After a long and exhausting
trek through Montana I have at last reached Idaho! Furthermore, TODAY I
REACHED THE CENTURY MARK. A hat given to me by my daughter was in recognition
of Jennifer doing a 100 miler... A "century ride
." At long last I've earned the
right to wear this hat, a gift from Jennifer, because today I bicycled
over 100 miles within a 12 hour time frame...much of it going over steep
terrain, with variable winds often in my face, over occasional isolated dirt
roads, and carrying 50 pounds of gear... I GOT IT DONE! Okay Jen, I now belong to your century club.
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| Runs along Cabinet Mountains Wilderness...getting close to the Idaho Border. |
Departing Libby, Montana at 6:30
AM
this morning, I bicycled some of the most scenic terrain I've yet observed.
Leaving Libby, I climbed the base of Samater, Scenery, and Flagstaff Mountains and followed the Kootenai River to Kootenai Falls. From there it was due
south over steep and undulating terrain until arriving at Bull Lake and passing through Ross
Creek Cedar Grove Scenic Area. It was a very hard pull along the Bull River as I passed around Pillick
Ridge and past Government Mountain. After hitting a T in the
road, I took 200 W. until reaching the turnoff for Huron. This side loop was
done to avoid traffic on narrow roads but turned into steep dirt roads where I
saw an abundance of game. Prime bear country with NO traffic necessitated the
use of my Bear-whistle pretty much the entire distance. While uncomfortable
regarding the possibility of bear, one could not help but be captivated by the
truly pristine forests.
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| Bear Country!! |
Rejoining Highway 200 at Clark Fork, there was a magnificent
view of Lake Pend Oreille which I followed around
through the towns of East Hope, Hope, Kootenai, and Ponderay, until reaching my
destination of Sandpoint. The road from
East Hope to Sandpoint was under construction, gravel, and narrow. It felt marvelous to reach Sandpoint!
I
now have a bit of a dilemma as my route travels right through the ongoing fires
in Washington State. I will study the maps tonight and determine
how best to proceed on this now the home stretch.
 |
| The upcoming elevation changes |
After three hard days of bicycling decided to take it a bit easy today. Started out of Sandpoint relatively late, 9:30 AM, and traveled to Priest River... a timber town in which Andrea lived when she was a little girl. Place looked relatively unchanged since the 50s with the exception of a few convenience stores. Took a picture of the school hoping that this is the one Andrea attended.
