Plan a bike tour for 2009

Bought iodine and A & D for the bottom.
Wrote up all the cue sheets and printed them out with maps
Packed our bags – we’ll do a shake-out ride tomorrow.
Probably will go to Performance to pick up a Halo for David and some more goos.

Someone who lives in Spokane suggested this route

I made a list of all the repair shops more or less along the way.

There’s basically nothing from when we leave Spokane until we hit Sandpoint. Keep fingers crossed nothing disasterous happens!

When we drove on hwy 95 in Idaho three years ago I thought I saw a bike path. Could I find ANYTHING about it on line? I stumbled on it through looking around with google maps. Even with the actual name of the path, there’s like, zero information on it.

So, that’s a different possibility – take 95 pretty much the entire way from Sandpoint to Coeur D’Alene, using the bike path starting at E Garwood Road (just north of hwy 53) and using it to cruise the entire way into Coeur d’Alene, hopping on the Prairie Bike path and then on to the Centennial path

What that does – gives us about 15 miles on a bike path rather than open road, but puts us on Hwy 95 for 36 miles. But Hwy 95 has broad shoulders (albeit with a rumble strip), and 36 miles isn’t that long, even if there’ll be a lot more cars on it. And more cars mean more services.

So, revision to day 3:

Breakfast in Sandpoint

Morning snack in Athol (mile 26), lots of choices

Lunch in Coeur d’Alene (mile 42), lots and lots of choices

Water Stop at the state line (mile 53) at Gateway Park
I remember there being a snack shop in one of the parks on the Washington State portion of the trail – maybe get ice cream?

We then reach our hotel in Spokane at about mile 76.

The route is set.

The motel reservations are made.

• Making maps and cue sheets
• Bike tune-up
• Create packing list

I’m feeling really good about this.

Day 3 is first from Sandpoint to Post Falls

Then the North Idaho Centennial Trail

Then the Spokane River Trail

Probably about 80 miles – the bike maps are really bad at giving mileage (feh feh feh)

Breakfast in Sandpoint

Carry a snack to eat somewhere by the side of the road near Edgemere (mile 26)

Lunch in Spirit Lake (mile 36)?

Afternoon snack in Post Falls (mile 55) and get on the Centennial Trail.

Probably another side of the trail type snack somewhere along the way. I know there’s water available at the tourist center at the state line.

I’ve ridden the section from the State Line to Spokane before

That night back at the Montvale, if possible.

Day 2 is from Chewelah to Sandpoint via Usk

70 miles.

Breakfast: Chewelah WA
Rest stop: possibly second breakfast? in Usk WA (mile 26)
Lunch stop: Newport WA (mile 40)
Rest stop: LaClede ID (mile 55)
Overnight: Sandpoint ID

Maybe stay at the Church Street House B&B ?

Day 1 is from Spokane to Chewelah via Tum Tum

70 miles

Ideally, stay at the Montvale when in Spokane.

Breakfast in Spokane – carry lunch
Rest stop: Nine Mile Falls (mile 25)
Lunch at the Long Lakes Campground (mile 40)
Rest stop: Springdale (mile 54)

Overnight – Chewelah – maybe the Nordig Motel ?

Rose will be in band camp at Eastern Washington University overlapping when Emma will be at Camp Sealth. After dropping Emma off at the boat for Sealth, we might drive out there, and do a loop out of Spokane or Cheney.

Map of sample self-supported tour

Video of section between Chewelah and Usk (from a motorcycle, but you can see that it has good shoulders and little motor vehicle traffic).

Changes in Rose’s Costa Rica schedule means that we have no time where both kids are gone at the same time. Instead, we’ll just do STP, RSVP, and then maybe a family camping trip at the end of the summer instead.