Grand Mound, Cowlitz and Chehalis
Today was a nice day of cycling roughly parallel to the I-5 corridor. I started following the drainage for the Cowlitz River. This had a few short hills and went via settlements of Castle Rock and Vader. After a gradual climb via Winlock, I went down and followed the Chehalis valley. This was a flatter area and had towns of Chehalis and Centralia. It was both more populated and had more agriculture than the Cowlitz which had more forests. It was nice to have a dry and sunny day again.

Started following the Cowlitz River. Trees are losing leaves and turning colors here.

Castle Rock and a brief stop at the Four Corners.

Lots of trees in this area.

The Vader post office, all of it.

Winlock claims the world’s largest egg.

While these are everywhere, I always associate the Pacific Northwest with these really small coffee guts

The route through Chehalis and Centralia was a mix of little roads and some frontage roads including this trail.

Larger roads had striped bike paths.

Not my hotel but there is a water park in Grand Mound.
Overall a nice ride through a variety of roads and past small towns and good weather again.