We woke up to blue skies again this morning, but we weren’t to be fooled by that again!
We got a pretty early start today. We were looking forward to a fairly flat 50 mile to Newport along the Pend Oreille River (pronounced Ponderay). The weather started mostly sunny, but a cold wind. The profile was pretty flat which was fantastic after all of the climbing over the last 5 days.
About 11:00 we stopped for a roadside lunch. My lunches are typically peanut butter and jam on a bagel. We had an overlook of a large field adjacent to the river. And we saw a moose crossing the field. That was great since Natalie wanted to see some wildlife besides deer (we also saw a wild turkey with a baby chick this morning too).
Later that afternoon, we ran into the group that had helped us yesterday. They were 3 men hand cycling across the country. Two were vets and the other had most likely suffered a non military spinal cord injury. They were flying along on the flats but understandably were slow on the climbing sections. They had family support to carry gear and help with the inevitable flat tire and what not. They were a great group of fellow cyclists and that is how they wanted to be thought of. But inspirational to me. They are talking about Fairbanks to La Paz next year. I will try to get their blog info so we can follow them too.
Back to business now, we pulled into Newport before 3:00. We got our tents set up, I had a few long hot shower and bought some food at the Safeway. And guess what? It started raining! Not bad though.
So far, I estimate that I have pedaled about 650-660 miles. All across the state of Washington. But that changes tomorrow.
Great posts – sorry about the rain and hail yesterday – may you have blue skies for the next week (or more)
Nice scenery and great detail- thanks for bringing us along for the ride. Bet its nice to have a riding partner to keep you company while you drag your 80 lb beast along too!