We left Federal way about 8:45 am and traveled up Hwy 18 to I-90 near North Bend and headed east. Val couldn't find her 12-volt cell phone charger so we plugged the AC transformer in my 300-Watt inverter so it had power all the way. We wanted to test the efficacy of a cell phone as a means of communication along this route. We followed I-90 to Vantage where it crosses the Columbia then hung a right to Hwy 26 and all the way through the "amber waves of grain", which is the Palouse country. Followed through to Colfax, Pullman and on to Lewiston across the Idaho border.

Hwy 12 east follows the Clearwater River up to where it becomes the Lochsa and we followed that up to a picnic site called the Devils ??, where we checked out the river closely. A little further up the road we found a campsite in the Wild Goose campground and set up camp for our first night on the road. We lit a fire, Val made a snack and hot chocolate and then we retired to the tent. We wondered earlier why that one space available was by the river and not taken. We found out during the night that the sound of the rapids was very loud and made sleeping difficult. I stuffed tissues in my ears for earplugs and got some sleep. Val roughed it. This was a beautiful spot nonetheless.