Day 8. Outside Colville, WA to Panhandle Campground, 57 miles

Today started, as I knew it would, with the rest of the climb out of Colville, my last real climb for a couple of days. It took me a good while to get through those 20-something miles of making my way up 2000 feet or so, but after that it truly was, in the words of Googlemaps, mostly flat. Which means sometimes it was not, but truly it sometimes was. I found myself confused and almost irritated by those times, unsure whether or how to shift. Like, are we going up or down, guys?? What’s the deal?

A bit of a headwind kept me from pure, flatland elation, but it was some real nice riding along the Pend Oreille River. Which, like everywhere else, is running high and flooding in several spots. One of those is the boat launch at my evening’s campground.

The good spirits are helped along by the fact that today was my first dry, warm day. I dropped the leggings and then Smartwool, switching to shorts and a sunshirt (h/t Joyce) late morning. I even risked putting the rain pants in my pannier! And it was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not chilly even on the downhills. ❤️

This evening’s campground is great, and though every site is reserved for the weekend, I had my pick of sites for tonight and chose a wooded one from which I can see the river.

No shower or electric, but I have wipes and a power block, and I am enjoying being back outside to sleep again. And it’s my last night in Washington State! Tomorrow onward to Idaho for a rest day in Sandpoint with some cool-sounding Warm Showers hosts (who have a cat and a dog!) and hopefully dinner with a childhood camp friend, Kendall.