From West to Midwest

Monday 6/26 

Biked to Louisville to stay with my cousin Lee for the evening.  My back tire had again developed a slow leak, so I stopped in a bike shop on the way out of Boulder to pump up the tire enough to make it to Lee's place.  Then I stopped into LaMar's Donuts to pump myself up a little.

Had a fine pizza dinner with Lee and Jeffrey, accompanied by the A&W diet root beer that Lee had in the fridge when I arrived.   Very thoughtful!

6/26 - 6/28

Biked up to Jeannot's Patisserie & Bistro to pick up breakfast.  Their croissants are quite good!  Then, while Lee turned her attention to home repairs, I turned back to bicycle maintainence.

The tire leak turned out to be from the improvised repair done in the Rawlins Library.  Normally to cover the rough spot on the inside wall of the tire, I would've used a $1 bill, but the smallest bill I had in Rawlins at the time was a 20, so I used a piece of card stock that Amelia in the Rawlins library had provided.  That turned out to have disintegrated, causing a new slow leak.

Took off for dinner with Tamara, the regional coordinator for AFS at the Cherry Cricket  , a burger joint in Denver.

Dinner with Tamara Jazbec (AFS).

Denver's Cherry Creek Trail - route to/from dinner 

Got to Denver's Union Station around 8:30.  Train to Iowa didn't show up until around 10:30, and finally left the station around 11:30 (7:30 was the scheduled departure).  I had booked a roomette so I was able to sleep, but kept waking up when the train lurched from side to side.  

Finally arrived in Mt. Pleasant Iowa around 3:40 PM.  I had arranged to have dinner with friends in Iowa City, a 6 hour bike ride from Mt. Pleasant... so I had to take a cab to get there.

6/29

Had breakfast at The Encounter, a nice little cafe 2 doors down from my hotel in downtown Iowa City, run by Mennonites.  Since rain was forecast for most of the afternoon, I decided that instead of attempting the 80 mile ride to Clinton, I opted for a 30 mile bike ride to the Cedar Rapids airport and rented a car to drive to Clinton.  

6/30

After an uneventful 70-mile ride to Oregon, IL, I settled into the PaddleWheel Inn.

7/1

Another long day - riding 65 miles to Janesville.  Got rained on intermittently in the afternoon.

7/2

A 70 mile ride that included:

East Troy - Ended up riding down Main Street, which was their 4th of July parade route.  Had a great pulled pork sandwich at LD's Barbeque .  The line was long, but it moved fast. 

Leon's Frozen Custard in Milwaukee - Butter pecan is to die for!

Settled into the Hilton garden Inn downtown, which is a modern hotel in a restored old building.

7/3

Got up at 4AM to catch the 6AM Lake Express ferry to Muskegon.  

I'm now on East coast time!  

Then rode up to Big Rapids, another 70 mile day.  It's laundry day, and Quality Inn has a guest laundry, but the front desk had no quarters and no laundry soap... so I got quarters at the "Party Store" (that's what they call liquor/convenience stores in Michigan), then biked across town to get soap at the Dollar Tree, and dinner at Arby's.   Who knew they have a good Reuben sandwich?

7/4

Headed out after the hotel breakfast to find that I had another flat.  This one was caused by yet another piece of wire .   The lady at the front desk lent me a pair of tweezers so I could pull it out.  I then proceeded to Clare, stopped into Cops and Donuts for a sticky bun, then crashed at the Best Western.  

My plan to cross into Sarnia, Ontario over the Bluewater bridge has been thwarted.  A few days ago I emailed the bridge authority to make sure that they were still providing bike transport (as they had in my 3 prior trips) over the bridge.  They replied today that they no longer do that and suggested that I take a taxi.  

I'll be spending some time later today figuring out what to do about that.  It's either a taxi from Port Huron, or a 68 mile ride down to the Walpole Algonac Ferry, followed by 8 miles to Wallaceburg, or find a taxi that will take me across.

