Bonners Ferry, ID - Yahk, BC - British Columbia 2019

July 11, 2019

Bonners Ferry, ID - Yahk, BC

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The plan was a 7:30 breakfast. I was still in bed, wishing I were asleep, when Jim texted to say how about breakfast at 7. I hurried around and made it! Jacinto had plenty of leftovers. He came to breakfast just for the company. Service was just as slow as the night before. They did a better job with breakfast than dinner. I've had only one really good meal this trip, at the Texas Roadhouse. Jacinto says to wait until we start riding harder days and then my food will taste better.

The three of us were out the door at 8:30. We weren't a couple of blocks down the street when we hit road construction. They were repaving one side of the road, so it was down to one lane each way. Everyone was polite and we made it through. As soon as the construction finished, we crossed the bridge and started the 600 foot climb away from Bonners Ferry. This was the first good climb of the trip, lasting a couple of miles.

I saw a man on a Bacchetta bike going the opposite direction. We both waved, but kept going. He looked like a local.

Today we had a dirt road to get away from the traffic. We had ten miles of pavement before taking the left onto Moyie River Road. The man at the outfitting store said it was a good surface the entire way . . . well, it's possible he was talking about Meadow Creek Road, CR 34. We were optimistic as we started out. On occasion there was loose gravel that we didn't appreciate. Little did we know what was in front of us. At mile 14 I remember looking at the computer, thinking this has been fun, now where is the pavement? I asked Genny how soon we got back to pavement. I was no more than unappreciative of the road surface than there was a big sign that said 'county maintenance ends'. There went the road surface. Look at the photos below. The road had small rollers. We couldn't get traction on the inclines and didn't dare try and ride the downhills with the big rocks.

We crossed railroad tracks multiple times. We could hear a train approaching in the distance. I think the conductor could see our blinking tail lights, because he blew his whistle. In the end we had three miles of occasional hike a bike and lots of weaving back and forth across the road. We were bemoaning our status. But we agreed we had gone too far to go back. After one of our pushing sessions, we had stopped to speculate again on how soon the road would improve. Wait. What was that? It sounds like an engine. Here came a man on an ATV. We chatted with him awhile, asking how much further to pavement. He said it was quite some distance, but we were past the bad road surface. If we can at least ride the bikes . . . . We had no more than gotten around the corner when Moyie River Road merged with CR 34 and it turned to pavement. Yay! I like pavement. Especially country pavement. This was mile 18. Mile 26 was a restaurant, according to Jim's detailed notes.

If Jim hadn't doubled back, I would have gone right past the restaurant. It wasn't obvious at all. It's a lodge with a big restaurant and bar. But it's up on the hillside and you have to know it's there. Service was real slow. Genny and I wandered around the property, taking photos. Genny and I both had prime rib sandwiches. They were good. We ordered dessert, mostly because it had huckleberry sauce. In my opinion, it was strange cheesecake. There wasn't a crust. But the cheesecake was sort of lumpy, with a few cottage cheese like chunks and not very sweet.

While we waited, Jim and I loaded photos to the journal. I checked RWGPS and saw that we continued to climb. Oh, boy. Climbing on a full stomach. I hope I didn't end up eating my lunch twice from the effort. We were lucky, the grade was gradual.

Mile 32 was the border. Town was mile 40. Although we seemed to be on the road all day long, breaking it into small chunks like that made the ride go quickly.

We bought apples and bananas last night, so we would have fresh fruit in Yahk. It didn't occur to me until this morning that perhaps I couldn't take fruit across the border. Damn. I ate one banana during the day and hoped I wouldn't be questioned at the border. They had only one lane open. Crossing the Mexican border there is a walking lane and we got into that with bikes. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, there is no walking lane. Only one lane was open. We got in line. It moved slowly. When we got up to the front, we handed in all of our passports. The female agent was brusque in asking the typical questions - where are you coming from, where are you going, what route will you follow back, do we have a vehicle following us. Her manner didn't make it seem that she was personally interested in our trip. She asked about alcohol, tobacco, guns, and knives. She didn't ask about fruit. I was safe. She did tell me to sign my passport. Ooops. That was our border crossing. Let's see how it goes on the way back.

We had eight short miles to town. Jim and Genny out paced me when I stopped for a couple of photos. But there they were stopped ahead talking to another touring cyclist. Kevin from Alberta had three weeks off work and didn't seem to have firm plans. Loosely, he was headed for the hot springs in Idaho.

My stomach was still uncomfortably full. My mouth felt like I needed a drink of water, but my stomach seemed ready to burst. It's a good thing we were almost to town.

Yahk is spread out down the highway. There were a number of closed or for sale buildings. We were hoping for an open restaurant, but it was closed. Two Scoop Steve's ice cream store was open.

We had just pulled up to the motel when Jacinto showed up. The ATV guy saw him right at the bottom of Moyie River Road and told him we were walking and to try Meadow Creek Road. Jacinto said it was very nice pavement and what wasn't paved was hard packed dirt. He said perhaps a couple of miles of hard packed dirt. That's definitely the way to go. He saw a few cars. We didn't see any at all, except for the ATV guy, until we got up by the restaurant.

I took a couple of phone calls while everyone else walked to the stores and checked out the dinner choices. Jim and Genny got frozen burritos. We sat around and talked for a long time. Finally Jacinto got me to walk down to the furtherest gas station because it had the biggest choice. Actually, Genny said I needed to go there, because the closest gas station didn't have a good selection. You know how I don't like exercising after my exercise. I wanted Jacinto to buy me something, but the last time we were in Twin Lakes he bought me canned soup instead of canned chili. That's a big problem - it smelled like cat food and I wouldn't eat more than a few mouthfuls and he wasn't happy about wasting the money. But he wouldn't eat it either. So now I had to get my own food. I didn't whine, but I wanted to. I still needed to finish this journal and instead I had to walk all the way to the gas station.

We have tentative plans to depart at 8:30 in the morning. Breakfast is in the room, oatmeal for me. It's 9 PM and I still haven't eaten yet . . . .