6/26/17 Ride C2C Day 9 Kettle Falls to Ione

6/26/17 Day 9 Kettle Falls to Ione
Miles: 58.7. Total Miles: 481.2
Break Camp: 7:00am - Make RV Camp at 3:20pm

Elevation Gain: 3287 feet (this was supposed to be an "easy" day)

Total Trip Elevation: 18,900 feet - about

It's a day of miscalculated miles, underestimated climbs, and unanticipated heat.

We have a big miles day ahead and so we are up at 5:15am, enjoying a cool morning’s view over the serene Lake Roosevelt. Doug makes scrambled eggs with turkey and Parmesan cheese in a wrap along with coffee for breakfast while I break down the tent. We are starting to settle in to our “make camp” and “break camp” routines.

The biggest dandelion you'll ever see - 6" wide? Packing up at Kettle Falls National Campground with Lake Roosevelt in the background.

We mount up for the immediate climb out of our camp up to the town of Kettle Falls where we followed a backroads away from HWY 20 almost all the way to Colville. In Colville we bought groceries for lunch and breakfast, thinking that we’d wait to buy dinner supplies closer to the end of our ride (carrying meat in our hot bags all day did not seem like a good idea). I splurged and bought 2 pistachio muffins which turned out to be white cake with green food coloring and very little nut anything. Quite disappointing.

We follow our map’s side route out of Colville (again, off HWY 20) with a start up a “Alabama-esque” hill (Bellinghamsters - you’ll know how steep that is) and get a little lost in a neighborhood since the map forgot to mention one of the roads.

A little yard entertainment while we are finding our way out of Colville

Have no fear, google maps saves the day and off we go on a mostly up roller coaster road through some of the most beautiful farmlands (wheat) and rolling hills all around us. I keep saying “this is such a pretty road!”

Today turned out to be WAY more up than we thought, and longer in miles to Ione too. We climbed and we climbed - we stopped for lunch in the hot sun at an overlook of Chrystal Falls. We made tortilla roll-ups with ham and cream cheese. I’m tempted to nap on the rock, but the sun is too hot and we need to move on.

Tortilla-ham-cream cheese roll ups what Chrystal Falls in the background Naps on warm rocks are so tempting

About 6 miles after lunch we see another cycle tourist coming our way and he pulls over to our side of HWY 20 for a chat. Barry is riding from his home in Coeur d’Alene to a small town named Miles south of Kettle Falls.

It’s hot, it seems like it is takIng forever to get anywhere. We finally reach a (false) summit and pull in to the Beaver Creek Lodge for a cold drink and chat with the good ole boys out front.

The beaver on the roof reeled us in.

We are high on a plateau of forests and lakes. Hwy 20 is smooth without much traffic. FINALLY the steep descent with multiple S-Curves to HWY 31 north to Ione.

It was 3pm, HOT, a big headwind, HOT and we were tired. We miscalculated the mileage and it was too many more miles in the heat and headwind to go to the campground we planned on. It turned out we climbed 3287 feet today - no wonder we are tired (three days in a row of riding over 3,000 vertical feet). Instead of going on, we rode 1 mile to the Cedar RV park. At first look it wasn’t so promising, but then Gabe showed us the tent site in a cedar grove with plenty of grass, newly rebuilt restrooms/showers, laundry, and then… He pulled out folding chairs for us and plugged in a FLOOR FAN (out on the lawn) and we were in heaven. Oh yes, he has an outdoor kitchen set up too - a range! A BBQ! A sink with hot and cold. Gabe is now at the top of our RV Camp site list.

 Camping hospitality at its best. Thanks Gabe at Cedar RV Camp!Outdoor kitchen for us to use. We had porkchops, sautéed mushrooms, and mashed potatoes, with some Merlot.

He came by with a weather warning of thunder showers and rain - sure enough we pulled our stuff to a covered area and are right now listening to thunder overhead with steady rain cooling the air. Ahh… Life is good.

Wild Turkeys in the yard!