Day 9. 8/27/24 Metaline WA to Newport WA
Stats: 63 mi. AIS: 6:38. 9.6mph. 1823 elevation
The morning started really nicely. We departed the Bigfoot RV campground about 7:15am. We were on the road before the school buses and the semis. It took almost an hour to get the 9 miles to Ione WA. We decided we’d have breakfast at the little cafe there. It had rained a bit during the night so it was wet at our camp. Packing up and pedaling sounded like a better plan.
After breakfast we took a backroad all the rest of the day to Newport WA. It was a nice quiet road following the Pend Orielle River. The first couple of miles there was brand new asphalt but that was too good to last. We were on this backroad for 50 long miles. It was mostly flat all the way. However…. at about 10am a wind with gusts started to develop. This slowed our speed to about 8mph. It seemed like we were never going to get there.
The sky was overcast and rainy until shortly after starting on the backroad. It was cool and cloudy until about noon. We had some partial sun all afternoon. It was kind of a windbreaker on/off kind of day.
Variety of Staircases
It seems this 50 mile stretch of the Pend Orielle River from Ione to Newport is a continuous vacation home area. Some might be permanent homes but lots of cabins…. lot to lot… various sizes and ages. Sometimes it’s just a parked RV with waterfront. Most of them have stairs and docks for boats. It is a boating river because it is actually continuously dammed for hydroelectric power.
Since this was our view for 50 miles, I had hours to think about just the staircases from the homes to the docks! Some waterfront properties were on steep banks and some much closer to the water.
A few staircases were literally a straight stairway down…. Lots of steps! I would not want to carry much stuff to the boat. Thinking of coolers, food, floating toys, clothes… whatever.
Then there were staircases with one or two dog legs… much easier. Sometimes the dog legs had a bit of a landing. Good idea for staging the variety of things to be carried up and down!
The lucky ones had a nice two track type of road that gently went down a side angle to the dock.
Obviously I had too much time to ponder stairs and river life!
We didn’t really stop very often today. We took a quick lunch break at a road pullout. After lunch we had 26 miles to go. We were working against a headwind/crosswind and occasional strong gusts. Sometimes the road was deep in the trees which gave us a wide break. Felt like a long day.
When we got to Newport about 4pm. We opted for getting some deli food at Safeway to eat at our camp.
We’re camped at an Army Corps of Engineers campground. Not quite as nice as some others we’ve seen or stayed at but it has hot showers and we found an electric box at a building next to us to poach for our electronic needs. Biggest problem with this campground is that it’s at the bottom of a couple of steep roads. It’s going to be hike-a-bike out of here in the morning. Ugh😱.
Not very many pictures today… because honestly it wasn’t as scenic of a day. Continuous river front homes.
It was more of a grind due to the wind. But we made it! Tomorrow we will close out our Selkirk Loop and roll into Sandpoint from the west. About 35 miles. Looking forward to a shorter day, less wind and some sunshine.
cinnicrew 