitely casual dining here, but that was fine.  

Barry went for the small (10") Greek pie with spinach, olives, and feta.  He loves olives and I don't, so this was his opportunity to get his fill.  And he ate every bit of it, much to my surprise.  It wasn't that small -- I would have been good for half of one this size, no more.

After eating, we stopped in at our farmer friend Jennifer's Miles Away Farm stand at the farmer's market, which was going on right outside the pizzeria, and chatted with her for a few minutes.

But then it was time for dessert, and of course we couldn't resist taking a short walk over to the wonderful Colville Street Patisserie, which we'd loved so much on a previous visit to downtown (blog post here).  

This time we each went with one of their BIG cookies (looks like they're baked in a round biscuit cutter mold) and a scoop of the lovely gelato.  Yum!  I went with a double peanut combo (peanut butter gelato and cookie), and Barry tried the chocolate peppermint gelato and an oatmeal raisin cookie.  In the interest of full disclosure, I brought most of my cookie home for our bike ride the next day.  Yes, I was FULL.

After completely stuffing ourselves, we strolled back to the bus stop and caught our bus back.  While we were waiting, the "golden hour" sunlight was hitting this building across from the bus terminal so nicely -- a fitting ending to a lovely evening.

Stay tuned for posts from our fun side trip to Moscow, Idaho -- what a great time we had!