Ride Idaho 2015 Bicycling Thru the Smoke

Having such a great time on Grande Tour motivated me to find a supported tour that would take my last minute reservation, and I found Ride Idaho.  With some e-mailing, I found a group of Twin Rivers Cyclists not only recommended it, but was going, and I was pleased they let me join them!


Pre-ride McEuen Park to Higgins Point  15.6 miles    1:19 riding time
I arrived at Coeur d'Alene's McEuen's early, so set up my tent in McEuen Park, and then headed out to Higgins Point hoping this little warm up would make up for the 6 days I'd taken off the bike in the extreme heat we'd had. When I returned most of the group had arrived and set up their tents.  I moved my tent to be close to them.  We were on our own for dinner this first night which wasn't include in the price. We found coupons for a brew pub, but we found the wrong brew pub- food was good though.

Tent City in Coeur d'Alene's McEuen Park

Day 1:  Heyburn State Park to Kellogg, Idaho  54.6 miles  3:38 riding time
We were on the boat well before the scheduled 0600 departure, but actual departure was pretty close to 0630.  Breakfast was a little light- a sausage McMuffin type sandwich, small fruit cup, and yogurt, but adequate for day 1 of a ride at least for us.  Sitting next to the serving line we couldn't help notice many took more than one sausage mcmuffin, and late arrivers got none.   About 3 hours after taking off we arrived at Heyburn State Park where we disembarked to find our bikes that had been trucked down separately. Boating across CDA Lake sounds good, but at 0630, it's too cold to enjoy even in the heat of August.  We were fortunate to have had seats inside most of the ferry ride.

Linda, Corie, Jennifer, & Steve just before the boat docks at Heyburn State Park

Corrie rides over the bridge from Heyburn State Park - taken on the move

The boat ride caused everyone to leave together- in one big messy group.  The hurried passing began in the parking lot even on the heavily graveled access road (think 3 inch rocks- not gravel) before we reached the bike path or bridge which detracted from my first crossing of this bridge where I might have liked to have stopped for a couple of photos.  Most people had reached their desired location in the group by the time we reached Harrison when calls- or worse the lack of calls "on your left" began to end.  The route along Coeur d'Alene Lake is beautiful, but I got no photos in the crowd with all that passing, and we did our share of passing too.  We had lunch at the Cataldo Mission.

TRC and affiliates minus Tom- at Cataldo Mission lunch stop:  Linda, Corrie, Steve, Jennifer, and Laurence

We rode on to Kellogg where we set up our tents on school grounds.  Dinner was excellent- ribs, corn on the cob, a great salad with plenty available for seconds. Corrie and Linda can be seen dancing below..

Entertainment in Kellogg- Corrie and Linda in upper left - photo by Laurence

Day 2 taking the optional ride Kellogg to Wallace via Dobson Pass, up to Mullan, and back to Wallace  63.8 miles   5:15 riding time  

From the first day I'd first looked over Ride Idaho's website, I wasn't happy with the proposed 10 mile day, but they'd added an optional ride over Dobson Pass (the reverse direction of what we'd be doing on day 3).  With just a little talking I was able to convince Corrie (but no one else) to join me in climbing Dobson Pass which added about 40 miles to the day, and then we rode up to the end of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene in Mullan. Kim, a rider from Sandpoint, overheard our discussions and asked to join us on this optional loop.  We were glad to have him, but the group broke into a speedy and not so speedy sub-groups, and Kim dropped us for the speedier riders.

Corrie and Steve at the top of Dobson Pass day 2

Day 3 Wallace, Idaho to Noxon, Montana  93.3 miles   7:07 riding time
The 5,680 ft of climbing scheduled for this day was the reason Corrie gave me just a little resistance about doing yesterday's options, and the reason no one else would join us.  However, Tom found the energy to add 7 miles giving himself a century today while Corrie and I added nothing!  I'm sure those who know us think it unusual that we'd stop with 93 miles; it shows we were tired!  Today's climbing was in the reverse direction of yesterday's optional loop.  Dobson is a fun pass from either direction; it has steep switchbacks to the top followed by an immediate drop on similar roads, and today's climb was followed by Thompson Pass, a modern sweeping road that's tougher to climb and brought to light my inadequate training for the ride.

