going over niagara paul's

CYCLING THE NORTHERN TIER, SKOOKUM CREEK CAMPGROUND AND PICNIC SITE, WASHINGTON - DAY SEVEN

AUGUST 4, 2012
TONIGHT'S EPISODE - TRYING NOT TO APPEAR HOMELESS.

I have been feeling bad that I haven’t been camping more, but with the heat, and some of the locales, it is just the way it is. One thing around here is the days have been hot, but the nights dip close to single digits. With another wave of heat coming, I toughed it out today, and have set up camp. As I write, 18:00hrs, my shady spot is slowly bringing relief. I know that in a couple of hours, I will be so glad that I’m tenting. Take a look at the photos. A classic State Campground. High on nature. Low on the shazzizal. Tonight will also be a favorite. With no rain forecasted, I will be in a “No Fly Zone”. Fall asleep looking at the stars.

I even feel worse that I’m dragging around all my tenting. Clothes wise, I don’t spend a lot of time figuring out what to wear. I have a day, après ride and sleep ensemble. Good thing I’m on the move. I won’t embarrass myself when the dinner bell rings and I’m seated with the previous night’s party. I prepared for, now definitely not, the cold and the odd flake of snow on the Washington State passes.

I had a late lunch, and wasn't in the shopping mode before I set out
for here. Can you imagine my horror when I was setting dinner out
and found the cookies to be hard baked. Should I go 40kms back
for soft and chewy.?

Camp hosts. Bruce and Jenny. Didn't get the dog and cats name. Wish I took a photo of their camp.
Had a great talk with them. Bruce use to run ultra-marathons. Said one day he ran 113 miles. I don't do that on my bike. He actually had the" Possum Van II"

The extent of services.
Plus pit toilets.

Free camping for cyclists.

I never really wanted to RV, primary because of where you end up most
times at the end of the day. A WalMart parking lot or some RV park,
where your view is the movie the guy next to you is watching. Here I could do
nature with a little satellite TV. These state parks have no services. This one
had only seven sites and it was not full.

MSR Hubba Bubba II. Thanks Hyla for the sleep pad. Did I tell you I
was taking it?

Quite surprised that it wasn't buggy? Quite happy it wasn't bear-y!

Beautiful pavilion. Would almost wish for rain.

Room with a view. AH!!! My bike. Bad Dream?

No fly zone.


Sometime during the night. Just past full moon. It is the night My body's weak I'm on the run No time to sleep I've got to ride Ride like the wind To be free again

CYCLING THE NORTHERN TIER - DAY SEVEN - SANDPOINT, IDAHO to (short of) IONE, WA.

AUGUST 4, 2012
TODAY'S EPISODE - STAYING AT THE FOUR SEASONS.

START- SANDPOINT, IDAHO
FINISH - SKOOKUM CAMPGROUND, USK, WASHINGTON
TODAY - 83kms
TTD - 592kms

This includes my following day ride.

All day while I was riding, I keep telling myself that tonight you will stay at the “Four Seasons”. Not the fabulously appointed hotel property on Cumberland, in the Yorkville district of Toronto. Not the one that if you are in town for TIFF, you send the concierge on some 04:00hrs scramble across the GTA to get that one,……., because you can.

Not that Four Seasons. But the campground one. Where if you stay long enough, you will experience summer, fall, winter and spring.

Beautiful rolling valleys.

For a couple of bucks, helped the local fire
department and got the latest on wildfires.
Again not much up here in northern Idaho.
Further south, upwards of thirty out of
control.

Cowsquito?

Rode a lot of this today. Beautiful rolling valleys. Very little traffic.

I don't know much about the birds, let lone the plural. Osprey.

Weather forecasts are the same and grim. HOT and DRY.

When I had goats, I became a quick study of hay. Here's a couple:

HAY, HOW YOU DO'IN?

HAY, WHAT'S THE PHRASE THAT PAYS?

After having chickens, I had to take this quick pic. Had to abandon our poultry project after a fox got the best of our free range feathered friends. FOX! In a matter of miles, I was thinking, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of......"

Endless ranches. This is horse country.

SHADE, SHADE, SHADE, SHADE...........

This fellow was course marking for 250 members of the Cascade Bicycle Club
that were to come through the next day.

The sweet smell of cedar.

Hang onto her captain.

......and still rising.

Having taken backroads, not much fanfare at the Washington State border, other than for my man,

Davey T.

I have passed into Washington State after only two nights in Idaho. The panhandle. What awaits me after tomorrow are five days in row that I will pass over five mountain passes. They all have noticeable climbs. I am placing two of them in my personal “hors categorie”. I am now like the balloonist who is heading straight towards the WKRP radio tower. Jettison, jettison, jettison as MUCH excess weight as I can. I have been on the road now for a week. Getting into a grove and knowing what I need and not. Even thinking of small things like postage stamps. As if I was going to write postcards! I had a stamp made up. For everyone “Having a great time. Miss you the most!”

At the campground soon.

COMING VERY SOON: THE CAMPING LIFE.

CYCLING THE NORTHERN TIER - DAY SEVEN - SANDPOINT, IDAHO, USA

AUGUST 4, 2012

THIS MORNING'S EPISODE - IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

Took my time leaving Sandpoint this morning. What a fun way to explore. Rolling around on my bike.

IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA

Fuel stop. These little eSpresso shacks are everywhere. Thank you very much.

I generally avoid bike paths. The suggested map route had me leaving Sandpoint on one such path. I thought what harm could a few miles along the waterfront do. The little harm was some swimming race with a rather sizable contingent of most everybody. As I was snaking my way through, I asked some guy if Micheal Phelps was competing. He didn’t seem to share my sense of Saturday ,weekend, have fun kidding, and might as well blurted out, “What do you have, shit for brains!”