Idaho Rides -- Part 2

On Thursday we headed for Plummer from Kellogg ID. Our route was 55.6 miles and was almost entirely on the Coeur d'Alenes bike path. Built on a railroad bed, the ride was basically flat until the last 5 or 6 miles. We rode along the Coeur d'Alenes river which was almost perfectly still in the early morning.

The river eventually becomes a lake and our last rest stop of the day was right next to the beach. Several of us jumped in for a swim. I'm not a good swimmer in the best of circumstances so wearing a cycling jersey kept me from doing any laps. It was a great way to cool off.

We stayed at a small church in the small town of Plummer. My personal bit of space was in the nursery which had two fans. I slept for an hour in the afternoon and had a good night's sleep. The combination helped me through the rest of the week. This was one of the few times we needed to make our own evening meal. The dinner team with the help of Justin made a mountain of rice and an awesome chicken/vegetable curry.

Friday we rose early to try and beat the heat. (Go here to read what I wrote on the Fuller Center blog about our day's ride.) Our destination (Lewiston) was 94 miles away and it was supposed to be well above 90˚ in the afternoon. We had our morning route meeting and devotions with a beautiful sunrise to the east. We pulled away from the church at 5:30 in the cool morning air and it was dark enough that my first few pictures turned out rather blurry. 

Dani and I rode sweep for the day so our job was to keep everyone in front of us. It wasn't very hard to do until the last two segments of the day. For the first 20 miles we were part of a group of 10 which stopped to take a picture at the Washington sign -- our second to last state of the trip. Stopping for a picture always means a roadside littered with bikes, especially out west, since no one wants to get a flat tire from a goathead.

Our route today took us through the "Palouse" a rich agricultural area in Eastern Washington and part of Idaho. Change one letter and you have the French word used in "keep off the grass". In this case, we passed mile after mile of rolling yellow wheat fields. I knew we were back in farming country when I spotted a grain elevator. I don't remember seeing one during the previous two weeks. 

Tom and Lois chose to put our last rest stop by a field where harvest was in full swing. One of the truck drivers stopped and chatted with them. (I can't imagine why he was curious about a white van with a pink bike on top that pulled up and set up 2 coolers and various snacks.) This particular family farm grew garbanzo beans (to be used in hummus) and split peas in addition to wheat. Tom asked if it wouldn't be easier to farm if the land was flat. The farmer responded, "Then we would have less land."

Our route through the rolling hills wasn't too difficult. As the day went on the heat started to affect us. It was 88˚ at 10:30 according to a bank clock in a town we passed. All of us were thankful for the clouds that covered the sun most of the time. We stopped along the way to celebrate Melissa's 10,000 mile on her bike.

 

The most enjoyable part of the ride was our decent into Lewiston via the Spiral Highway, built in 1917. The grade is such that the cars of the day could descend the 2000 feet over 10 miles at 20 or 30 mph. A group of us arrived at the top of the hill together and the prospect of the descent was greeted with different degrees of excitement. As sweeps, Dani and I stayed at the top for several minutes after the others left. Neither of us wanted to have to use our brakes for anything besides going around the hairpin turns. The 2% average grade was actually too low to be a good descent. We had to do quite a bit of pedaling. It took me until toward the bottom to figure out that I could go around the 20 mph curves at at least 30 mph. As we descended we could feel the heat rising and a bank clock in town displayed 98˚ at about 1:30 pm. At that temperature, I was not one of the three who volunteered to ride another few miles so Molly could get her first every century.