Day 2, July 27: from bikeway to freeway

Harrison, ID - Haugan, MT http://cyclemeter.com/85ef50859d8f1e5c/Cycle-20150727-0734

Distance: 78.2 miles

Riding time: 6:10

Average speed: 12.6

Maximum speed: 25.5

Weather: 50° at 7:30 warming to the low 60s; alternating sun, clouds, with a little light rain that I avoided by waiting a few minutes. I did see a bank thermometer dropped from 60° to 56° in two minutes when some rain came through. In the afternoon and a tail wind of 10 mph came out of the west southwest.

Terrain: uphill 3026, downhill 3389. The route profile below shows an uptick at about the 63-mile mark - this is explained toward the end of this post. The profile also shows an extraordinary 15-mile downhill, the longest of my life.

My route is shown below. I followed the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes bike trail for the Idaho portion of the ride. After the gap in the route, the segment on the right is in Montana.

Chain of lakes panorama. The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes bisects the photo.

Moose in the water.

By about noon the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is drying out. This section is near Cataldo, ID.

Coeur d'Alene River, near Cataldo.

Couer d'Alene River.

The South Fork of the Couer d'Alene River, near Kingston, ID.

Space age styling in Wallace, ID. The white and red sphere in the center is a space capsule that you can sit in.

Suspended bicycles in Wallace, ID.

A changer in the weather. I had to wait a few minutes before returning to the trail.

At the 62-mile mark I got off the bikeway and onto the freeway for the final part of the day's ride. Many cross country bike riders doing a northern route across the US follow US 2, which runs close to the Canadian border, but I was taking a more direct route across Montana to the Twin Cities in Minnesota, so my intended route followed US 12. This route would save me two or three days of riding. This meant that I had to ride on I 90 for about 30 miles. More than a dozen states permit bicyclists on interstate freeways outside of urban areas or on at least some interstate routes specially designated to accommodate bikes.

I was steeling myself for a big 5-mile climb of 1,500 feet on I 90 up Lookout Pass but then I saw the sign below at the beginning of the hill. I called the number and 5 or 10 minutes later a highway employee drove me to the top of the hill in a van. This portion of I 90 was undergoing repair and there was not enough room for traffic and bicycles. 

My Cyclemeter app did not record any movement of my bicycle when the van carried my bike and me up the big hill.

The 15-mile downhill was a bit tense for me a few times because of several pulses of fast moving, heavy traffic and of accumulated grit on the shoulder but mostly vehicles moved over to the left lane giving me plenty of room on the wide shoulder.