62 miles today. Great weather. We awoke at our campground and biked across the street to the Safeway for breakfast and coffee (Thanks Carol Campbell for the Starbucks card) and sandwiches that we stashed on board for this afternoon and headed out and up. The climb was short (thankfully) and we followed the Pend Oreille River (pronounced “Pandorell” here) against its flow so there was no more negative altitude but not to bad. We are both getting stronger on the up hills. We reached US 95 into Sandpoint and rode on the shoulder with the trucks and other traffic. (A word of thanks to all the drivers of various rigs that actually pay attention to cyclists and give us equal status on the roads. Many of the shoulders around here are very narrow so drivers that give us room are very much appreciated). After a bit we hooked up with a bike path into Sandpoint that was the roughest we’ve yet seen – bumps, holes, ridges, etc. – but at least we weren’t cheek by jowel with lumber trucks. There are supposed to be nice beaches in Sandpoint on the Pend Oreille Lake but we didn’t find them so finally pulled off and ate our Safeway sandwiches while trespassing about 6 feet onto a very nice lake front property.
Lake Pend Oreille
Postprandial we got back on route 200 which is the least bike friendly road we’ve seen – no shoulder, rough gravel edges, and lotsa traffic. Eventually we came across a road crew doing road repair and the flag men were kind to us and let us slide ahead of traffic. For most of the rest of the way we could time our exposure on the road for when they would let cars and trucks through so pulled off until the road behind us was clear and then ride more or less worry free. This gave us a chance to read some historical markers and learned that near Hope, Washington, was one of the first fur trading posts established in the NW territories so now we can blame all the downfall on that guy!
Riding ever Northeastward we finally found Clark Fork.
While we thought from our maps that we had crossed all of Idaho today, once we checked into our hotel (it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow) we learned we still have 8 miles to go! Our room rate came with two free drinks at the pub next door where, eavesdropping, we learned more about biker culture (think Hell’s Angel’s type bikers) than we ever knew, then walked a bit down the road to the best meal we’ve had so far at the “Squeeze Inn.” Salmon raviolis etc were great and the mom and two daughters that run the place had painted a Strega Nona on the kitchen door complete with her overflowing pasta pot.
We saw Osprey on their nests and an eagle today so we can cross those birds off our life lists.
Tomorrow we head into Montana in the general direction of Glacier but it’s unclear at the moment if the road through the park will be open. Stay tuned.
A great day of touring today!
88 miles today and the weather was great, cool temps, mostly overcast so we made good time. We had a few climbs out of Colville (we were on the road at 5:30 AM). The road wandered in and out of fields and gently up and down until a monster downhill into the town of Tiger, WA. Just after we reached the bottom (at speeds that were above the posted limit) it started to rain … Luckily the downhill road was dry when we zoomed down. We crossed the Pend Oreille River and made good time to Newport. We were frustrated early on the food front when the cafe we stopped at didn’t make sandwiches! WE did have some food left over from our shopping in Colville so we made do. She stopped at a community center on the reservation of the Kalispel Tribe of Indians and wolfed down a grilled cheese then mounted our steeds again. Just before Newport we crossed into Idaho for about .1 mile then back into Washington. Dinner was very sub par Chinese fare – what do you expect in a small town? – and now we’re ready to tent among the monster RVs. Tomorrow we will make it most of the way across Idaho and into Montana where we will cross the Continental Divide near Glacier National Park.
68 miles and every one of them was way too hot, 107! We coasted back through US Customs at the border and followed the Kettle River as it re entered the US, too. Just before the border the river runs through a gorge and falls so it was scenic. Before long, though, the heat got to us and we stopped to soak our shirts in a cold mountain stream then continued down the road. One thing we’ve notice so far is that the towns we ride through are too small for anything in the way of fresh sandwiches etc. so we haven’t solved the nutrition problem yet. We stopped at a general store mainly for the A/C but chugged some Gatorade and lemonade before heading out again. The guy behind the counter told us about a boat ramp to the Kettle where we could dunk ourselves – which we did. So the story of today was fighting the heat. We had plenty of water but after a few hours on the bike it too was 107 degrees. Tasty!
les – just like the small town parades I grew up with in Missouri. They closed off Main Street and the sidewalks were lined with people … And here we thought they were there to welcome us to Tonasket!!
The rain stopped early so we broke camp and headed out. The road starts up immediately eventually leading us from 600′ to just over 5000, the first test of our training! Up and up we slogged through waterfall vistas and valley views. There were occasional rewards of small downhill sections but the reality of the climb was a hard truth. We knew we had 40 miles to the top of Washington Pass but at the rate we (translate as “Charles”) was climbing, necessitating multiple stops for water and rest, the clock edged toward 6 hours in the saddle with no peak in view. Finally I succumbed to the effort and had to walk my bike. We agreed that Maja would go ahead and see accurately how many more miles we had while I sat disconsolate by the roadside! Poor, poor pitiful me. Almost immediately a very nice German couple stopped to ask if everything were fine … Of course not everything was fine and they took pity on my sapped strength and total lack of water (an early first lesson on this ride – always have more water than I think I will need. We loaded my bike and bags into the back of their pick up and Yvonne (of Andreas and Yvonne) offered me several bottles of water. We caught up with Maja and made the plan that I would be dropped off at Washington Pass and rejoin Maja on the road. Andreas and Yvonne dropped me off with more water and I was able to eat, drink and even cat nap for the interval it took Maja to catch up. When she arrived I was re-energized and we headed down, down, down to the valley and, eventually, Twisp. So, my confession is that of the 4273 miles of our journey I did indeed cheat for 4 miles. There, the truth is out.
bikewright 2.0 