Team 1 Day 9 (Kayla)

Today we said goodbye to Washington and hello today Idaho!! It was a bittersweet goodbye as we felt proud but also relieved to have made it through 4 major passes and an entire state!! What a surreal feeling! And on the same day that our friends were joining us some 300+ miles behind in anacortes (which we were pretty obsessed about). We finished our last few beautiful miles of Washington on a lovely peaceful ride along the  Pend Oreille river, cruising along and enjoying the flat country road while reminiscing about our experience through the first state of our cross country tour. Here’s our review: 

Weather: 

Keelin: 3.5/10

Liz: 5/10

Kayla: 4.5/10

The first 2 days had really nice weather, although it was a little hot when we were on the main highways. Days 3 and 4 were pretty brutal with all day rain, with day 3 taking the cake for the absolute worst weather day of the trip this far ; we were soaked through our rain clothes and had to layer on all of our clothes to stay warm. After that things started to warm up and the weather was pretty good with the exception of a few hot days (and some burnt arms and legs to show for it).

Scenery: 

Keelin: 9/10

Liz: 8.5/10

Kayla: 8/10

We were treated to such a spectacular range of landscapes across Washington - from coastal, to rainforest, to range land, and drier evergreen forests. The route often took us along mountain lakes and streams, which were stunning to behold. It was truly breathtaking, especially during the long descents. However we were a bit bummed to have no view over Washington pass due to the weather. 

Bikability: 

Keelin: 7/10

Liz: 7/10

Kayla: 7/10

In terms of the riding conditions we felt like Washington was pretty good. The roads were in really good condition for the most part with good shoulders. Often the route was able to take us off us the main busy roads which was a very peaceful way to enjoy the scenery. However we were also on busy roads for a good stretch with a lot of logging trucks driving by which was considerably less pleasant. The climbs made for some long challenging days but the descents were incredibly fun. Our railroad tracks adventure was NOT bikeable, but we can’t really blame Washington for that…

Lodging/camping options: 

Keelin: 7.5

Liz: 8

Kayla: 8.5

Okay so we felt like we lucked out here. We had one incredible warm shower host that we stayed with, numerous scenic campgrounds, and stay in a teepee, all of which we would recommend. Of all the places we stayed in Washington the only place we wouldn’t go back to was the Bacon biker hostel, but it wasn’t even that bad. 

Okay now here are some of our favorites, so things that were less good, and other things we’ve learned along the way.

Favorites piece of gear:

⁃ Kayla: Rain gear and speaker

⁃ Liz: fleece

⁃ Keelin: camp socks and speaker

What we wish we had:

⁃ keelin: kula cloth and book 

⁃ Liz: larger battery pack 

⁃ Kayla: more breathable camp outfit

Favorite biking Food:

⁃ Keelin: Teriyaki beef jerky

⁃ Liz: cinnamon twisp bakery hit the trail cookie

⁃ Kayla: cinnamon twisp bakery hit the trail  cookie (maybe it was all the climbing we’d done or the fact that we were hiding out from the rain but they were really something else) 

Least favorite food:

These are the things we’re couldn’t even force ourselves to eat/drink even though we knew we needed to.

⁃ keelin: Spanish rice dinner

⁃ Liz: Spanish rice dinner

⁃ Kayla: citrus fruit nuun electrolyte drink

Favorite section of biking:

⁃ Kayla: descent into colonial creek campground in north cascades (it was magical - I may or may not have shed some happy tears)

⁃ Liz: descent into colonial creek campground in north cascades 

⁃ Keelin: Methow Valley or descent into tiger WA 

Favorite town:

⁃ Kayla: twisp (home of our favorite cookies)

⁃ Liz: republic (home of the sweetest warmshower hosts)

⁃ Keelin: mazama (home to the general store that saved us after Washington pass)

Favorite campground: 

⁃ Kayla: colonial creek (in the north cascades along a beautiful lake)

⁃ Liz: colonial creek

⁃ Keelin: pine near RV park (they were so nice and gave us a teepee to sleep in)

Hardest section of biking:

⁃ Washington pass (if you think biking this pass is easy I don’t want to hear it)

Sorest body part:

⁃ Liz: wrist

⁃ Kayla: butt (saddle sores are no joke but we got ourselves some butt paste and antibiotic ointment and are taking off the chamois ASAP - it helps) 

⁃ Keelin: butt 

Biggest surprise:

⁃ Liz: the kindness of warm showers hosts! (It is truly amazing)

⁃ Kayla: how uncomfortable it is to wear biking shorts all day 

⁃ Keelin: how hard it can be to keep up with the calories you are burning (sometimes you know you need to eat but nothing that you have with you sounds good)

It’s hard to believe it, but that’s it for Washington for us!! 

We arrived in Idaho mid-morning and our first stop was for coffee, then it was a leisurely flat 5 more miles until our lunch stop in priest river. From there it was only 20 miles to our destination of sandpoint, ID where we were greeted by our lovely warmshower hosts, the Yorks, who had offered us a room in their house, warm showers, laundry, dinner, and free bike tune-ups (Steve happened to be a lifelong bike mechanic!). With such a flat day, so many great food stops, and an ending of the day in a bed spirits were the highest they had been in a while today. Our bodies also felt like they were finally starting to settle in to lobe on a bicycle and the usually aches and pains in the wrists, butt, back and quads were quieter than they had been in previous days. lets hope that is a good sign for how things will go in the days and weeks to come.