| 5/26/05 Thursday | Anacortes WA |
| 5/27/05 Friday | Anacortes WA |
| 5/28/05 Saturday | Anacortes WA |
| 5/29/05 Sunday | Concrete WA |
| 5/30/05 Monday | Diablo WA |
| 5/31/05 Tuesday | Winthrop |
| 6/01/05 Wednesday | Winthrop |
| 6/02/05 Thursday | Tonasket WA |
| 6/03/05 Friday | Republic WA |
| 6/04/05 Saturday | Colville WA |
| 6/05/05 Sunday | Ione WA |
| 6/06/05 Monday | Newport ID |
| 6/07/05 Tuesday | Sandpoint ID |
| 6/08/05 Wednesday | Sandpoint ID |
5/26/05 Thursday, Anacortes WA
I had decided to arrive in Anacortes a day early so that I'd have time to
get settled in and assemble my bike. My bike is fitted with
S&S Couplers
so it fits into a non-oversized hard-sided suitcase, saving typically $160 per
round-trip airplane flight. However my gigantic bicycle (68 cm) must be
almost completely disassembled to fit into the case so I like to leave myself
lots of time.
(Thanks to Brendan for the photo.)
I'm sharing a room with Eric, a civil engineer from Port Townsend WA. When I
arrived at the Anaco Inn after 9:00 pm Eric was already there. He had ridden
from Port Townsend, so the tour has already started for him.
I found Bill, the tour leader, and riders John and Jim in room 104. Bill is a former programmer for Univac who owned a bike shop in Arizona for a number of years but is now retired in Ashland OR. John is a friend and former customer of Bill's from Phoenix. They have done a number of private tours together. Jim is a 69-year-old retired insurance broker from Iowa. Bill was making Jim go through his stuff to decide what is really necessary and send the rest of it home.
I had dinner at a Subway sandwich shop.
Bill called a group meeting at 7pm to give instructions and divide up the group
equipment. With 16 people, each person doesn't have to carry too much gear.
I got two fuel bottles.
After continental breakfast at the Anaco Inn, we made our lunch of cheese
and tomato sandwiches and headed out. We had our traditional wheel-dipping
ceremony on the boat ramp of a local park. Left to right in the photo below
are Wes, Dave, Jeanne, RonP, Carol, Don (hidden), Brendan, Geoff, Maddy, Eric,
Jim, RonE, Alan (me), John, and Ray. Bill is is the one with the camera.
A power pole transformer exploded as we were making dinner so there was no
electricity in the one toilet/shower in the campground. However, I was able
to get a warm shower before the hot water ran out.
We're camping at National Park Service's Colonial Campground. Jim had to
catch a sag from a "civilian" the last 3 miles of the climb and then felt so
sick he couldn't eat his dinner. He has recently had a stomach bypass operation
which makes it difficult to eat enough when touring.
Jim has decided to bag it. We had talked about me pulling his Bob on hilly
days but he apparently feels he has bitten off more than he can chew. He's a
really nice guy so we're sorry to see him go.
Here's a photo taken by RonP later in the trip of Jeanne and Carol.
The pizza last night blew the budget so everybody is on their own today for
lunch and dinner. I rode into town with Don and had a buffalo burger and
enormous fries for lunch. For dinner, some of the group bought charcoal,
fired up the grill, and each person bought his own meat to cook. The rest
of us will catch a ride from the campground owner to a restaurant in town.
I got a slow leak 5 miles from the end. I wanted to fix it in camp so I kept
pumping it up and riding on but I let the pressure get too low and the tire
came off the rim. So I had to go ahead and fix the flat a couple blocks
from camp.
We're camping at Shannon's Ice Cream Parlour and RV Park. Showers are down
the street at the laundromat.
Her trailer is basically a large Rubbermaid storage container bolted to a
frame that attaches to the left rear dropout.
I got another slow leak one mile before the top of the pass. Bill rode up
as I was fixing it and found the thorn in the tire for me.
I rode with Bill for awhile. Although he is much smaller than I and didn't
have the extra load of the trailer, we were descending at about the same speed.
