After a good night's sleep and a coffee plus a pastrie at the Red Brick Cafe, I left Rosalie. I cycled past the Library with its Lady Bird perched high up on a pole. Wonder when she/he will fly down. 
From here onwards the Department of Wildlife installed a number of gates to minimise unauthorised entry.
Shortly after the gate I came across this fellow. I cycled over him and stopped see if it is OK. It just sailed on. Would this be a Rattler?
The views from the trail was beautiful.
The area was devastated by a wildfire in 2020. Rosalia escaped almost completely, but one of the trestles close to the Town burned down.
As I cycled closer to the next towns, Malden and Pine City, the number of dead trees increased significantly.
However, I began to see wild flowers. :):)
A beautiful view close to the next town, Malden.
Beautiful flowers
And a very narrow cut with quite a lot of rock on the floor. I did not hear any Rattles as I cycled through very slowly to miss the rocks. Lucky me.
In Malden I met up with the support staff and horses of the annual Spring "Ride of the Lifetime" organised by the John Wayne Pioneer Trail Riders. I was surprised and the support effort and realised for the first time how big this even is. I tried to catch them on the trail, but the many detours in the area caused me to miss the Tour.
Anyway, the town of Malden was badly damaged in the 2020-fire with most buildings burned down. This is the area where the train station was (do not know if it was burned down or removed earlier, I assume the latter.) and
This is how the station looked like about 110 years ago.
Pine City, abour 4 miles from Malden was also badly damaged. I appreciated the picnic bench for all to use on the foundation of buildings that have been removed after clear fire damage.
Just outside Pine City the rail trail is closed folowing the fire damage. I enjoyed this sign - "Emergency Clearance."
The detours took me past beautiful scenery. I particularly liked the clouds building up.
As I cycled past the Rock Lake, just behind the pine trees in the distance, I picked up a flat - a very sharp thin piece of steel.
I tried to rotate the wheel to get the hard at the bottom, but this did not work, I had to take off the tire and repair the tube, add more green slime to the tube and move on. Green Slime is amazing. Repair success first time around.
The rain came down strongly now and I was invited to sit out the rain on the porch of this farm house. Thanks so much Doug Schusster. And thanks for all the info on the trail along the Rock Lake. One day we shall be back to hike as much of the trail here as we can.
Just beautiful colors.
I had to cycle up several steep hills. This one included pushing with pride as well. :):):) Beautiful clouds though.
I reached the grain elevator at Ewan and
had a quick stop to plan ahead. Thanks, Lizl for the SNACK, one of my favorites. Anyway, the horses and wagons churned up the rail trail surface, making for a lot of loose gravel and rocks. Part of my planning was to see whether I could bypass all the bad sections. I decided to still cycle on the trail to Revere to see if the trail would be better a couple of days after the John Wayne horses and carriages passed.
The scenery changed dramatically now that the trail moves through the Scablands, an area where the topsoil was removed in the Missoula Floods. This was one of the largest floods known to humankind and happened about 10,000 years ago. An ice dam, about 2,000 feet high broke and the entire lake drained in less than a week. This area was covered under hundreds of feet of water, taking all the topsoil with it.
Another gate to go through to get on this piece of trail.
Beautiful area, you do not see many trees though.
The stones were making cycling very difficult and I decided to look for detours tomorrow.
I cycled through this cut and
past this lovely river before I reached the Revere wheat elevator.
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