We left about 9:30 this morning after having breakfast in our room. We were not in too big of a hurry because it was raining. When it seemed to clear up, we hit the road.

This morning we stopped at a volunteer fire house. They were out cleaning all the equipment for an open house to the public tomorrow. They let us use the bathroom and we found out one of the guys had hunting land in Wisconsin, near Black River Falls, so he knew where we were from. We are far enough away that the only cities we can usually tell people are Madison or Wisconsin Dells. Sometimes we can just say "the middle of the state," so it was kind of neat to meet someone who could place us in our city.

Luckily we had to cross into Idaho for a few miles to cross a river before heading back into Washington. After having lost the Blisters roll to carry the game, I had one more chance to give it to someone else. We stopped for lunch in Usk and everyone rolled. Chris lost and now has to carry Blisters for the rest of the trip. It is funny because Chris made up this new rule to not have to carry the game, but he has ended up carrying it more than anyone else!

Usk was our only town in between stopping points today. We stayed on a road that followed a river. It was relatively flat and we had a TAILWIND today for the first time in what feels like forever! We made very good time today and finished our miles in about four and a half hours.

We also noticed that our bikes are performing much better after some cleaning, oiling, and general care yesterday. We are also performing a little better after getting a little extra rest on our half-a-rest-day.

We stopped for the day in Ione and found a very nice motel room on the edge of town. They even had a nice laundry area with several washers and dryers so we did not have to stay up late waiting for clothes to finish. We walked to the grocery store for dinner and breakfast items and ate in our room. We also gave one more spray of sealer on the girls tent. Hopefully this will help Katie and I stay a little more dry the next time we camp.

Tomorrow we will have a big climb right away in the morning. We will then spend most of the day going down in elevation. Unfortuneately, this will mean lots of climbing the following day when we must go over Sherman Pass at over 5 thousand feet. This is not as high in elevation as Logan Pass on Sun Road, but it will be a bigger climb because we are starting lower. We hope to make it to the bottom of the pass tomorrow so we get a good nights sleep to prepare for the pass.

53 miles (1723 total)