Day 43 - Wednesday October 7th

Sandpoint, ID to Colville, WA
110.11 miles
7:33.39 hrs
35.5 max
14.5 avg

With a days rest under my belt, a new wheel, a new chain and a full belly I was ready to take the rest of the trip on with force! I had a few things to take care in town before I left and this lead to a late start, once again. The day was gorgeous and I was not worried about anything! I was heading towards the coast and was only one state away from completing an amazing feat in itself (cycling coast to coast).

I had a connection in Colville, WA from a dear friend and had a long way to to today. Of course with my late start and the recent loss of time via time zone change I had to accept the fact that I would be pulling into my final destination well after dark. It is now dark at 7pm and I was 20 miles, and a 2500 foot climb away from Emily's (friends contact's) house. As I climbed the mountain under the rubber of my tires I was spooked by a sudden ghostly white face looking at me from the ditch of the road. After collecting myself, I realized that the side of the roads were not fenced and there were random cows around many of the corners both in the ditches and on the road. At this point on my accent I was not using a headlight because there were no cars on the road and the stars and moon above were bright enough for me to see the road clearly. After a few of these scares from black cows with white faces, I decided to use my headlamp about half way up the accent.

Once I reached the top of the mountain, I was in awe of the stars and moon. The scenery must have been gorgeous during the day but there was no point in fretting over not seeing it because my experience that night was different than anything else I had seen thus far on the trip. It was so peaceful and meditative to be riding in such conditions. Not that you should meditate while riding a bike, in the cold and dark. If it was not so cold I would have loved to ride like that every night!

I pulled up to Emily's family's house cold, wet and with my legs feeling pretty worn out. It was about 8:30pm and was warmly welcomed by some great people! It was a pleasure to get to know the McBlair family. I appreciated the food and lodging they supplied immensely! They definitely went out of their way whenever they could to make sure I was in a good place. They also supplied me for some more potential connections for the rest of my trip. Many thank yous to the McBlair family!