Day 86: A Blue Ribbon for Bubba

While riding a few days ago, I mentioned to MJ that based on my observation I though Bubba might be a better roller than Empress. She was rightfully offended on behalf of her bike and said we must test this out. Today we finally had the right opportunity - a quiet road with a straight, not-too-steep hill. We lined up and lifted our feet in unison and started to coast. Empress took the early lead, but Bubba quickly caught up and handily won the race.

A Test Pass

We got up on the early side today to make sure we had plenty of time to climb our big hill and take some good rest stops along the way. We had about twenty miles of riding along the Pend Oreille River before we started heading west out of its valley. The total elevation gain was about 1,200 feet. So not a proper mountain pass, but a significant climb nonetheless. MJ has a much better granny gear than I, so can spin up the mountains at a slow pace, whereas I tend to sprint and rest my way up. Given this, we regrouped at the mile markers to briefly check in as we worked our way up the climb.

We made it to top 🎉, but for this mini pass, there isn’t really a proper descent. Rather, we stayed up at elevation for a while on rolling terrain. The only clear place to stop for the day was at a lodge/resort/campground on Thomas Lake. The cafe was closed, but we each picked up a few things from the camp store and enjoyed a picnic lunch overlooking the lake. We decided to make it a longer lunch and take some time to nap and recover a bit before heading on.

The ride eventually started heading more down, though there were a couple ups in the mix as well. The road wound its way through the mountains, mostly surrounded by pine forest. I took a brief pit stop at Crystal Falls, right on route, to see what the sign was about. Turned out to be a decently tall and pretty water fall!

We eventually finished our descent, arriving to Colville. It was pretty hot, so we promptly found iced coffee in town. We’re staying with Amy and Jason for the next couple nights and are going to cook dinner tomorrow, so I took the time to pick out some recipes while MJ made some phone calls. Recipes in hand, we went on to Grocedy Outlet to shop. It turns out Grocery Outlet is a bit eclectic in its selection, but we got what we could.

Amy and Jason met us at Fired Up Brewery for beers and pizza. Yesterday, they asked if we wanted to meet there instead of Kettle Falls and we were happy to shave off ten miles from our day and get beer and pizza to boot! It was great to meet Jason and meet Amy in person. We met this spring at Relational AI on a social call where I mentioned this trip and threw out there that I’m always looking for places to stay along the way and it turned out Amy was on the way!

After dinner, we swung through Safeway to round out our shopping list and then were on our way to Kettle Falls. Jason pointed out significant sights along the way, which was a fun little tour. The border patrol here uses horses to monitor some of the more remote parts of the Canadian border still as it’s too rough terrain for a motorized vehicle. Speaking of rough terrain, Amy was not joking when she said we wouldn’t want to bike up their road on our skinny tires - it was quite an up and with some loose gravel to get through. However, the reward at the top is an absolutely gorgeous view over the river and mountains. We rounded out the day enjoying a beer on their patio and admiring the view. Also watching Maya, their dog, chase the sprinkler water and lake with firewood as if it were a stick.

Tomorrow, we rest. After six days biking, it’s much needed. Especially before hitting the big mountain passes coming up next.