Walden to Fort Collins: The Big Drop

 Sat. 6/24 :  Moderate climb, big drop

30 mi. 2300 ft climb to Cameron Pass, followed by 68 mile 5400 ft drop.  
Sure, Google... it's "Mostly Flat"

Moose at rest stop about 4 miles from Cameron Pass

La Poudre River

Hit with really bad allergies about 10 miles from Fort Collins.  The guy at the Loaf n Jug (gas station/convenience store) says its from "rabbit bush" blooming.

After a long ride down the  mountain, I was hungry... having only had a couple of candy bars in lieu of lunch, so...  I found Bistro Nautile

Scallop appetizer, in light curry cream.

Colorado Spring Lamb Chops with Green Lentil etc.

 Sun. 6/25 :  

This was the day I was supposed to drive down to Pueblo to visit an friend from Allentown who moved to CO, ... but she came down with a bad cold, so we cancelled.   Instead I had breakfast with Debby, who is my dad's stepsister's daughter, making me her step-cousin. 

Then I spent a good part of the afternoon in the Longmont library, updating my ride plan due to other unforseen changes.  Then I biked down to Boulder and had dinner at Osaka.

Pork Belly Okonomiyaki

 

Bolder WY to Walden, CO - Rain and I-80

Mon 6/19 : Boulder to Rock Springs

A long (90 mi)  hard ride (1700 ft climb), some headwinds and some rain.  The good news is that there was about midway was the Farson Mercantile , serving sandwiches and ice cream!

Rock Springs has a population of 22,000 and is on I-80 .  By the time I got there, I was ready for dinner.  Nearby is Sapporo, a teppanyaki restaurant.  

My dinner companions

Tue 6/20 : Rock Springs to Wamsutter: I-80

72 miles of freeway.  Shoulder was really nice sometimes, but had some areas where it was cut up and gravelly.  Wamsutter is a town without much going for it.  There 1 restaurant, 2 motels, and a Love's Travel Center (truck stop) .  My dinner was a 5" pizza that was cold in the middle.  I was glad to get out of there in the morning.

Wed 6/21 : Wamsutter to Rawlins: I-80

only 40 miles to Rawlins.  The continental divide is about 6 mi west of town.

Was able to get there before 1PM for lunch at Anong 

Noodles with Yellow Curry & Shrimp

Coming out of the restaurant, I discovered my rear tire was flat.  There's no bike shop in Rawlins, so I went to the Carbon County Public Library, which is only a couple of blocks from the restaurant... I was going there anyway to use their computers...   The flat tire was the result of truck tire shrapnel from the I-80 shoulder.  There's a first aid center in the same municipal building that the library is in, and they leant me some tweasers so I could pull the little metal wire out of the tire before patching the tube. 

Thanks to Amelia and the rest of the Library staff for letting me fix my flat inside the building!!

After checking into the hotel, I went up to the Peppermill Bar & Grill for a really good BBQ brisket dinner.  Included 2 sides.  Bill was $13.  Can't beat that.

Thurs 6/22 : Rawlins to Encampment

I got to Penny's Diner at about 7:15.   The place was empty except for the waitress, who told me that they were closed, because the cook didn't show up for work.

Not wanting to wait around for the Peppermill to open at 8, I bought a few donuts at the supermarket across the street, and went to McDonalds for coffee and a table before heading back out on I-80 for 20 miles to the Walcott exit to then head south on WY 130 towards Saratoga.  

3 young pronghorn females on the run 

After lunch, I went to the Saratoga Hobo Hot Springs, which is on the Platte river, and is open 24/7. 

106.5 °.  The other pool was even hotter!

Same pool, better subject and better view.

After ice cream, started out for the last 20 miles towards Encampment seeing dark grey skies.  I got to the southern edge of town and felt the first few raindrops, so I ducked into a supermarket while the deluge progressed for the next 1/2 hour ... even with hail coming down for the last 5 minutes.

After it cleared, I resumed heading south.

The town I stayed in Thurs. night

Next to my hotel was The Divide  ,  A surprisingly good restaurant.  The kind of thing you don't expect to find in a town this small.

Bison and huckleberry sausage fettucine

 Caramel bread pudding with Chantilly cream

Fri. 6/23 : Headwinds to Walden

Hard ride with 20 mph headwinds most of the way to Walden.  A 50 mile, 2000 ft elevation ride that took 6 hours.  Reward was a fine BBQ lunch at All Smoked up BBQ.  
Followed by a few hours in the local library to work on the blog etc ....

