The final Selkirk Loop ride…

Day 10. 8/28/24

Newport WA to Sandpoint ID

Stats: 34 mi. AIS: 3:21. 10.1 mph. 1174 elevation gain

Our campground last night was very quiet… in terms of very few campers. In our non-electric area just one other (young) family. They did have an infant that was unhappy for a little while as we were falling asleep. Lucky for us… and luckier for them… it was short lived unhappiness.

Woke up this morning and it was chilly, calm and very pretty on the river.

We left camp at about 8:30am and found another road to connect us to Old Priest River Road without having to backtrack on all the steep hills. I was dreading walking my bike up. Just one walk out of the campground and then a short one before the main road.

The road into Priest River was about 10 miles following the Kootenai River. It was rolling hills with curves of course. Some busy morning traffic. In Priest River we stayed on the south side of the river onto Dufort Road. Similar road… narrow, rolling ups and downs and busier. We were on this road for maybe 18 miles. It was really pretty with views of the river and then away into farms and a couple of pretty small ranches. The river in this section was not as channelized as yesterday. Seemed more like a lake with gentler river frontage for the homes. The homes also appeared to be of a more expensive type than yesterday as well.

Traffic on Dufort Road

We were about halfway through our stretch of this road with busy traffic when we realized it was the main route for all the people from Priest River or anywhere near there to drive to Couer d’ Alene or Spokane. All the usual lumber trucks, white pickups (galore), cars, etc. were busy going “to town”. The scariest was a big semi filled with sawdust. He passed me at the same time as an oncoming car as I was going uphill. He was close.. maybe 1.5 to 2 ft max. That got my attention…especially because he was SO BIG and so loonng! Yikes!

After that experience I started to just stop if there was a blind hill and a big truck was coming up on me. I’m sure we were both grateful.

After the turnoff (Spirit Lake Cutoff) the traffic going in our direction dropped dramatically. Pleasant experience again.

Final Roll into Sandpoint

We came off our little backroad onto busy Hwy 95. We were on the highway for about 2 miles. It was heavy traffic but great big shoulder… so everything was good. About 6 miles out of Sandpoint we took a “paved” bicycle trail all the way into Sandpoint. The trail is not very well maintained and had tree root heaves and big cracks and was pretty bumpy. Happy for mountain bike experience where you don’t sit down and just ride the obstacles.

Before entering Sandpoint there is a very long bridge (1mile?) to get there. The good thing about this trail is it leads to an old highway that is for bike/pedestrian only. From there Sandpoint has a nice trail into their city center!

That’s it! We arrived at 12:30 pm. We picked our way through downtown to the hotel where our car was waiting for us. Loaded up all our gear, found a sandwich spot and departed.

I dubbed our backroad today “The American Flag” road. From leaving the campground almost every driveway entry or home was flying an American flag. I’m not exaggerating that it was easily 8 out of 10 homes. I’ve never seen so many in a concentrated area. Patriot country without a doubt! Punctuated by the billboard above near Bonner’s Ferry.

Headed Home…

We decided to take a different route home. We headed north to Bonner’s Ferry ID then took Hwy 2 to Libby MT. We were back following the Kootenai River as it swings through Montana coming from Canada.

Before Libby we stopped to see Kootenai Falls. It was about 1/2 mile down to get a good look at the falls. It was definitely worth the jaunt. This falls was made famous in a movie “The River Wild” (1994) starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon (as the bad guy). It’s a good thriller movie.

From Libby we turned further north to follow Lake Koocanusa (Libby Dam). This lake backs up into Canada…almost to Cranbrook BC. It’s huge and beautiful. Sorry no photos.. we were driving and daylight was diminishing. I’ve lived in Montana most of my life and have never seen that lake or Eureka. Stunning mountain country.

Our stop tonight is Eureka. Motel stop… the kind we are used to on bicycle adventures. Low key, small town, simple, not fancy, clean but “old”. There actually aren’t any other choices in Eureka. Our goal tomorrow is to go through Glacier National Park… Going to the Sun Highway. We weren’t fast enough at 7pm to get a “car reservation” to enter the park. Unless one becomes available we will kill time in Whitefish and hit the park entrance at 3pm when it opens to anyone.

Whatever works…. I’ll probably post GNP tomorrow plus the final stats for the Selkirk Loop.