Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for August, 2009

Sunday, August 2nd – Kooskia, ID to Chief Timothy Campground, WA (10 miles into Washington State)

It was a good thing we didn’t camp on the grass at the city park last night since I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of sprinklers going off everywhere in the park. They must have been all hidden in the grass and automatically come up at a certain time. It was amusing nonetheless, because the cop had driven by earlier in the evening and didn’t stop to talk to us, so maybe he thought we’d learn we weren’t supposed to camp there once we got soaked by sprinklers. Who knows? Either way, we didn’t get in trouble for overnighting in the city park and we were told the cop was cool (by the cashier at the grocery store), so we weren’t worried.

Waking up in Kooskia, Idaho

The alarm didn’t go off on my GPS this morning because the batteries were too low, so that was annoying. We woke up an hour later, at 6:30 instead of 5:30 and packed up and rolled out of town at 7:45 this morning. We were aiming to do 100+ miles and head past Lewiston and into the state of Washington.

Scenery along the river in Idaho

We breaked at a small town up the road (7 miles) and grabbed a donut and lemonade for fuel, then we continued to Orofino where we bought meat and cheese to put on bagels. There Joe (one of the guys from a couple days ago) caught up to us, but Geordie wasn’t with him. They had split this morning as Joe wanted to finish sooner and he knew we were taking a short-cut across Idaho and Washington to get to Oregon faster. Geordie was going to continue on the transamerican route and finish in Astoria, Oregon. So Joe rode with us the rest of the day to Lewiston and I went ahead for the last 10 miles or so leading into Lewiston. Turns out Chase wound up with a front flat tire a few miles outside of town and he tried fixing it, but didn’t have any great luck. His tire seems to have a slow leak and the second tube he put in also didn’t seem to work too well, and he has yet another flat.

Patrick and Theresa Peters from British Columbia

In Lewiston, we refill on water and then about 2 hours after I got in, we depart to continue riding a little further down the road to see how far we get. Not even 7 miles outside of Clarkston, Washington (we crossed into Washington between Lewiston and Clarkston when we crossed the Snake River), did Chase wind up with another slow leak on his front tire. He pumped it a few times and continued riding – it made it far enough to get us another 4 miles or so down the road to a campground next to the river. We pulled in there and debated whether or not we wanted to pay the ridiculous $22 campsite fee for tents. We decided to ride through first and check out the campsite and see if any were available. As we rode in, we met a couple (Patrick and Theresa Peters ) walking their cat (yes, a cat) and so we stopped to chat.

Morris, the cat on a leash

Their cat is awesome and is on a harness with leash as they’re on a 10-week vacation around the States. They’re from Vancouver in British Columbia and they offered to let us camp on their campsite and so we rolled on over there and set up while they went for a cat walk around the campground. Patrick and Theresa got us cold drinks and some watermelon and cantelope which was amazing. We sat around chatting for a bit and then I went off to shower. By the time I got back, they had already gone to bed, but had told Chase we could use their propane stove if we needed/wanted to cook anything. So I got out my chicken and broccoli rice which I’ve been carrying since Kentucky probably and decided to make that. Now I’m completely exhausted and going to hit the sack – we covered another 87 miles today, so not too shabby. Unfortunately, tomorrow will start out with Chase trying to track down the leak in his tube/tire since his front tire is completely flat again.

Camping in Washington State with the Peters

Saturday, August 1st – Wendover Campground, ID to Kooskia, ID

Woke up at 5:30 and got rolling early so we would have time to check out the Jerry Johnson Hot Springs 8 miles down the road, so we rolled out of the campground around 6:30am and got to the hot springs around 7 or so and started to hike in. We found all three hot springs and took a dip in the last one which seemed to be the biggest one. It was neat and a first for me – I’ve only ever been in a hot spring where they made it a pool, like a swimming pool. That was in Peru last year on the way to Machu Picchu.

Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

We left the hot springs around 9:45 and continued downstream on Route 12 – a scenic road that runs by the river all through Idaho. It was nice except for the fact that there was a lot of traffic (RVs, and people on vacation) as well not having any shoulders really, so that was a bit frustrating. We stopped in the early afternoon in one spot to dip our feet in the river and cool off a bit – the temperatures during the day were over 103 degrees. The last 15 miles were pretty tiresome and we were exhausted. I think it was probably just the heat and trying to readjust to such hot temperatures. We ended the day of riding with some 85 or so miles and stayed in Kooskia’s city park – just camped out without tents under a pavilion.

For dinner, we wound up buying some pasta, alfredo sauce, and rotel and mixed all of that together and ate an entire bag of pasta! We were hungry and polished it all off. Off to bed around 10pm in hopes of getting an early start in the morning.

Chase enjoying the dinner we just made with our stoves