Walden is at 8100 ft elevation.  Tomorrow's ride starts with a 2300 ft climb to Cameron Pass @
10,300 ft. After that, the next 68 miles drops 5200 ft into Fort Collins.

Idaho Falls to Boulder Wyoming

Fri 6/16 :  To Swan Valley 

Rain in the forecast for most of the day, so decided to get a taxi..  

Swan Valley

Nathan showed up around noon with his wife and 1-year-old daughter in the back seat and drove me to the Little Moose, which is a bar-restaurant with 6 motel rooms.   Since the weather was OK when we got there, I biked up to Swan Valley Roadhouse for a late lunch.

Surprisingly good Philly Cheesesteak (no cheese)

Fri 6/17 : To Bondurant Ranch B&B

A 75 mile ride through beautiful valleys beside rushing rivers south of Jackson, WY to the 
Marabrit Ranch B&B at the south end of the Bondurant valley.  The house belongs to Cynthia, who is from Trexlertown, PA, which is about 5 miles from where I grew up... so we had a lot to talk about!

In addition to her day job, planning hydro storage projects, she produces and sells cheese, butter, milk and eggs locally.   Breakfast on Saturday morning was particularly good, as everything was fresh and homemade!

Fri 6/18 : Rainy ride to Boulder

The first 10 miles are all uphill (1100 ft) to Rim Station.  

Since it was starting to rain, I pulled over for an early lunch.  The rain kept going for the next hour, but fortunately, they had StarLink internet service, so I hung out waiting for the rain to stop.   It didn't, so the guy at the front offered me a big trash bag...

Trash bag selfie on the way to Boulder 

Fri 6/19 : Waiting for the rain to stop

before heading out to Rock Springs, an 85 mile ride against a forecast 20MPH headwind.  This will likely be a hitchhiking day. 

Challis to Idaho Falls

Tue. 6/13 :  Challis to Mackay

woke's not here!!

The weather is not cooperating, so I tried to find a lightweight poncho.  The local grocery store had a shelf tag but they were sold out, so I got a large trash bag from Stinky's convenience store and cut out some holes for arms & head and set out for Mackay.   

A little weather on the horizon

Climbing through the canyon.

The rest of the ride was mostly downhill, but made more difficult by 12 mph headwinds.

Wed. 6/14 :  Mackay to Arco

 An easy 30 mile ride to Arco

Arco, known as the first town in the world to be powered by Nuclear. 

The power plant is about 20 miles south of the town, and is now a museum.

The world's first Nuclear Power plant

After lunch at Pickle's Place spent most of the rest of the afternoon at the Arco library using their computer.  Then, went back to  Lost River motel, where I crashed for a few hours.  

Lost River Motel - in technicolor!

Thu. 6/15 :  Arco to Idaho Falls

 At last, a real city!  Having worn out my bike seat, I bought a new one from Dave's Bike Shop.

 It's called Idaho Falls for a reason.

My hotel is under construction: Quality Inn is changing to a Comfort Inn.

Missoula and points south

 Sat. 6/9 :  Missoula

Woke up early, but it was raining... so after a delay of about 45 min, set out for an easy 39 mile ride to Missoula.  

First stop was the Bicycle Hangar to have the tire I ordered from Amazon put on the back wheel, and have the new tire I got in Spokane put on the front.  Eric did the job efficiently and so far, it looks like my tire woes have been solved.

The rest of the day was spent with my cousin Bert and his family, which is where I stayed on Friday night.  

Sun. 6/10 :  Ride to Darby - 64 mi, 1000 ft

After breakfast with Bert and a family history discussion with his mom, Florence (my mother's first cousin, who is now 97 years old!!), I headed south along US 93 to Darby.  Most of the way was on the Bitterroot Bicycle path.  Stopped for Strawberry pie at Glen's Cafe in Florence, about 20 mi. south of Missoula.  A very homey place just off of US 93

I like pie!!

