Day 9 (83 miles)
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2008
1
10
36
Trip End
Aug 09, 2008
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Noxon,
Montana,
United States
Monday, June 23, 2008
the first stretch in idaho really wasn't too different from what we'd been seeing in eastern washington. we continued following the pend oreille river for a good part of the morning on our way to sand point. one interesting thing we did find were some artificial nesting habitats for ospreys. the nests were basically wooden platforms perched upon telephone poles near a lake, and they were all full of osprey families.
the approach to sand point is stunning. the road turns a corner and suddenly there's a broad lake flanked with snow-topped mountains with two bridges cutting across--one for autos and one for bikes and pedestrians. interestingly enough, it seemed like the bike bridge was actually a two lane auto bridge that was probably obsoleted by the four lane bridge next to it. there were even a few sets of benches and potted plants along the bridge to sit and gaze out across the water.
we spent quite a lot of time in sand point... it's a moderately-sized town, and lately we'd been mostly hanging out in smaller places. we first dined in a cute little pie shop called panhandler's pie. they had a great lunch special that combined half a sandwich, a cup of soup, and a slice of pie for a really good price.
osprey nest
perfect biking food! then we dropped in on a couple of bike shops to try to find some spare tubes. when fixing my flat tire the day before, julie and i learned that we didn't have the right tubes with us. neither of us knew that we had special wheels that required a long-stemmed tube, so we had bought the more ubiquitous type.after sand point, the road took us along lake pend oreille for many miles. we would alternatingly descend and ascend the hills on the side of the lake and occasionally find a great vantage point for a photo. we also saw one of the most enormous birds that i've ever seen. my dad the bird expert told me it was a golden eagle, but it might as well have been a pterodactyl it was so large.
later in clark fork, we stopped for a snack in front of the local bike shop. it was a pretty small town, and within a few minutes, the owner drove up. someone had called him up and let him know that there were some biker folks sitting outside his store. he ran a pretty small shop and didn't carry any of the stuff we needed, but we talked for a while. one of the things he told us was that we wouldn't see a sign that says "welcome to montana" because our route took us along some back roads. however, we would know when we were in montana because the pavement would suddenly get worse.
true to the bike owner's prognostication, suddenly the road became much rougher and more pothole-laden. there were even a couple dicey stretches where we were going downhill or around curves and the road would turn to gravel. i was thankful that i never wiped out because i knew i came close a handful of times. that particular stretch of road was quite scenic, though. the cows along that stretch of road have no idea how lucky they are to have such a backdrop to gaze upon while they chew their cud.
when we crossed into montana, not only were we crossing another state line, but we had our first time zone transition, making the next early morning alarm clock a little more painful, but also giving us the super-long evenings again. our camp site was in Cabinet Gorge at the most amazing RV park in the history of the universe. there was an expansive lawn for pitching tents, laundry, hot showers, and even free wi-fi. it set a pretty high campsite standard... during the night we had our first rain as the sky suddenly let loose thunderstorms at 2 am, but after an hour, the sky cleared up again and we were greeted with clear blue skies in the morning.
