Saturday 6/23/2012 we left Spokane heading for Sandpoint Idaho. Idaho is beautiful. Green does not describe it. Everywhere we looked were lakes and rivers. It was truly beautiful. It was a perfect biking day. Good weather, rolling hills and a small tailwind. It was 77 miles and an easy ride EXCEPT for the fact that I got 4 flat tires in one day. I had them at mile 10, mile 50, mile 60 and mile 73 just before camp. When I got to camp I took my bike apart looking for a reason. We looked at all the tubes and the punctures were in all different places so we called it back luck and went to bed. When we went to bed it was a beautiful clear evening. Around 4am all hell broke loose with thunder,lightening and a torrential downpour. Luckily my tent surrived and it stopped raining before we got up in the morning.
Sunday we rode 86 miles into Montana. It stayed green and we rode along a huge lake all day. We saw a moose, a bear, two deer and another torrential thunder storm. Mother Nature is having a lot of fun with the Big Ride this year.We camped at the local high school in Thompson Falls ,Montana and were warned not to have any food in our tents as the bears are active. it was an uneventful night for once and we awoke rested and ready for our105 mile day from Thompson Fall to Missoula Montana. Once again it was a beautiful day . Blue skies a little head wind in the first half of the day and the a tail wind as we got closer to Missoula. There was one long 5 mile climb but then there was a great 14 mile down hill coming into town. We now are at the University of Montana for our second day off. One full week done, six more to go, but I have learned a lot about riding and about myself. I am really glad that I am doing this.