Day 97: Coeur D'Alene
Day 98: Coeur D'Alene to Kellogg, 41 miles
Day 99: Kellogg to Quartz Flat Campground, Montana, 87 miles
Day 100: Quartz Flat to Missoula, 53 miles
Day 96-97: 6/16/14-6/17/14
In the morning Bob rode out with me from the house and took me through downtown Spokane and to see some of the sights of the city which was really cool. Then after a cup of coffee at a local joint in downtown Spokane we parted ways at the Centennial Trail that took me along the Spokane River on a really nice bike trail. It's certainly nice not having to hear or think about cars and trucks whenever possible!
At about 30 miles into the ride I crossed into Idaho and although I wasn't on the highway still got my pic at the border with a plaqued rock that designated the line.
From the border I rode the last 20 miles into Coeur D'Alene where I ended the day early at a Motel 6. My first stay in a hotel since San Francisco.
For the last few days I'd been dealing with a nagging Achilles issue on my right foot that has been rather uncomfortable when riding, at times shooting sharp pains up the back of my ankle and calf so I decided it was worth it to get a hotel and try to give the leg a little bit of rest after 9 days straight of riding up and down on some pretty serious terrain. It was also a good excuse to be off the bike so that I could catch up on my World Cup watching and get to see USA's awesome win over Ghana in their opener.
I stayed in the Motel 6 on Tuesday as well to continue resting the leg and watch more soccer. It was also a nice day to be inside as it rained throughout the entire day and night.
Day 98: 6/18/14
I tried waiting out the rain Wednesday and thought I'd done it by 11:00 a.m. when the rain stopped and I got out on the road, but just a few miles outside of Coeur D'Alene the rain started up again. To make it worse I was riding along I-90 and so besides getting rained on from above I was getting constant spits of rain and water hitting me in the face and side from the trucks and cars that were passing by on my left. It was a pretty miserable day of riding to say the least.
Just outside of Coeur D'Alene I rode up and over 4th of July Pass (3,173 ft.) which was a climb of about 1,200-1,500 ft. from Coeur D'Alene. Minus the wetness it was a fairly easy climb.
I came down off of the Pass and got a really bad chill and decided that I should stop and get indoors so I stopped about 10 miles short of where I had originally intended to get for the day in Kellogg,ID and hunkered down for the night.
Day 99: 6/19/14
I got out early from Kellogg and finally the rain and bad weather cleared and the sun began to burn through the clouds and I got my first glimpses of blue sky since Spokane.
I was again on I-90 for the entire day but, without the rain it was really nice. It had a rumble strip and an expansive shoulder so even though there was a lot of traffic I felt perfectly comfortable. From Kellogg that sat at 2,303 ft. I rode about 25 miles up to Lookout Pass at 4,860 ft. Again, it was a pretty gradual climb for most of it and still nothing like the climbs in the Cascades.
Crossing over Lookout Pass also marked the Idaho/Montana border and my journey back into Mountain Time Zone.
It was a perfect day of riding and I ended at Quartz Flat Campground right off of I-90. The campground was almost completely empty and I got to pop the tent for the first time in a while and it felt really good. I went back to my camping staples for dinner and feasted on some peanut butter, honey and banana sandwiches, a can of pears, and some jalapeño kettle chips and then spent the rest of the night relaxing in my tent and finally finishing my book, Dharma Bums, which I'd picked up back in San Francisco.
Kerouac at his finest...
"I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and all living creatures." Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac
"And in keeping with Japhy's habit of always getting down on one knee and delivering a little prayer to the camp we left, to the one in the Sierra, and the others in Marin, and the little prayer of gratitude he had delivered to Sean's shack the day he sailed away, as I was hiking down the mountain with my pack I turned and knelt on the trail and said "Thank you, shack." Then I added "Blah," with a little grin, because I knew that shack and that mountain would understand what that meant, and turned and went on down the trail back to this world." Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac
I went to sleep in the empty campground with these final words from Kerouac swirling around in my head and it was glorious.
Day 100: 6/20/14
But, my rucksack revolution is far from over so I won't be going down any roads back to this world just yet...
I woke in the morning and after a little grub finished my ride down I-90 into Missoula, the headquarters of Adventure Cycling Association.
I hit up the Headquarters and got my picture on the Wall of Fame for 2014 and got to indulge in all of the free soda and ice cream bars I wanted and then I rode down through town to my warmshowers hosts house, Ethel, where I'd be staying for the next 2 nights to get a feel for this cool little town tucked away into the mountains of Montana.
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