What....No Rain?

Last night's thunderstorm seemed to help break the cycle, or so we will hope.  We got up to a beautiful, cool morning, and it made for good biking.  Last night ride leader Katie declared in would be hot today.  When asked how hot that would be.  She replied 83.  She resides in Haines, Alaska.  I guess that is probably hot there.  To those of us from the Midwest, it doesn't get any better than this.  If the weather holds tomorrow, it will be sleeveless jersey day!

Today's route was 44 miles to Bonners Ferry, Idaho.  That meant a border crossing at mile 10.  The border patrol officer was cordial and moved our group of four along very efficiently.  It looks like all the riders were in for the day by early afternoon, so I presume that meant no difficulties for anyone.

Ironically, the only significant climb today was coming back into the states, but the grade was manageable and views continued to be interesting.



We also saw what appeared to be a field of poles as we crossed the border.  From what we saw later on the route at Busch Agricultural Resources, I surmise fields of "poles" must be hops.  Who knew?









The biggest challenge of the day, was 4 miles of gravel road.   The only other alternative was busy Highway 95.  Fortunately traffic on the gravel was very light and I was riding alone at that point so I got through without any problems.  I did walk 3 downhill stretches.  All 3 were short, but had no visible path that didn't have loose rock.  

Following the stretch of gravel, the road turned to rock and oil, so still not great but again low traffic.  

The route took us past a National Wildlife Refuge that is in place primarily for Northwest migratory birds.  The refuge appears to be many, many acres in size.  We were in it for quite some time, each side of the road is marked with refuge signs and anything beyond the ditch is designated as "closed."

We're in Bonners Ferry, Idaho tonight.  Chores needed to be done today, including laundry and bike clean up, especially after riding gravel.

Tomorrow we move to Sandpoint, Idaho.