Just finished a 12 day tour and saw some amazing parts of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. It was a ton of climbing through the Cascades, but that meant fun descents too. Washington Pass was the most fun I’ve had on a descent!
Happy to help anyone (even if you see this in 2 years) plan the logistics of this route / answer questions, but I more or less followed the Northern Tier route to Sandpoint, ID (section 1), then took Route 200 east of Sandpoint to Route 56 in Montana, then went up Lake Koocanusa to Eureka, MT and followed the ACA Great Parks North Route to Missoula.
Lessons learned:
*Rural farm dogs were the biggest threat. I got viciously chased by one for a solid 3 minutes at full print, and in the future I’d have a defense tool of some sort. Another tourer I met had a retractable baton for this reason. I absolutely love dogs, but this dog wasn’t a loving golden doodle in the suburbs
*Don’t be afraid to hitchhike / take a ride for a sketchy section. I hitchhiked for a 30 mile stretch on Route 83 in Montana. There was no shoulder and 75 MPH traffic, and my instinct was telling me to catch a ride as it wasn’t worth risking my life
*If you’re in a remote area, always bring a water filter, bear bag and line, and (if you can afford it) a satellite communicator like an InReach
*99.9% of drivers are respectful. For the 0.1% of drivers that honk or flick you off, simply ignore them. They’re in a 4,000 pound vehicle and are already showing aggressive behavior, best to let it go as much as you want to flick them back off
*Riding in the rain is fine, just be prepared with the right gear and wait it out if it gets too heavy
by Senor_tiddlywinks
1 Comment
This is beautiful