Sun. 6/11 :  Ride to Salmon - 78 mi, 3500 ft

The first 32 miles are all uphill. At the summit, there's a rest stop that straddles the Montana Idaho border.  For the last few miles the sky was dark, and there was a lot of lightning and thunder.  When I was about 200 ft. from the summit rest  stop, the rain started.  After I arrived, 3 more guys on bicycles, who were doing a race across the US, arrived. They headed back out  in the rain after about 1/2 hour. 

I waited about an hour, and the rain was still coming down, so I started asking guys who had trucks who were heading south for a ride towards Salmon.   Dan, who is with the US Dept. of fish and wildlife, gave me a ride down the mountain to Salmon.  I was sad to have worked so hard to climb the 3500 ft up and not be able to enjoy the ride down. but I was grateful to be in a warm truck.  

My motel in Salmon - The Sacajawea Inn, was a dump  Every screen was torn, so not possible to open windows. Wifi not working.  etc.

Mon. 6/12 :  Salmon to Challis - 60 mi, 1400 ft

Moderate but steady climb along the Salmon River, which was pretty full.   

Was able to get a minor stampede going along the way.  It was way cool.

Crossing Washington into my own private Idaho then onward into Montana

Sun. 6/4
Another Flat on the back tire, in the same place as the one on thefirst day.  I found this as I was riding out of the hotel.  Took about 45 min to fix back in the room.  This time, I decided to also put a patch on the tire side to prevent the rough spot from piercing the tube again.  This fix lasted all of 30 hours.    

After a pleasant stop for breakfast at Cloudview Kitchen in Soap Lake, The ride to Wilbur proceeds around the lake, and then up a steep uphill :  

"Mostly flat"?  good call, Google maps!!
 

View of Blue Lake from the ascent on WA 17

The view from the rest stop at the top 

Stopped at Doxie's Diner for dinner then crashed for the evening.

Mon. 6/5

Rode about 30 miles to Davenport, and then got another flat.  Same spot, same tire.  I had already ordered a Schwalbe Marathon tire from Amazon to be delivered to a bike shop in Missoula by Jun 9, but with all these flats, I might not make it there.

So... I decided to hitchhike to Spokane to buy something to ride on to get me to Missoula.  Sue, a nice lady about my age, who lives in Davenport, drove me to Spoke 'N Sport in Spokane (clever name) .

Tue. 6/6

Had a nice breakfast in Spokane Valley at Little Euro Cafe.  

Danish Aebelskivers sampler

After a stop at the Safeway to stock up on California Peaches and Cherries, I continued towards Harrison, my first overnight on the Trail of the Couer d'Alenes.

The trail runs a total of 73 miles and is paved.  Getting to it from Spokane involves about 2 miles on a gravel road... not fun, but not impossible.  I joined the trail at about mile 10.

State line about 11 mi before getting on the trail

bike bridge over Chatcolet Lake.

 

Impressed with the bike trail... but then, ran over a ridge in the pavement about 1 mile from town.  These ridges are caused by tree roots pushing up the pavement.   About 1/2 mile flag tire.

I walked into the tiny town of Harrison, and discovered Cycle Haus Bikes and Brews.  

I helped the young kid who was the service tech on duty change the tire.  Could not find any damage to the brand new tire I bought in Spokane, so I took the old tube back to the B&B for autopsy, and discovered the valve stem had a leak, and there was also a pinch flat about 150 deg from the valve.

Thu 6/7  

The next morning, I headed out for Saltese MT .  Stopped for lunch in Wallace, ID where I thought a lot about Pat Farris, who is from there.   From there, rode to the end of the Trail to Mullan, then got on I-90 to climb to Lookout Pass, which is also the Montana border. 

Lookout Pass

Welcome to Montana

Mangold's motel

Finally got to Mangolds General Store and Motel in Saltese, in time to check in, and went down to the Montana Bar for dinner.

Fri 6/8 

All day, riding on I-90.  It's a little noisy, but the shoulder is wide.  One downside is that some stretches of the road have rumble strips carved in the concrete across the entire shoulder, about every 30 feet.  Other sections just have the rumble strips about 6 in. wide along the left edge of the shoulder, allowing a bike rider to avoid the entirely by staying safely away from the roadway.

