July 4, 2024
To Harrison, ID
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I wasn't looking forward to today at all. Even the bicycle riders said Highway 97 was difficult riding, climbing without a shoulder, and high traffic. Plus, it's the 4th of July. My only hope was that people were already where they wanted to be and that they would stay put.
We looked at several variations of the route. There was the interstate shortcut - but you have to lift your bike over the squashed down chainlink fence. I didn't think I could manage my bike alone. There was the paved Burma Road, and also a dirt section on South Ashbury Road.
In the end, we sampled all of the above. I missed my turn onto the dirt section under the interstate. I happened to be right at the squashed down fence as a family walked by. The two men lifted my bike over. All I did was supervise. Hurray for not doing the dirt hike a bike and an unnecessary climb. I think the interstate section lasted barely a mile. I wasn't on 97 long before the first big climb started. There was a little traffic, but not near what I expected. The best part was only a handful of trucks pulling boats/toys. Jacinto felt like he saw more traffic than I did. That prompted him to take Burma Road. He didn't feel it had any less traffic than 97. Later, the B&B owner said the locals take Burma Road as a shortcut, it saves ten minutes on the drive. No wonder he felt it had the same amount of traffic!
Overall, I was pleased with the day. Traffic was slightly heavy to about the store and Burma Road. After that, it really drops off. There was no point where I felt I had to spend as much time watching my rearview mirror as watching the road in front of me. This was better than 3A heading into Crawford Bay. That one surprised me for traffic. It was definitely better than 141 into Ovando.
There were plenty of lake views, and things to see. All sorts of homes, boat launches, people out enjoying the day. I've never seen so many people dressed in red, white, and blue. Surely we've been in towns during the 4th of July holiday before?
I did have one negative situation. A white sedan passed me when there wasn't any other traffic around. The passenger yelled out the window to 'get the f*** on the bike bike, etc.' - he was impressive in the number of times he could work the F word into his rant as the car passed. Whatever. The was no bike path anywhere around at the moment.
I almost convinced myself that I like undulating roads. I definitely like the Rohloff hub. I've only used all of the gears once on this tour. That was on the climb between Crawford Bay and the ferry. My bike has been performing well. Jacinto said he didn't notice any noise at all today from his bottom bracket. He said he tried to ride sitting down, but he 'had' to stand up once he got on Highway 97.
Jacinto's second diversion was the dirt Asbury Road . The B&B owner said taking Asbury Road saves 20 minutes driving, but isn't as popular because it's dirt. Jacinto saw one car on that road. He recommends it strongly. Burma Road he said had too much traffic and a big climb. On Asbury, it had a big switchback down hill that had loose gravel in the turns, so he walked two turns, but they weren't far.
Coming into town, 97 went over the top of the paved bike path, but there was no way to get on it. I passed the B&B and went into town, hoping for food. Town was packed! I parked at the store. There was live music across the street in the park. There were also two tents set up selling drinks/beer. I was hoping for a food vendor, but I couldn't see anyone. The general store advertised chili dogs outside. That sounded fine. They didn't have any today. I ended up with a soft serve ice cream. I sat outside on the bumper of a trailer, next to my bike.
I headed back to the B&B. It was at the beginning of town. Things were very quiet back there. I went in the B&B and found the envelope with my name on it with instructions inside. I walked upstairs and checked out the room. There were directions to put the bikes in the garage. It had an area partitioned off and a basket of towels to clean the bikes. I cleaned my chain. Then I debated carrying the whole panniers up, or just the items I needed. I went with just items. I took off my bike shoes and helmet, leaving them by the bike. There's no need to carry them upstairs.
I had hardly gotten my stuff upstairs when I could see on Strava that Jacinto was passing by. Was he passing on purpose? Or did he not see the B&B? I went downstairs, and saw him pass back by. I yelled, and he turned up the street. Jacinto wanted to bring his four panniers upstairs. He said he had stuff everywhere, just bring them all. He also said we'd done so much grocery shopping that his panniers were completely full and we needed to get eating!
Now we have washed our clothes and showered. Our clothes are downstairs in the sun. We sat downstairs and shared an apple with peanut butter. The owner came in and said with much relief in her voice that she was happy we made it, she was very concerned about us riding 97. I would expect she gets quite a few bicycle riders, with the trail to Plumber passing through. I guess not so many come from Coeur d'Alene?
I can hear Jacinto's stomach growling. We had better go eat. It sounds like One Shot Charlie's is the only game in town. The bike shop also has food. ??? Let's see when we get there what's available.
Later - We ate on the front deck at Two Shot Charlie’s. We got a table in the shade. Lucky us. It was a great spot to watch the 4th of July doings in the park. There was a band playing who had an attractive but not very talented female lead singer.
Jacinto observed that we were at the perfect time of day, when people were happy but hadn’t turned into obnoxious drunks yet. Charlie’s sells buckets - which are six drinks mixed all together in a bucket with giant straws. We saw a couple of those. On man was going around with a box of White Claws, trying to sell them for $5. Each. There were no takers. The two policeman walking around ignored him
After we finished our lackluster meal, we sat in the park and people watched while listening to the band. Finally our rear ends turned numb and we walked back to the B&B.
We talked to a man who said he and his wife retired six weeks ago and they are taking their first trip. They have e bikes and drive to a different place each day and then take a 30 mile ride.
Sandy, the proprietor, came in and we asked her about an alternative route that would let us ride ten miles of the path heading south. It would dump us onto Highway 5. She thought that was a good route, if we could survive 97, we could ride anything. It added four miles to the day, for our ten miles of path. It seems odd than none of the mapping programs suggests this route. They all took the road along the east side of the lake.
Sandy said 90% of her patrons are here to bicycle. Yet breakfast isn’t until 9 AM. A box breakfast is a choi e, but damned if I don’t want the hot breakfast. I hope I don’t pay for that later when the day heats up.
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Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 1,113 miles (1,791 km)
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