It makes me wonder about the aerodynamics of my load.
We're camping tonight at Ferry County Fairgrounds in Republic. We have
intermittent rain so the cook crew set up in a breezeway of a building.
We're camping at a fairgrounds again, this time in Colville. Don stopped in
town at a laundromat. He heard a report of a rider down on Hwy 20. I hope it
wasn't one of ours.
The group got a late start today so we only went as far as Ione. It's just as
well since there was a cold rain most of the day. We're staying at the Ione
Motel and RV Park. Ray, the owner, seems to be an unreconstructed hippie from
the 60s.
Everybody but Don opted to stay in the motel and dry out. Don and I cooked a
huge pot of tuna helper and made Waldorf salad again for dinner. Everything
disappeared except for a small plate of tuna helper which we gave to the owner,
who seemed most appreciative.
I stopped at the grill in Usk for lunch. We're staying in Newport on the
Washington-Idaho border at the Old American campground.
In the evening some of us went bowling as a team-building exercise.
5/27/05 Friday, Anacortes WA
After a continental breakfast in the hotel I assembled my bike. I have
arranged with the bike shop at the end of the trip in Bar Harbor to store my
hard-sided bike case until the end of the tour. As I was lugging the "empty"
case full of tools, street clothes, etc. down the street to the post office,
Ray drove by and kindly offered to take me in his car. We then had a fast-food
lunch with Eric who happened by on his bike. Ray is in the process of selling
his sewing machine business - he's "almost retired". After lunch, as he was
backing out of the parking space he had a fender-bender with another car.
People have been drifting into the hotel all day. I think I have met almost
everybody now. We have 15 riders plus the tour leader. Thanks to RonP for
this photo of Maddy and her parents in front of the Anaco Inn. Maddy is the
youngest rider and just graduated from the same eastern university I managed
to bluff my way through almost 35 years ago.
5/28/05 Saturday, Anacortes WA
21 miles
Today was just a short shake-down ride to check out the equipment.
Since there were no route slips we used the "Russian" method - "stopoff and
peeloff". That is, whenever you come to a turn you wait until the next bunch
of riders arrives then they wait for the group after them, etc. Despite all
that we did manage to take a wrong turn at one point, down an absurdly steep
hill that we then had to climb back up. (Thanks to Brendan for the photo.)
We ate lunch at some picnic tables nearby, checked out the overlook at
Deception Pass (that's John in the photo), and rode back to the inn.
5/29/05 Sunday, Concrete WA
60 miles
Don and I drew cook duty the first day. We had decided to ride together and get an
early start but he overslept so we didn't get off until 8:30.
Don is VP in charge of the IT (computer) department at a packaged goods
manufacturer in Missouri. We stopped for lunch by a little stream just
off the road.
The grocery was a couple miles from camp so we quickly set up tents, emptied
our panniers, and headed off to shop. We did get the chicken stir fry served
only 11 minutes late but we were hustling like crazy the whole time.
5/30/05 Monday, Diablo WA
45 miles
Everybody was up early for some reason. Most people were on the road by
7:30 even though it was a fairly short day.
The only store was in Newhalen, about 10 miles from the end, so everyone had
to help carry supplies. Not much selection in the store so we're having
canned chili tonight.
There was a long climb on the approach to Rainy Pass before our campground near Diablo Lake.
I think that's RonE in the photo. We have to use last initials to distinguish
between the two Rons on the trip. RonE is a just-retired civil engineer
from Beltsville MD. RonP is a retired technician for the phone company (Quest).
He's the one who's always smiling and has covered every inch of his bike with
stickers from places he's traveled.
5/31/05 Tuesday, Winthrop
66 miles
The longest hardest day so far - 66 miles with over 5000 ft of climbing.
The rain started a few miles from camp as we went over Rainy Pass and
continued off and on over Washington Pass. But the downhill was teriffic!
