WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE

Day 7: Chewalah - Priest River


Distance: 50.6 miles (shortcut over the Flowery Trail and Dave's accident)


Packed up camp and set off up Flowery Trail Road from Chewalah to Usk - interested and slightly hesitant as to where this shortcut would take us. It had been recommended by Bob and Herb, two cyclists we met a few days ago, and a number of people in Colville.


On the one hand, as far as distance was concerned, the detour saved us a few miles and it was great to get another Pass in before heading on to flatter pastures on the way through Idaho and Western Montana. However, the gradient was horrendous, much steeper than anything we had experienced so far. Not great after the 4 days of hard climbs we had just endured. (Think the Pass is more gradual coming from East to West). We plodded on and eventually made it to the top.


From the summit we shot down into Usk, had a celebratory ice cream, and shot off towards Newport.


Final destination for the day was Sandpoint but on the way Dave was caught off-guard by a bump in the road in Priest River which jarred his front pannier rack into his spokes causing it to wrap around the front wheel axle. He managed to keep control of the bike but came to an abrupt stop on the other side of the road.


We got off the road and had a look at the damage. It was too bad to cycle on or fix on the spot - the pannier rack had completely bent out of shape and all of the spokes on one side were damaged.


The nearest bike shop was in Sandpoint, 25 miles away, so we tried to hail passing pick-ups for about half an hour to get a lift to Sandpoint. No luck, most of them stopped but weren't going to Sandpoint.


In a moment of desperation Dave jumped up and started waving down an oncoming pick up. Luckily the driver, Rick, was happy to help us out and offered to take us in for the night and accompany us to Sandpoint the following morning to try and get the bikes fixed.


We pulled up to an amazing wooden house on the river where Rick introduced us to his wife Cindi and their dog Oliver. Cindi got us some dinner and we had a few beers and a good chat in the garden before having a well needed shower and a good nights sleep.