Oldschool
Moderator
Day 10
172 km for the day
We once again enjoyed the roller coaster #5 east into St. Maries (and the morning sun) to a breakfast stop on the main drag. It was the only one open early and you know what that means… There were some entertaining locals inside including the local law man ("you boys ain't from around here are ya'?"), who was able to offer insight into our intended trail. Baldy Mountain road, “it’s a bit steep and rocky up top but you’ll have no trouble on those”, motioning to the bikes parked outside. Our goal today was just to get to Bayview at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille but it was almost all off pavement.
Photo courtesy of Ian. A bike clean before chain clean (I only did the bottom half of the bike, I swear).
The heat was pushing up the mercury fast so it would be a warm one. We headed out on St. Joe River road to Baldy Mountain road which was entertaining right from the start. Steep and full of tight switch backs that went on for a long time. On one steep dusty bit I took the wrong track and had to muscle the bike around to get pointed in the correct direction. There was a short break from the action at Cataldo and the Kwik stop there. We talked to another rider on BMW road bike coming back from a Rally out west. Up Coeur D’Alene River road to Little North Fork Rd. until a detour sign made us take a break to re-plot our course. In the end, following the detour signs took us on the same path as my careful, quick re-ploy did. We did come into a rather dead end section on NF-209, but after a little recon, decided to listen to the advice of a local (this could be scary) and go back to Bunco road which took us all the rest of the way in to the south end of Farragut State Park. We went into the park and got a campspot then carried on to Ralph’s Café in Bayview (should “Ralph” be in a restaurant name? I think not) for food. The food was better than the name suggested, but the place is tiny, also serving as an internet hotspot.
Other than the kids and dogs the “Whitetail” campground, one of a few in the park, was quite nice, with full wash and bath facilities within site of our spot. The spot had well groomed pea gravel over the whole site and lots of large tree coverage. It was another short and relaxing day.
172 km for the day
We once again enjoyed the roller coaster #5 east into St. Maries (and the morning sun) to a breakfast stop on the main drag. It was the only one open early and you know what that means… There were some entertaining locals inside including the local law man ("you boys ain't from around here are ya'?"), who was able to offer insight into our intended trail. Baldy Mountain road, “it’s a bit steep and rocky up top but you’ll have no trouble on those”, motioning to the bikes parked outside. Our goal today was just to get to Bayview at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille but it was almost all off pavement.
Photo courtesy of Ian. A bike clean before chain clean (I only did the bottom half of the bike, I swear).
The heat was pushing up the mercury fast so it would be a warm one. We headed out on St. Joe River road to Baldy Mountain road which was entertaining right from the start. Steep and full of tight switch backs that went on for a long time. On one steep dusty bit I took the wrong track and had to muscle the bike around to get pointed in the correct direction. There was a short break from the action at Cataldo and the Kwik stop there. We talked to another rider on BMW road bike coming back from a Rally out west. Up Coeur D’Alene River road to Little North Fork Rd. until a detour sign made us take a break to re-plot our course. In the end, following the detour signs took us on the same path as my careful, quick re-ploy did. We did come into a rather dead end section on NF-209, but after a little recon, decided to listen to the advice of a local (this could be scary) and go back to Bunco road which took us all the rest of the way in to the south end of Farragut State Park. We went into the park and got a campspot then carried on to Ralph’s Café in Bayview (should “Ralph” be in a restaurant name? I think not) for food. The food was better than the name suggested, but the place is tiny, also serving as an internet hotspot.
Other than the kids and dogs the “Whitetail” campground, one of a few in the park, was quite nice, with full wash and bath facilities within site of our spot. The spot had well groomed pea gravel over the whole site and lots of large tree coverage. It was another short and relaxing day.
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