My friend Sue had fabricated for me some "rain spats" cut out from a pair of
grey waterproof pants. They cover the shoes and the front of the legs but the
back of the legs are open to allow evaporation of sweat. They worked well,
other than a little leakage around the toes. I'll have to put Seam Seal on the
seams on our layover day tomorrow.
Here's a good photo of John atop Washington Pass. I was in "hammer" mode
today for some reason and got into Winthrop about 2:30. I had a second lunch
in town before proceeding a mile down the road to camp, a very nice KOA.
A nice couple in the campground this morning sagged Jim to camp. Everyone
else did the ride in fine shape, with the last riders pulling in shortly after
dinner was served at 6:00. Dinner was take-out pizza since the cooks got in
so late. That's a good photo of Ray at the right front of the table.
6/01/05 Wednesday, Winthrop
6 miles
Layover day in Winthop. I cleaned my rims, wiped down the chain, checked
voicemail, and read my email at an Internet cafe. It's amazing how quickly
you get bored on a rest day and wish you were back on the bike. Even right
after a hard day.
Jeanne and I have talked about me pulling her trailer on her cook days when
there is a lot of climbing so she can get to camp on time. I took her
"Bicycle Revolution" trailer for a little test ride around camp and it worked
fine. Jeanne is the head of the math department at a college in Massachusetts.
6/02/05 Thursday, Tonasket WA
73 miles
Loup-Loup Pass today. That's Wes, Brendan, me, and RonP. (Thanks Brendan for
the photo.) Wes is an interesting guy. He doesn't have a lot of experience
riding but he's very fit. He's a retired physical education teacher and
football/track coach from western Pennsylvania.
We saw a group of cyclists at the top of the pass who are doing a sagged tour.
Each rider takes his turn driving, then parks the car at the designated
distance, hides the key, and rides on. The car is picked up by the next
designated driver when he arrives on his bike.
Here are Brendan and RonP checking out the "wheels" on the porch in front of
the Riverside Grocery and fishing tackle shop. Brendan is a park ranger, a
carpenter, and a volunteer announcer at a community radio station in Hope Maine,
which we will pass by in a few weeks.
6/03/05 Friday, Republic WA
43 miles
Jeanne took me out to breakfast at a restaurant next door to Shannon's as a
thank you for hauling her trailer over Wauconda Pass today. She is cooking
tonight and worried she wouldn't make it to camp in time.
6/04/05 Saturday, Colville WA
56 miles
Sherman Pass today. I rode with Don all day. Thanks Brendan for the photo.
RonE at a historical display beside the road watching one of the WPA boys
at work.
There's actually a cyclist on that road far below.
6/05/05 Sunday, Ione WA
50 miles
The rider down yesterday was Ray. Route 20 coming out of Colville had
been grooved in preparation for repaving. The shoulder had not been grooved
but there were periodic rather deep channels cut across the shoulder to allow
water to drain. Ray hit one of the channels wrong and crashed. He tore some
ligaments and cracked a bone and will have to leave the tour. It's really a
shame. Ray was new to long-distance cycling but had really started to get
stronger and steadier on the bike. He's also a nice guy with a positive
attitude and will be missed by the group.
That's Don in the photo.
6/06/05 Monday, Newport ID
52 miles
It was a beautiful ride today with beautiful weather after the deluge
yesterday. The photo is along the Pend Oreille River.
6/07/05 Tuesday, Sandpoint ID
37 miles
A short day today. On the way through Sandpoint we stopped at two bike shops
looking for a new wheel for Don. He ordered one to be delivered tomorrow.
We're camped in the backyard of Chris and Suzanne's house in Sandpoint both
today and the rest day tomorrow. That's my (9-year-old) tent at the far right
of the photo. Dinner tonight was cooked on their gas grill. Hamburgers and
hot dogs.
6/08/05 Wednesday, Sandpoint ID
3 miles
Layover day in Sandpoint. I changed my airline reservation, bought a new
soap dish, soap, etc., washed my bike at a car wash, and washed clothes at
a laundromat.
We are responsible for our own meals today. For dinner everyone
went to Spuds, a local restaurant where Suzanne works.