Around 3 PM, the thunderstorms came.  By then, I had already gone 50 miles, and was only 15 miles short of my Alberton where I was staying for the night at the River Edge Resort Motel and Steakhouse.  I called, and got connected to Dennise, who works in the Steakhouse.  She picked me up where I was hanging out under the freeway bridge.

 

 

Through the Cascades: Onward and upward

 Friday 6/2 

Uphill climb in the morning to Stevens Pass ski resort.  A 3500 ft climb over 17 miles, but with really nice scenery and lots of rushing streams and waterfalls.

Finally got to Stevens Pass Ski Resort.  

The rest of the day's ride was downhill with a stop at the 59er Diner, about 15 miles NW of Leavenworth - the fake Bavarian village.   All the waitresses at this diner are called "Flo".  The men's room has a great collection of Marilyn Monroe pictures.

Around 1/2 mile before entering Leavenworth, the road was grooved.   They're preparing to repave US2.  I remember this was also the case 2 years ago when I last came through this area.

Checked into my hotel around 4PM, visited a local bike shop to get my tires pumped up a little, then went out to dinner at a barely passable German restaurant.  Got some high-priced, but high quality Ice Cream and went to bed.

Sat. 6/3 :

Got about 5 miles down the road towards Wenatchee the payment was still grooved... but I noticed a transit stop at US 97 and US2.  The bus came about 10 min after I got to the bus stop, so I cut out about 15 miles of tortured riding and got off and had breakfast at The Wild Huckleberry. where, along with my eggs and bacon, I had the biggest huckleberry pancake I've ever seen!

Then it was back on the bike with a smooth surface.

Wenatchee has the Apple Capital Loop Trail, which goes for about 12 miles, connecting Wenatchee to some surrounding towns.   It even has a dedicated bridge (the Old Wenatchee Bridge)across the Columbia river, which appears to be a renovated old train bridge.

Old Wenatchee bridge.  Part of the Apple Capital Loop Trail 

  

View of Columbia river from Old Wenatchee Bridge

 The rest of the day was just an uphill slog on Rte 28 against about a 10 mph headwinds.   Tomorrow the winds should be more favorable (from the NW) . 

And he's off...

5/31  Rough ride for the bike

Big shout-out to my friend, Sandy, for waking up before breakfast and driving me and my oversized bike box to SFO so doggone early!

After some wrangling, Alaska Airlines accepted the bike in its Amtrak box for the $30 checked bag fee that I had prepaid.   When I got the bike in Seattle, it was in somewhat rough shape.  Chain was off of the front and back, and headset s loose.   It took an extra 20 minutes to get it ridable enough to proceed to downtown Seattle for lunch.

Dough Zone in Chinatown 

Crab and Pork Soup Dumplngs

Beef Sandwich

After lunch, while on my way to a bike shop to get the headset tightened up, I met Bob at a red light and he offered to show me how to fix the headset.   Kudos to Bob!!  Probably saved me $30 and a bunch of time.

Then it was off to Monroe via Redmond.  I got a flat in Redmond which may have been caused by going on an unpaved bike trail for about 1.5 mi.   Fixing that took about 45 minutes, and in the process, I determined that I should have put a new tire on before leaving for this trip.   Could not find a bike shop that had Schwalbe Marathon 700C x 25 anywhere, including Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, or Missoula...  so I ordered one on Amazon, and had it shipped to a Bicycle Hangar in Missoula where, for the very reasonable fee of $10, they will change put it on for me.  Try getting a bike shop in they Bay Area to be so responsive and reasonable.  

Finally got to Monroe near sunset, cold and hungry, so I stopped into Jeno's on "historic Main St." for a huge Chicken Cacciatorie dinner.  Should've had the half portion... to have enough room for pie.

6/1  

Onward into the Cascades after a very nice pecan sticky bun at Sky River Bakery, also on "historic Main St."

HWY 2 to Skykomish

Arrived at the Cascadia Inn around 4PM and hung out after dinner for a bit with Henry and Cheryl (the owners) and their toddler grandson and dog.  This is my 3rd time I've stayed at the Cascadia on a bike trip, and it has always been a pleasant experience.