Biking Dude Blog

I traveled about 96.5 miles today.
My relative good fortune when it comes to mechanical issues came to an abrupt end today. Within fifteen miles of leaving Sandpoint, I got two flat tires (one from glass, the other from a truck tire wire).

Before I had even made it to Newport, I heard a loud twang! My rear wheel had broken a spoke. I have spare spokes, but this was on the drive side, and I didn't bring a cassette remover, so I couldn't replace it. The wheel was bent really far out of true, so I was worried about putting too much tension on the remaining spokes if I straightened it out.

I called Angie, my host for tonight, who gave me a number of a mobile bike mechanic, offered advice on an alternate and shorter route to Colville, and offered to give me a ride if I needed. Super nice and helpful.

I ended up using my spoke wrench to straighten the wheel out to rideable condition, and continued on towards Newport. By the time I got there, my rear tire was flat again. The bike shop in Sandpoint had sold me the pre glued patches, telling me that they would work with the glue from a regular patch kit, since they didn't sell extra normal patches. Sufficed to say, pre glued patches are entirely garbage. I used two of my three remaining patches in Newport to fix up my rear tube, then continued on towards Usk and Flowery Trail road. After turning off of 20 and onto Flowery Trail, my front tire went flat. I think that the rim hadn't been taped properly, but it hasn't been a problem until now. Added a layer of duct tape inside the rim to cover the exposed edges for the spoke nut hooks, then tried to use a pre glued patch without any extra glue. Garbage again! What's more, when I tried using a regular patch (my last one), the residue from the bad patch kept the normal patch from forming a good bond with the tube. I ended up having to swap out for my last spare tube. I now had a rideable bike, but no patches or spare tubes, spokes that could break any minute, and the handling felt really weird, I think from the rear wheel.

I traveled about 80 miles today.

Had a nice rest day at Shoshone with Josh yesterday. Met lots of other staffers who were interested in my trip.
Got an early start this morning, Josh and his friend Andrew drove me back to the snake pit where I ended on Saturday. Biked to Coeur d'Alene, then up to Sandpoint. Got to Sandpoint a little after noon, stopped by the bike shop to get a new chain, brakes, and extra patches. Headed over to MickDuffs, the local brewery, to grab a beer and wait for Steve to show up. They had an exceptionally good black ipa, which is a difficult style to do well.
Met up with Steve, my warm showers host, and got a ride to his house a little out of town.
Swapped my brake pads and got those adjusted nicely. Had a nice time chatting with Steve and his wife Meg about bikes and other stuff.
There is a the mile long bridge coming into Sandpoint, the picture is from just after I got off the bridge and onto the bike path by the big lake.
Had a big pasta dinner before heading to bed pretty early. Excited for tomorrow, getting back on a US bicycle route. May run into Cadence in the next few days, depending on if she got ahead of me while I was going through the silver valley.

I traveled about 77 miles today.
It seemed like Montana didn't want to let me leave. Between uphill slopes, trails of dirt, rock, and sand, and mysteriously absent bridges, I had a heck of a time getting over look out pass and into Idaho. Once I got the the trails of the Coeur d'Alenes things improved, paved trail all the way to Pinehurst. Unfortunately got a flat a little ways on that was really difficult to diagnose, as it was such a small hole. Ultimately a good day of biking, it was nice to get away from traffic, even if the trail condition was bad. Camping at usfs location was great. Met Travis, who was doing a good tournament in st Regis today. Hope it went well sir. Slept right by the creek, underneath some cedar trees. Lots of responses from warm showers people through Washington, looks like I'm all set for the next week. Continually amazed by the generosity of these people. Lutherhaven is cool, got to meet brother's friends, ate lots of pasta for dinner.

I traveled about 55 miles today.
Nice ride today, petty short. Lots of nice scenery, especially on route 135 through Lolo national forest. Saw a bald eagle land in a pine tree at one of the pull off spots along the road. I'm pretty sure no one in any car saw it. Only time this trip I wished I had a proper camera with me. Hiked down to the river to get a better and closer look. Took this picture just as it took of again. To bad my camera is so blurry when it's zoomed in. Hiked back up to my bike, and saw the eagle flying back up the canyon. Really cool. Scent of conifers and river through ride, very nice. That's one thing you can't take a picture of. Got groceries and huckleberry pie in st Regis, hanging out at visitor center until 6. Will camp on since national forest land, big thanks to Cassie at visitor center for pointing me in that direction. Met John at visitor center, touring cyclist. He's going with his parents from Spokane to Missoula and back, taking many rail trails. Going to see my little brother tomorrow. As much as I have enjoyed meeting new people, it will be nice to see a familiar face. Planned route through Washington. Will be taking bike route 10 through cascade mountains. There were actually more warm showers hosts up there than in central Washington. Going to be some high millage days with lots of elevation, but I'll be well rested, and the Pacific is calling me on.

This is John, who I met today in st Regis

I traveled about 93 miles today.
Good day, bad cell coverage. Biked flathead lake, bought fresh cherries, in Charlo tonight. Beautiful scenery.

I traveled about 81 miles today.
Glacier was awesome. Logan pass and several miles on either side were in the middle of a thick cloud. Took lots of pictures. I'll put up a gallery of everything once the trip is over (not such a distant concept anymore). Took our time biking through glacier, taking in the views. Had a few short hikes, trail of the cedars was very nice. Would love to come back and take several days to do more of the hiking trails here. Hit the road hard right at 4 out of sprague creek to get to whitefish at reasonable hour. Went almost as far after 4 as I did before, which was odd. Staying with Marge in whitefish, who is the mother of the friend of a guy I met while eating a granola bar in Baker, MT. Just happy to have a bed to sleep in. Cadence stayed in Sprague when I left, she'll probably be camping somewhere between there and west glacier. Definitely enjoyed her company, and having a buddy for today was great. We may meet up again, kind of depends on where and how fast I go after Coeur d'Alene. In good spirits, though I know that I'll need to take a rest day soon, probably on Monday. Looking forward to next few days, should be a good time.

Had a great stay with Walter and Charlotte on Monday night. Walter picked me up in cut bank, and drive me to his house near the del Bonita border crossing. They run a ranch up there, learned lots about ranching. Got a late start Tuesday, which was fine. Instead of driving back to cut bank, biked from their house into Alberta, then crossed back into the states north of st mary. Roads in Canada were really nice, definitely a good choice. Let out a wild whoop when I first saw mountains on the horizon. Chief mountain in particular is quite a sight. Met up with Cadence (see picture) in st mary. She had hitchhiked from Chester to cut bank on Monday, then had a long day ride today taking back roads to st mary. We grabbed dinner at the Johnson's of st mary restaurant, and are sharing a camping site for the night. Great dinner, lots and lots of food. Plan for Wednesday is to bike up to Logan pass earlyish, then spend all afternoon biking in glacier before biking hard from sprague creek to whitefish starting at 4pm, since the road from apgar to sprague is closed to bikes from 11-4

I finished biking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.