Team 1 Day 11 (Liz)

Idaho seriously surprised me! I totally fell in love with Sandpoint. The town center is located on the massive Pend Orielle (pronounced Ponderay) Lake. Its a perfect spot for water sports and sitting on the beach. The town is filled with bike paths and cars are so kind to bikers to almost a fault. And the town is only a short drive from Schweitzer Mountain, the largest ski resort in Idaho and Washington! In the off season, the mountain is covered in well maintained mountain biking trails. It really is a 4 season town! And our wonderful hosts donated to our cause (we loved their Pride Idaho sign).

So I said see you later to Sandpoint and we set off for Bull Lake, MT. We biked through a crafty farmers market and picked up breakfast before we set off.


We then winded around the top of the lake (its question mark shaped). The monarch mountains of the Idaho Cabinets arise straight out of the water giving the lake a very majestic feel. I loved riding through the Pond Orielle region. 


20 miles into our ride we passed the top 3 finishers of the Chafe150 race in the opposite direction. Of course I cheered, but they were in the zone and hardly looked up (they were averaging 20 miles an hour). The rest of the morning we passed lots of bikers (and 4 tandem bike teams!!) and it was so fun. We definitely confused them as we biked in the opposite direction, especially when we sat on a pull out for lunch. Near the end, we stopped to chat at a rest stop and picked up some snacks (with permission). Seeing these bikers totally inspired me to bike race in the future. 


A little over halfway in we crossed into Montana and started heading up Bull Lake Hwy. It’s definitely a big state with big mountains. I can’t wait to see more of it. We picked up our pace as we biked the quiet road, ready to eat and sleep. Just before our campsite we stopped for pizza at the one and only restaurant we saw. A very kind yet insistent woman offered to host us at her guest cabin, but we were excited to camp. Bull Lake was a beautiful place to stay and a nice family let us take their camp spot. We even got to sit by a camp fire for a bit. Overall, it was a wonderful day.


Here are our rating from our 2ish days in Idaho:


Weather:

Liz 9

Kayla 8.5

Keelin 9


Scenery:

Liz 8.5

Kayla 7.5

Keelin 7.5


Bikability:

Liz 7

Kayla 7 

Keelin 6 (she ran over a turtle (it was already dead))


Favorite food:

Liz, Kayla, Keelin: Ice cream from panhandle coffee and cone


Least favorite food:

Liz, Kayla, Keelin: mexican food from Jalapeño’s


Biggest surprise:

Liz: Schweitzer is biggest ski mountain in Idaho and Washington

Kayla: No potato farms

Keelin: There’s a naval submarine testing base in Pond Orielle Lake

Comments

  1. ConnieJune 18, 2023 at 2:39 PM

    Sounds like such a wonderful trip! THANKS for blogging!

    ReplyDelete

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