Day #66 (7/11/24) – Bike Across America

I’m really looking forward to the next two days of riding on the rail trails of western Montana and Idaho. I’ve read about them several times, and I’m excited to be able to ride some of them.

Last night I booked a room in a B&B in Harrison, ID for the night of the 12th. I normally don’t book rooms two days in advance, but I was sure that I wanted to stay in Harrison for three reasons. First, it is 110 miles from St. Regis, which makes it easily reachable in two days, and I plan to take my time on these rail trails. Second, two days from now is a Friday, and since there are limited hotel options in Harrison, I wanted to make sure I had a room. Third, it is a great location to set me up for riding on Saturday, without needing to put in too many miles.

I still have lots of choices for hotels for tonight, but will likely stay in the town of Wallace, which is about half way to Harrison.

Last night, I was talking to Elizabeth and told her that I would be in the Seattle area on the 18th. So, she booked a flight. I am ecstatic to see her again!! I have missed her so much on this trip. I’m counting down the days!!

I read a great quote from Giovanni Dienstmann this morning that helped motivate me. “Nothing extraordinary is achieved by being “realistic”…By being realistic, we are simply saying an automated “No, it’s not possible” to everything that is challenging, uncertain, or risky. In other words, we are saying No to everything that makes life truly exciting, and has the potential to stretch us exponentially.”

I thought that really applies to this bike adventure for me. In retirement, I hope that I continue to be unrealistic.

I decided to sleep in a little and took advantage of the hotel breakfast. I was biking around 7:15.

It was a short distance to the start of the Olympian trail. The trail here is also used for ATVs, so it was a little bit beat up, but the scenery was nice.

About four miles down the trail, I came to a bridge that was missing. There was a road closed sign, but I kept going (of course). Then I came to a large burm of dirt. I got off my bike to check out the other side, and could see a fast running stream and an equally large burm on the other side.

I could see the trail continuing on the other side of the stream. But to get myself and my bike over there, I would have to take the panniers off my bike and hope that I could push my bike up the burm on the other side.

I looked at the map, and saw that I was very close to an exit for the interstate. So, I decided to bike one exit down the interstate and then return to the trail.

There was very little traffic on the interstate. But, the next exit didn’t allow me to get to the trail, so I had to go down to the second exit. It was eight miles of biking on the interstate.

The trail was slowly climbing to Lookout Pass, which is also the border between Montana and Idaho. Sometimes the trail was a little rough, but generally it was in pretty good shape.

I met three ladies who were bike packing in the other direction. We talked about each other’s journeys. They were touring the NW US and Canadian Rockies. They were on their way to Boise to complete their tour. I told them about the bridge that was out. They didn’t seem too keen on biking on the interstate. With three of them, I’m sure they would be fine doing the portage across the stream.

There were several types of flowers blooming along the trail.

Near the end of the Olympian trail there was a gate across the trail. No signs, just a gate.

Of course, I kept going. I was barely able to squeeze my bike around the gate. On the other side of the gate was a very nice bridge then another gate to go around.

Then there was a tunnel. I could see bike tire tracks in the mud near the tunnel, so I felt like I was on the right track. The tunnel curved through the mountain, and I had to walk my bike through.

After the tunnel, I was biking around a bend in the trail and I saw a black bear scurrying off of the trail. That’s the first bear I’ve seen on this trip. I stopped my bike. I thought about those three female bike packers that I had met earlier in the day, and the fact that one of them had bear spray readily available on her backpack strap. Then I thought about the fact that I never stopped to pick up bear spray, despite being advised to do so (sorry Dad). The only thing I had readily available was my snacks and water. So, I waited a few minutes for the bear to move away, then continued riding without incident.

At the end of the Olympian trail was a big parking area for people who were biking the very popular Hiawatha Trail. There were a lot of people and cars. Seemingly out of nowhere. I want to bike the Hiawatha Trail someday, but wasn’t doing the extra miles today.

Instead, I took a gravel road down to the Northern Pacific (NorPac) trail. The NorPac trail was a dirt trail at first and I was passed by three ATVs, who kicked up a lot of dust.

The NorPac trail continued the climb to Lookout Pass. Shortly after starting the trail, I noticed that my cell phone wasn’t charging. I had plugged in into the battery pack that I keep on my bike earlier. It was charging when I plugged it in, but wasn’t now. I stopped and messed around with it, but couldn’t tell if the problem was the charging cable or the phone connection. I descended into panic mode as I thought about how much I depend on my cell phone during this trip. I could only pray that it was a problem with the charging cord and not the phone connector. I was sure that something happened to one of these when I was navigating through the rough spots in the trail. It is so easy for me to get lost in panic and thinking about the worst case. I lost my “being in the moment” mindset, and went into how to handle the worst case scenario of not having a cellphone.

So, I turned off as many apps as I could on my phone and kept peddling. There were some great views as I continued to climb.

At about 12:45, I reached Lookout Pass and crossed into the state of Idaho. It is also the place where I crossed into the Pacific time zone. So, I gained another hour.

It was a fast downhill on chunky gravel roads until I got into the town of Mullan. I stopped at the first gas station in town and saw an outlet on the outside of the station. I plugged in my cellphone with my wall charger, and I started charging. Yippee!! It wasn’t the phone connection!! Thank God!! I left the phone to charge for a few minutes and went into the gas station. I bought a hostess cupcake to celebrate. :). The gas station also sold cell phone cables and I was able to get a replacement. I went outside and tested it, and it worked! Crisis averted.

In Mullan I picked up the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. Which is too long of a name for me to type more than once, so I’ll refer to it as TCA.

TCA is a paved trail that is in great shape. It was so nice to be on asphalt again. It was a fast downhill six miles to my destination town of Wallace.

I went into a local bar & grill for lunch and talked to a bunch of people about my adventure and about the town of Wallace. Turns out there is a music festival in town tonight, so I’ll check that out.

When I got to my hotel, I was able to use a hose and some rags to clean the significant amount of dust off my bike and panniers. They were filthy!!

For the day, I biked 60 miles and climbed 3,000 feet. Tomorrow will be 50 miles on the TCA to the town of Harrison.

Seven days until I see Elizabeth!! ❤️