Date: Saturday, 13 August 2016
Time on Bike: 5:51:51
Total Travel Time: 11:03:21
Miles Covered Today: 73.45
Total Trip Miles: 1,918.5
Average Speed: 12.4, Maximum Speed: 31.0
From: Hope, ID
To: Usk, WA
(Uploaded on 24 Aug 2016)
Four tired cyclists rolled out of Beyond Hope Resort early Saturday morning. The problem with people who stay up late making noise and partying don’t have to get up early the next day.
We would spend most of the morning cycling around the shores of Lake Pend Oreille!
I had seen schools, stores, roads, parks, you name it, named after Mr. Oreille. So I wondered who Pend Oreille was so I looked it up. What a silly boy I am!
Pend Oreille is a County in Idaho and the lake? According to Wikipedia, Lake Pend Oreille is the largest lake in Idaho and the 38th largest lake by area in the United States, with a surface area of 148 square miles!!!!!
And… it is French for an ear-hanging or pendant!!!! Again, from Wikipedia, ear pendants were characteristic of the Kalispel tribe. The lake is shaped much like a human ear when viewed from above. Duhhhh! See below from Google maps.
We crossed numerous bridges and causeways.
We took a short break where the Pack River enters the lake.
I think those platforms are for bird nests… possibly Osprey? Amy, your guess?
Our goal this morning was to get to The Hoot Owl Café outside Sandpoint, ID for a well deserved breakfast! We got a little turned around as we are no longer used to riding in cities I guess. But Jenn figured it out... as usual!
The Café was hopping. After all it was a weekend!
I finally got a decent portion of pancakes at a reasonable price. I make pancakes from scratch at home, so I just hate to pay top dollar for them.
It was a busy breakfast. I got a call from Israel from my dear friend Arie during the meal and stepped outside to talk. And then Bunny pulled up
but wouldn’t join us as she felt it was way too crowded for Woz. I hung outside with her and she at least got my leftovers from breakfast. Not sure if that was a gift or a punishment…
And funny thing… a few days after we ate there, Bunny read something about The Hoot Owl Café in a Rachel Ray magazine! We are way cool and we didn’t even know it!
After fueling up, we headed south on HW 95 crossing an arm of Lake Pend Oreille on what might be the widest bike path I have ever been on!
The bike path soon got narrow and gnarly,
and then… abruptly ended!
We had to ride on HW 95 for a few miles. It was a weekend and extremely busy. I was glad to get off of it and take the right on Dufort Road. It was a nice side road albeit somewhat busy as well.
It followed the… you got it, the Pend Oreille River!
A lot of ups and downs. It got to be pretty hot. I think we all just waned to get some sleep by the afternoon! I thought Carl was going to cross the bridge to take a break in Priest River. Yeah! He did not…
We rolled on.
We must have entered Washington State at some point as we arrived in Newport where Bunny was at our hotel without ever seeing that Welcome to Washington sign. Drats!
I went to the Antler Motel to meet Bunny & Woz to get out of the heat. Carl came with me but soon went to meet Jenn & Rachel.
They all went to the Safeway across the street to get out of the heat and eat some food. Carl showed up to get a jacket. Said the Safeway was too cold for him!
Some 2.5 hours later (!!!!) the gang showed up at the hotel
we mounted our bikes, and we all went looking for a primitive campground (read no water, no showers, no nothing!!) that was possibly 15 miles west of us.
We rode alongside the river again, but no one cared. We just wanted to end our day!
Jenn took over. And I mean took over!!
She went into Time Trial mode. I do not know where that energy & strength came from, but she rode out front for all of those 15 miles at 16 to 18 MPH. We followed. It took everything I had just to hang onto the rear of the train!
At the entrance to the primitive camping, there was also a sign for a RV park of some type. That meant hot showers. After a brief discussion, we rode toward the river and eventually found this RV park in sight of Usk, WA.
It ended up being like a condo association where you buy the plot of land for your RV. Not your everyday RV park for overnighters.
Carl had called the person listed on the door at the main building (that had a restaurant, a pool, showers, a large screen TV, and Wi-Fi!!!!!!) and been told they couldn’t spend the night there in their tents.
But Carl then made nice to a man set up in his small RV by the entrance that told us he had called that same number and been given permission to spend one night and was told he didn’t even need to pay! He said he didn’t mind if they shared his site.
You could see the wheels turning in Carl's & Rachel's tired heads. They were done for the day. They only had to convince Jenn, who did not want to get kicked out in the middle of the night… or worse.
I shut up as I had a hotel room waiting and Bunny was on the way to pick me up. I was in good shape.
There was a lot of back and forth. Eventually, I think Jenn was simply outvoted 2 to 1. Hot showers and Wi-Fi it was to be!
Bunny soon showed up and took me back to the Antler Motel in Newport, WA. It seemed to take as long to get back as it took Jenn to bike to the RV site!!
More pictures from the day.
