Start: 6:30

Finish: 4:05

Saddle time: 6:27

Ascent:  1,009 feet

Descent:  960 feet

Miles: 87.5

Total Miles: 511.2

Highlight: Massive second breakfast in Newport on the banks of the Pend Oreille river

Lowlight: Realizing I missed a turn almost 10 miles ago requiring me to double back

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

I heard good things about Sandpoint, Idaho from some westbound cyclists who took a rest day there.  It’s too soon for me to take another rest day so I booked a hotel in town so I can explore. The ride is only about 60 miles and it’s my first flat day since day 1.  I should make good time.  I decided to leave early, partly to practice my early morning starts which will be necessary as the weather gets insanely hot next week and it also gives me more time to explore the town.

The early morning ride was fantastic with a gentle breeze keeping me cool along with flat roads that made me feel like I was flying.  I continued to follow the river into Newport and eventually on in to Sandpoint.  The river spans a wide area of this region and connects on up into Canada.  There are a lot of old pylons in the water suggesting this was once a major transportation channel but that time ended long ago. 

I stopped at a small church along the way to take a picture and a guy came up to me asking about my trip, said he was into cycling and dreams about doing this someday. This type of conversation happens almost daily.  Typically it’s a slightly overweight middle aged man who starts the conversation something like this:  “well you can’t tell by looking at me but I am (or used to be) into cycling…”.

I made it in to Newport at the perfect time for second breakfast, too late for the breakfast crowd and tool early for lunch plus a restaurant on the banks of the river looked really inviting.   I ordered an “ultimate stacker” with hash browns, biscuits, eggs, sausage, gravy, and cheese.  Ate all of it and felt like I could eat more. In normal life I would feel sick for the next few hours.  Filling the tank turned out to be a good idea because I soon made a huge mistake adding on 20 miles and over two hours of riding.

I stayed at the restaurant for over an hour, working on my laptop, editing pictures and getting out yesterdays Instagram.  I didn’t want to get to Sandpoint too early, it was only about 30 miles away and still before 11:00.

I was thinking back about my time in Washington, took me 8 days of riding to cross the state.  Road conditions were quite good even though I complained a lot about the chip sealed roads but I must say the roads were in excellent condition, very few potholes. Washington drivers were fantastic, for the most part.  You get the occasional AIP (asshole in a pickup) but most drivers would move over into the other lane given the opportunity.  I must say, great state.

One the way out of town I stopped at the Idaho state sign to take a picture then continued to ride on down the road. I soon hit an unexpected steep and long hill, not the passes I have been climbing but a good several hundred foot elevation climb.  Once to the top I stopped for water when a pickup came out of a dusty side road.  The passenger yelled out to me “do you have enough water?”.  I just filled up in town so I was fine.  He warned me the road is hot and it’s a good ten miles to the next town.  I almost said I’m heading to Sandpoint but just said thank you instead.  Wish I did because he would have told me I’m heading in the wrong direction.

I think part of the reason I made this mistake was my mind was pondering rural internet.  The problems I have keeping this blog, Instagram and my photos up to date is not just time but bandwidth.  My internet connections have been terrible and even when connected everything takes a long time.  I’m not just talking about vast stretches of open space, in town cellular internet is often poor.  At one point the connection icon on my iPhone said E instead of 3G, 4G, or LTE.  E stands for EDGE, a network technology that dates back to the early 2000’s.  Totally useless for almost anything you would want to do online.  I haven’t seen this slow speed in a very long time.  With the world moving online these people might as well live in the developing world.  Actually it’s worse than that. I had better cellular data a decade ago in rural southeast Asia. 

About an hour later I stopped to check my map but couldn’t find the blue dot, had to zoom out a lot.  Turns out I missed a turn at the bottom of the hill I climbed early, going about 10 miles in the wrong direction.  The only option was to backtrack adding about 20 miles and over 2 hours to my ride.  So much for getting to Sandpoint early to explore.

I realized today that 60 miles or so is a good ride for me.  I still feel strong at that point and I think I recover well for the next day.  At 5 hours of saddle time I’m looking forward to getting off the bike.  When I hit 6 hours I’m ready to be done. I’ll see how this works out once I get out of the mountains but it may effect my game plan for how long this trip will take.

The road into Sandpoint crosses a bridge that must be about a mile long.  They built a new bridge right next to the old one with the old bridge serving as pedestrian and bike traffic.  It reminded me of the Florida keys.

The hotel was centrally located so I had easy access to the main downtown area which is really only a few blocks.  I walked around a bit, visited a few breweries then was completely exhausted by 8:30, ready for bed.  Today unexpectedly was my longest mileage day yet.