TRC and affiliates at the top of Dobson Pass - day 3 -  Steve, Tom, Laurence, Jennifer, Corrie, and Linda

At the top of Thompson Pass- Steve, Tom, Corrie, Jennifer, Laurence, and Linda

The descent into Montana was on new pavement, less steep than the ascent, and with wide shoulders, so it was fun with little braking required despite our growing fatigue.  Then we turned onto state route 200, an unpleasant experience with too many vehicles compounded by angry red neck drivers. 

Linda, Steve, and Jennifer nearing Noxon in the thickening smoke that makes the Clark Fork behind us look like just more smoke

Jennifer pulled most of the way from lunch to Noxon setting a rapid pace in our simi-pace line.  Although Noxon has a high school, it has only one street and appears to have a population around 100.  It has a laundromat which Jennifer, the Rosetti's and I needed to use on day 3 - which would be our only laundry stop of the trip, and we were lucky enough to be its only patrons at the time. (I don't understand this- on Cycle Oregon laundry is a big deal, but we saw few signs that others did laundry on the trip- there were only 4 washers in the Noxon laundromat). The Noxon High School Juniors supposedly prepared and served our dinner, but most of the work appeared to be done by their mothers.  It was an excellent: salmon, baked potato, tasty mixed veggies, and dessert. 

the dinner line in Noxon

The smoke kept thickening, the sky reddened and darkened, and soon ash fell on us like a light dusting of winter snow.  At the evening route meeting we learned that fires would keep us from the published route to Troy, Montana and Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. There would be another meeting at 0900 the next morning, but the organizer wasn't going to call and ask that breakfast be delayed from its 0600 to 0700 or that the football team load the luggage later than the scheduled 0700.  (I suspect he was stressed by the route changes yet he remained reluctant to delegate this small chore to others).  So, we slept in just a little- up by 0545, and turned our luggage in shortly after 0615, and were in the breakfast line by 0630.

Day 4 Noxon, Montana to Sandpoint, Idaho 57.0 miles 3:55 riding time
Breakfast started about an hour late but was excellent.  The football team was not prompt at loading the luggage, so we were able to return our warm clothes to our luggage before the morning meeting and even return the tooth brushes to the luggage instead of carrying them on the bikes this day!  We learned we'd be diverting directly to Sandpoint via back roads that included about 10 miles of gravel roads.  Corrie reminded me of his vision problems, and I agreed to hold back to ride with him.  The gravel was thin, but the road was rough with some large sharp rocks sticking up in sections.  I was riding about 17 MPH in this gravel when Corrie, with vision problems, dropped me.  Soon I passed a rider changing a tire on the left side of the road, that, as I passed, thought was Tom rapidly changing his tire.  It turns out all 5 of the other TRC riders (or affiliates) rode by him without offering to help!  All I could think to do was apologize for not stopping to take his photo while changing his tire which should have been done in addition to an offer of assistance which likely wasn't needed.  He looked like he was making a video "how to change a flat in 5 minutes or less". Tom's extremely organized and thorough and seemed uncomfortable not having a spare tube with him the rest of the day.  Of course, those thoughts may have been aggravated by the knowledge of how helpful his group had been at his first flat!

Jennifer takes a break in the gravel section- just after Tom's flat

Considering highway 200 was an alternative, this route wasn't bad. Outside of the gravel sections it was excellent.  We had lunch in Clark Fork, BBQ hamburgers or chicken.  After we ate, the line got rather long but it probably would have gone better in the original location.  Flexibility is always required on organized rides in the west due to fires, and I've no complaints about how they handled the situation- except for not asking the coach to reschedule the luggage pickup and breakfast! The closer we got to Sandpoint, the less smoke we had to contend with.

The lunch line in Clark Fork, Idaho

The smoke gradually cleared as we neared Sandpoint which allowed us to use their city park on the beach as a 3 night campsite!  Linda, Jennifer, and I were soon swimming and playing on the log boom that separates the beach from the rest of the lake.


Day 5: 27.8 miles 2:57 riding time to Schweitzer and back
Since I was still tired from the dual crossing of Dobson pass and the single crossing of Thompson Pass I was happy to settle for the short optional ride up Schweitzer on this day.  Corrie and Linda took the day off the bike while the rest of us did the climb.

Steve, Tom, Jennifer, and Laurence on Schweitzer

Jennifer, Tom, Steve, and Laurence from the lodge

Tom, Laurence, Jennifer, and Steve from the end of the pavement

a photo of Jennifer at the top I like though the smoke makes it seem like an artificial background

While riding up to Schweitzer we again talked to Kim who then invited us to join him for an afternoon ride on his sailboat - a great opportunity and a great host!

