I took US95 the entire way today. There were 10 miles worth of bike path at the beginning, which was where the heavy traffic was. It was a crazy weather day. It started out partly sunny with a strong wind out of the south. I had a nice tailwind to start the day. Then the sky got very gray, tending to black. Rain squall number 1 - not too bad. I think I caught the tail end of it, just as it was starting to taper off. Then there was bright sunshine, followed quickly by rain squall number 2. I grabbed my rain jacket - which was a good thing because this was a major downpour. It stopped just as I hit the bike path again. It was very nice to get away from all of the spray from the road. The sun came out again just as I reached the start of Lake Pend Oreille. What a beautiful sight. At that point I was on a bridge that had 2 driving lanes separated from the bike path - which was almost 2 lanes wide! The third downpour started just as I got to Sandpoint. I was lucky this time - I pulled over under an overhang of a building and just waited that one out.
I pulled into Sandpoint at about 2 o'clock. I thought about continuing on, but this is really as far as I'd planned for today. I wanted two relatively short days to start. I had intended to camp tonight, but I had enough of the rain and opted for a funky motel room instead - not a bad deal at $40. I'm sure I'll have my fill of camping in the rain before this trip is up!
I met a couple from Pennsylvania who are doing the Northern Tier route from west to east on their tandem. They were forced to stay here last night because of a problem with their wheel. It's fixed now, and they are about to push on again. From their description, it sounds like the passes through the Cascades are pretty wicked. But that is really what I expected. It should be an interesting trek across Washington!
Of course, once I got settled in my funky motel room and found my first laundromat of the trip, it stopped raining for the day. Oh well - I have clean clothes, I'm dry, and I had a good dinner. More riding tomorrow.
