Day 45 July 14, 2019
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| Atop Flowery Trail Pass |
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| Welcome to Washington |
Henry's notes for today:
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| Will Ivey and Family |
Day 45: Jenny and Kevin West prepared us a magnificent breakfast. Tim finished the leftover salmon from last night. We could not have asked for a more beautiful early morning at the lake. Priscilla chauffeured us back to Sandpoint to retrieve our bikes. We resumed our westward course out of Sandpoint, stopping just east of Priest River to greet Henry's friend Will Ivey, his wife Lisa, and their daughter Reagan at their Priest River cabin. Henry and Linda's Priest Lake neighbors Nick and Becky Oltean also met us at the Ivey's. Nick is an avid mountain biker, and had arranged to escort us to his home in Chewelah, where we would spend the night. He was worried that he would not be able to keep up with our touring bikes on his mountain bike. Of course, he had no trouble at all, given the handicapping with our panniers.
As we entered Newport, we crossed the state line into Washington, our 13th state and home, sweet home. His wife Becky drove ahead and prepared us an excellent roadside lunch just west of Newport. We ascended our first Washington state mountain pass (4,046 ft) on Flowery Trail Road. None of us will pretend that it was easy. We arrived at the Oltean's hand-crafted custom built home after a speedy 8 mile descent from the pass. We are blessed, and have yet to have any hosts disappoint us, and today was no exception. Tim and Nick bonded reviewing details of the intricately constructed home. Some of the evening was spent planning our forthcoming route through Washington. We have the daunting task of crossing 4 more mountain passes sequentially in the next 4 days on the North Cascades Highway to get over the Cascade mountain range. Sherman Pass at 5,575 ft, Wauconda Pass at 4,310 ft, Loup Loup Pass at 4,020 ft, and Washington Pass at 5,477 ft. I have flown over the Cascades many times, and it doesn't seem possible, yet bikers surmount these passes every day. A generous portion of ice cream and fudgesicles were consumed as we pondered our impending fate before retiring.
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| The Selkirk Mountains |
Maps of today's ride:
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