By some dumb luck, the hotel in Spokane was a block away from a bike shop, and on the Centennial Trail, which is a bike path that runs all the way from Spokane to Coeur d'Alene. I'd only found one route on the maps that I have, and that was Interstate 90, which was not a road I really wanted to take. (Riding a bike on the interstate in that area of the state is legal, but I didn't want to start out there!) Even though bike paths are not on my list of preferred riding routes (mostly because in my experience they tend to be over-utilized) - this one turned out to be very pleasant.
Back to Monday night. I managed to put the bike together before I totally ran out of energy. I went to sleep at 8PM, and dealt with packing the panniers in the morning. That wasn't a problem, since I woke up at 6AM. I dropped the bike case and duffel bag off at Mailboxes Etc. to be shipped to the Days Inn in Crescent City. I made a hotel reservation for the last night of my trip, and the hotel agreed to hold a (somewhat large) package for me. It's probably a good thing that I bought a soft-sided bike case. it would have been a bit over UPS's size limit without squishing it down.
I got on the road about 10AM, which is about what I expected. It was an uneventful but pleasant ride - on the bike path for the most part, although it did disappear for a couple of miles. (All right, it probably didn't disappear - I lost it!)
I ran into a cyclist from Spokane who flagged me down to ask if I had just come over the Cascades from west to east. I told him that I was just getting started, and probably doing the North Cascades backwards - from east to west. He had recently moved to Spokane from Washington DC. He was a very active rider, trying to figure out which way he wanted to ride across the Cascades. We had a nice conversation, then continued in opposite directions. I took a quick tour through Coeur d'Alene - pretty lake, nice park and beach. I had my usual first night argument with myself about hotel vs. camping. I only found one campground on a very busy road. I'm sure there must have been others, but I didn't see them. I opted for a hotel figuring I needed a quiet night's sleep. This should be the last "inside" night for a while.
