Skip to main content

 

Day 4

 

Colville to Priest River, Idaho


104 miles; 4,667 feet of elevation


We began today’s ride on downtown streets in Colville and then traveled through neighborhoods surrounding the city, until we made it to the surrounding countryside.  We had good weather throughout today’s ride, if not a little warm – when we arrived in the town of Priest River, ID, it was 89°.  Air quality was better than yesterday with only some smoke later in the day. 

 

About 90 minutes into today’s ride, at about 7:30 a.m., we were in the countryside riding on wide open roads surrounded by fields and some trees on both sides of the road.  Bob was riding a little ahead of us when Joe and I saw a blur of a large male deer just left, racing towards the road, just ahead of Bob.  It was as if this deer needed to cross the road before Bob went by.  This deer, now dubbed, “Usain Buck” hit the two-lane road only once when he bounded right in front of Bob, about 5-7 feet from Bob’s front wheel!  And in a flash he was gone into the trees just to the right of us.  

After this “near deer encounter” we traveled on country roads for 30 or so miles and then we traveled on the road next to Lake Pend Oreille.  This portion of today’s trip was a delight, right up until we encountered about 10 miles of “country ‘kickback’ chipseal roadway.”  Bob and Joe explained that the aggregate on this road was ¾ when it should have been ¼ mix – someone cut corners when they installed this road, and the result is that the ¾ mix lead to a ride needing a mouthguard to keep our teeth in our heads!


When we settled into the hotel in Priest River, Scuba Steve, just back from a store run, let us know, once again, Joe’s Sprinter Van remains the biggest draw on RAA II!  Like RAA I, people stop our drivers to chat them up about the awesome Sprinter Van.  Then, when Steve or Keenan say, “Yeah, and these three guys are riding their bikes across America …”  Most people come back with, “Oh, ok, can I see the interior?”  


Ok, last short stories from today’s adventures … my new favorite, for interesting stories, restaurant in Priest River, ID, is The Settlement Kitchen + Craft Tavern.


When we sat down for dinner, Steve and Joe noticed that one of the patrons next to us had a holstered .357 on his hip – Joe’s quick quip, “Oh, we better get his dinner …”  Then, when we were presented with our dinner check in the folder, along with the dinner check was a copy of the Constitution of the United States, with the Amendments and history of each. 





Popular posts from this blog

  Day 6                Libby, MT to Whitefish, MT   50 miles / 3,700 feet of elevation / shortened day due to mechanicals and necessary bike shop stop   Today’s shortened route took us up and over a beautiful mountain course bounded by a lake to our left (for the entire day!) and a mountain wall to our right.   We traversed over gently rolling and sometimes fairly steep hills with long rollouts afterwards.   We had fantastic road conditions and very few, perhaps 12, cars / trucks passed us during this entire day’s ride.   Near perfect day in the saddle with beautiful scenery all around us. From time to time the tranquility of today’s ride, in sharp contrast to yesterday’s “white knuckler,” was integrated by one of us pointing off the road to deer and wild turkeys.  Some of both allowed us to get quite close before they bounded or flocked away from us.    Later in the day we visited a local...
Read more
Day 8   East Glacier to Shelby, MT   85 miles / 2,800 feet of elevation   Montana is the “new Texas” from RAA I, we are in Montana for 5-6 days out of 18.   Growing up in Alaska, my “lower 48” geography is a bit off, I truly had no idea Montana was this large of a state!   However, happy to be in Montana; the roads and shoulders are good, the drivers courteous and share the road willingly.   We have had some trouble with hotel accommodations as the state is not well populated and some towns don’t have hotels for us, so we end up shuttling at the end of the day and beginning of our days.   This shuttling is a very slight inconvenience for the beautiful surroundings we are cycling in. We enjoyed wide open roads with good cycling all day long.  Montana’s “Big Sky” was a treat throughout the day. Again, we tried to show you this aspect of Montana in some of our photos but our photos just don’t seem to do the real thing justice – at times w...
Read more
  Day 5   Priest River, ID to Libby, MT (new state crossing)   102 miles; 3,258 feet of elevation / had to portage two times   Today’s first 25 miles of cycling began with some traffic and narrow shoulders.  From there the traffic and shoulders go progressively worse.  After some “white knuckle” riding we decided to portage (twice) to appease some of the Idaho drivers.  (After a quick vote, Idaho drivers get the “worst etiquette / least favorite state to ride in.”)  We don’t want to bash all Idaho drivers, perhaps the 10 or 11 that let us know of their displeasure with cyclists were just having a bad day?  To be clear, we are riding on several marked bicycle routes across America.  We are riding the Northern route, legitimate “Route 10,” which is one of about seven different routes which begin on the coast and literally go across America from there.  And, we drove this route last October (thinking the pandemic would be o...
Read more