A longer day today, but still relatively easy due to tailwinds. Started the day with head and crosswinds, so worked moderately hard in pacelines of 4-10 riders.

Rode up a broad flat bottomed valley with marshes, lakes and a wide river = still the Clark Fork all the way. And, compared to what I'm used to, very flat - only gained about 1000 feet net in 136 miles.

Several section along I-90, but with construction we often had one entire side to ourselves! The 3rd picture.

Still Ponderosa forest, but now with more douglas fir mixed in. And some hills that are all grass (not reforested after logging or fires???). The "mountains" are hills, not very high and pretty rounded, and the river is cut deep into valley gravel and boulder fill - a remnant, I assume of the continental glaciers up here 10-12 thousand years ago. At several times, I hear that it was all under a deep lake created by ice dams from lobes of the glaciers.

After lunch, we turned more easterly and/or the wind shifted and became quite strong so on the flats and gentle uphills we could cruise along at 22-23-24 MPH without working too hard.

Seems like about half the folks here are repeats with PACtour, and they all know each other and talk about past tours, and others not here. Ate dinner with a guy who did 4 man team RAAM (Race Across America) this year, along with a friend who had been part of the crew - interesting to hear how the dynamics of race & crew goes (including a crew mutiny with people pulling out at midnight) & differences of opinion how long each person in the team should ride, etc.

218 km(133 miles) at 28.9 km/hr (17.6 MPH), av heart rate of 105 for 7.5 hours in the saddle. Worked a little harder today.

Although there are mountains all around, the route through northern Idaho and Montana is pretty flat. No climbs, just rollers along the banks of lakes and big winding slow-moving rivers (the Clark Fork). Finally found some headwinds for part of the day, but again with little effort made good time (though, for the first time my legs felt tired before lunch). So, cruised easy for the last 17 miles after lunch.

Thompson Falls has a dam ontop of the old falls, so the falls are basically a pile of rocks with concrete on top and a lake behind, and a big powerhouse with turbines next to it.

The crossing from Idaho to Montana was marked by transition from paved road to a gravel road, thus the people standing on the road taking a picture of the (gravel) state line.

148 (90 miles) km in 6 hr (that includes 1/2 hour wandering around town and out to the falls/dam - after the real ride was over) at av heart rate 93 - not working too hard here!

Resting up for tomorrow's 130+ mile day.

Day 4 Spokane to Sandpoint

Washington must be a big state - took 4 days to get to Idaho. We're in rolling hills with lots of Ponderosa forest, lots of big long lakes, and lots of Ospreys and a few bald eagles.

Another easy day: 86 miles in 5 hrs and a few minutes - average heart rate of only 96 - so you can see how hard I worked. Got in early in the afternoon, so hopped back on the bike and cruised around town - lots of shaded side streets with nice small houses, somewhat akin to the not-yet-modernized towns of the Colorado mountains (think Salida, or downtown Crested Butte).

The Ospreys were on manmade platforms on roadside telephone poles, and spent quite a bit of time vociferously scolding us and staring us down when we got close. And, when we got really close and met their gaze, they's come up with a low-throated growl that I hadn't heard before, and made it very clear that we weren't welcome any closer. Their were chicks in at least some of the nests.

Another "rest" day - only 86 miles and another day of tailwinds (10-15 MPH), so cruising along lolygaging, not having to work - into Spokane early, went for a ride around town.

We're in Ponderosa Pine territory now. Spokane is on ridges and steep deep valleys of basalt with Ponderosas. The riding itself was more of the rolling hills on top of basalt layers that we got to see everywhere that a stream cut a canyon.

Occasional pretty little farmsteads and a couple small towns en route.

The bathroom is in a town park - must be some history to prompt the "water balloon" sign!

The lake is Franklin D Roosevelt lake behind Coulee Dam.

The flats are what we saw all day.

5.5 hours in saddle, 150 km

We'll pay this back some day, I guess.

Day 2 Wenatchee to Coulee Dam

Well, today turned out to be a rest day: 105 miles - but almost all day with 30-35 MPH tailwinds! Quite a cruise.

The scenery du jour was high tension power lines - much of the day up the Columbia River Valley with power lines enroute to Southern California air conditioners.

The valley is a deep cut through the basalt layers, with desert mixed with rolling wheat fields (amber waves - really waving today - of grain, and grain, and grain, and grain). Amber, really.

And the gorge itself was green below dark cliffs with a surprisingly blue river down the middle.

The fruit du jour was apples and bing cherries, orchards everywhere. And plenty of cherries at the rest stops.

The massive construction of the day was, of course the Grand Coulee Dam. The subsidiary massive construction of the day was Banks Lake - in the middle of nowhere, with no obvious source of supply. Turns out that water is pumped up from the Grand Coulee Dam, started in Banks Lake, and irrigates huge expanses of high plateau farmland farther east (the grain farming that we rode through today is dry land farming).

The river picture is the Columbia, the dam is as expected, and the rolling hills are of a 35 MPH paceline hardly pedaling in the 30+ MPH tailwind.

First day - what else to start in the Pacific Northwest: fog. Burned off fast, nice tailwinds up a long very gentle valley through farms, orchards. Then up over Stevens Pass at 4061 feet and down the other side for a fast at first, then gentle but tailwind descent into Wenatchee.

205 km (123 miles) - 8 hours pedaling, 9 1/4 hr total.

Felt pretty mellow with that tailwind - lots of very low intensity time.

Prologue

The hotel is about 7 miles from Puget Sound (nearest salt water), so we rode down to a park on the sound to test our mechanical skills putting the bikes back together, and to warm up the legs - and most importantly, so the trip is really from coast to coast - or at least salt water to salt water. I did fine as a mechanic and rider, not so good as a journalist since I forgot to take my camera.

I was reminded of a few things about the west coast: there are lots of tress and some of them are really big, it's really humid and one gets really sweaty even if the temperature is only 75.

Lots of sailboats out on the sound, lots of families picnicking (tempted to stop and steal a hamburg), quite a pretty park. Then the start of the trek east - up the hill, onto the flats and back to the hotel.

Tomorrow start through the strip malls on the end of the city, and up into the hills and over Stevens Pass - something over 4000 ft. Then down into the hot eastern deserts at Wenatchee. 10-15 MPH tailwinds predicted.