Inland Northwest, Day 7 (Abrupt End)

What should have been a ten day trip ended unexpectedly on the seventh day. The previous evening our kid who was watching the house called to tell us about our soaking wet basement carpet. Our ancient boiler was leaking. So we immediately contacted our insurance provider, a water abatement company, and a plumber, all remotely from Idaho. That triaged the situation for the moment but now we had to get home to deal with the damage and replace a boiler.

However, we couldn’t get home quickly from this remote corner of the country. The best we could manage was leaving around noon the next day, flying out of Lewiston. The delay did present one small silver lining though: we could still run the final race if we put some effort into it. I mean, why not? We couldn’t leave any earlier.

The Idaho Race

Mainly Marathons provides an early start option — an hour earlier than normal — that many of the slower, longer-distance runners often choose. We joined them at 5:30 a.m., which of course meant we woke up considerably earlier than that. Then we ran with flashlights in the dark for the first hour through the Hells Gate State Recreation Area, as the sun gradually rose.

This was the warmest morning of the race series, maybe even a little too warm. Nonetheless, I’d already recovered from the first two half-marathons and I knew that this was the last one. So I pushed a little harder and finished with my best time of the series at 1:48. I wanted to complete all three races below two hours and I did that easily.

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Hells Gate State Recreation Area

I didn’t get to explore much of Hells Gate park (map) because we had to wrap-up and get out of town. That’s a shame because it looked really nice once daylight arrived. It hugged the Idaho side of the scenic Snake River for several miles. Turkeys, deer, raccoons and a skunk made an appearance that morning although none of them paid any attention to the runners passing back-and-forth. Maybe someday I’ll return and give it a proper visit.

We budgeted enough time to return to our temporary home, clean up after the race, catch our breath for a moment, and pack our bags. Then we drove straight to the Lewiston airport.

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Lewiston Airport

I have to describe Lewiston–Nez Perce County Airport (its official name) as downright cute (map). Maybe it’s the smallest I’ve ever used? Maybe it’s tied with the airport I flew into on the island of Pico in the Azores back in 2001? Either way it was teeny-tiny and the photo shows the entire airport. The left side contained a couple of ticket counters and a restroom; and the right side offered a pair of car rental counters, a single baggage carousel and a vending machine.

I wondered how they staffed the place. Two airlines provided a combined three flights per day so most of the time it sat empty. People came out of the woodwork as the departure time approached: suddenly there were airline representatives; car rental clerks; Transportation Security Agency agents, and then a jet. Where did everyone go between flights? Did they work part time? How could this possibly be sustainable? So many questions!

The departure area beyond security was equally diminutive. It included seating on two levels and a couple of restrooms but nothing else. The entire flight waited in there. Two glass doors on an exterior wall lead directly onto the tarmac. These were nominally “gates”; one for each airline, although they were literally just doors at ground level that opened onto the same asphalt about twenty feet apart.

I did know one thing though, purchasing a last-minute one way ticket from an obscure airport and dropping off a rental car at the “wrong” location isn’t cheap. But we were going home.

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Wrap-Up

So we passed through the Delta doorway, um “gate”, and walked over to the plane that would take us to Salt Lake City. From there we had a 4-hour layover before the final flight home, and we landed on the East Coast around midnight. But at least I got to add Lewiston to my airport visit list so I guess that’s something.

Unfortunately we missed three days of a long anticipated adventure. My in-person visit to the Center of the Universe will have to wait for another chance, as will a tour of Spokane and the four new counties I’d hoped to capture. I’ll get there eventually. It was inconvenient but it wasn’t the end of the world. I considered that it would have been much worse if the boiler died a couple months earlier while we were in England.

Also, we still accomplished a lot:

• 3 half-marathons
• 14 new counties
• 3 new overnight counties
• 6 breweries

And that’s pretty good despite the abrupt ending.

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Articles in the Inland Northwest Series

1. Staging
2. Walla Walla to Pendleton
3. Let the Races Begin
4. Lewis & Clark Country
5. University Loop
6. County-Centric
7. Abrupt End

See also the albums on Flickr for Idaho, Oregon and Washington.