Tom and Kim on the sailboat

Tom, Jennifer, Tom, Kim, Laurence, and Jon enjoy sailing

Jennifer at the helm

Thanks, Kim, for a great afternoon!

After the sailboat ride, Jennifer takes a lesson on this board

Tom has the next lesson

and the other Tom from Moscow also has a lesson

Day 6 Sandpoint to Bottle Bay, to Priest River, and return to Sandpoint
73.7 miles    5:45 riding time
The howling wind added to the noise of the nearby main line of the Northern Pacific Railroad.  Someone's rain fly was not tied down right and was especially loud.  Eventually it blew off eliminating the noise and that sleeper's supposed privacy as only mosquito netting remained to block the view in.  After she retrieved the rain fly, it was correctly replaced and was much quieter.  I won't name names, but if you have questions, ask Jennifer.

Rider services tent and others down and damaged in the night's wind storm

 It was still very windy the next morning.  Like everyone else in camp we weren't sure what we'd do as we prolonged breakfast not wanting to cancel riding while not wanting to ride in this wind.  Finally we decided to ride across the bridge, see how much we were buffeted by the wind, and maybe make the ride to Bottle Bay.  The wind on the bridge didn't buffeted us as much as we thought it would, so we headed to Bottle Bay which put us on the leeward side of the peninsula. When we reached the windward side, it was a cross wind which had died down some, so Corrie, Tom, and Jennifer decided to head to Priest River which gave us the long 73 mile option for the day.  With the promise from Corrie that he wouldn't drop me, I joined them.  More gravel.... but this section was more like hard pack which wasn't bad riding.

Tom, Jennifer, and Corrie on the road to Priest River

 Just before we reached Priest River the wind changed again (what problems for the fire fighters!), but became a Northwest wind which gave us a tailwind as we headed mostly East back to Sandpoint.  During dinner it switched again, to directly out of the North which brought the only clear deep blue skies we'd see on this week long ride.

Day 7 62.3 miles   4:18 riding time
The last day of a supported tour can be less than pleasant because I'm never happy to see a ride end combined the rush everyone gets in to get home, but no one rushed this day.  Winds were fairly calm but remained out of the north which gave us a mild tail wind at first; the wind died by lunch which was in Spirit Lake.  We kept a semi-pace line back to Coeur d'Alene where no finish line awaited us.  Laurence, Corrie, and Linda left while Tom, Jennifer, and I went to the beach for a final swim.

Linda, Tom, Jennifer, Corrie, Steve, and Laurence at the Coeur d'Alene finish

 
Here's the rest of the photos

 Ride Idaho compared to other supported rides
The per day cost of $126.43 including parking, is a little lower than most supported tours. The organization and structure of Ride Idaho is pretty loosy goosey.  On day one the volunteers knew nothing- they hadn't read the website and apparently had no orientation meeting.  They could not tell us how long we could park in the lot behind McEuen Park while unloading, if the ride times were really in Mountain Time as the web site had clearly proclaimed, or anything else.  It almost seemed a rider had to talk to Earl, the chief, in order to get the straight story on almost anything.  I didn't like the inflexible schedule that virtually required turning in luggage before breakfast- meaning we couldn't wear warm clothes to breakfast, come back, brush the teeth, and then turn in the luggage with the warm clothes and tooth brush- and that seems so easy to fix!  They made the right calls on rerouting us away from fires, but a phone call to the coach would have let us sleep in after the hardest riding day of the tour while awaiting that 0900 meeting!  Earl was doubtless taxed revising the route and talking to sheriff, county reps, Forest Service people and others, so he didn't want to borrow someone's land line for that call to the coach which should have been delegated to one of his capable staff.  Also, a thumbs down on the Wallace and Sandpoint bucks- in lieu of a provided meal.  Some places wouldn't let you use them for tips, some wouldn't let you combine them with use of a credit card (if you exceeded your meal allowance), and some refused to take them.

Mechanical Support seem excellent.  On day two, we discovered that Linda's 16 straight spoke racing wheel set was toast.  Much to my surprise the mechanics had a set of wheels to rent her, saving her vacation!

In summary the ride was good, the food good, the break and snacks adequate, and the volunteers helpful and always pleasant if not knowledgeable enough.  I'd do it again based on the route they choose. Of course, riding is always more fun with friends, so bring your riding buddies like the 5 others from Twin Riders Cyclists who made it even better!

Happy cycling for fun, fitness, and transportation!


Steve