Day 11. Sandpoint, ID to Dorr Skeels Campground (outside Troy, MT), 70 miles

New day, new state! Welcome to Montana, folks. It’s a hands-off kind of state.

It was hard saying goodbye to the Yorks this morning, as well as to Luna, who snuggled with me in the early hours of the morning, and Coco, who is perfect at being loved. But they fueled me up with a pizza dinner and great conversation, gave me route counsel and coffee (with COCOA in it, y’all!), and the morning’s riding was grand. I spent much of it near but above the railroad (yay!) looking out at Lake Pend Oreille, and life was good.

Eastern North Idaho is kind of a dream, riding-wise: beautiful views, quiet roads, cool weather. I don’t have a complaint to register. At some point I thought my phone was buzzing behind me, which was odd because it was in my bar bag with the volume on. Turns out it was a cow lowing.

The wildflowers have turned to hairy vetch (it looks prettier than it sounds—what is a vetch, even?), yellow salsifies, and long-headed poppy. Still largely yellow and purple, perpetuating the mystery first uncovered with Joyce while observing midwestern ditch weeds: why are most wildflowers purple, yellow, and white? Entertaining theories (and even facts!) in the comments.

Clark Fork was an excellent resupply stop, meeting all my needs from Cow Tales to apples to Jack Daniels. The town store even had a book exchange, and I wished I had an excuse to take advantage, but given that I’ve made it maybe 30 pages into my Kindle library loan I … didn’t. The 9 p.m. involuntary bedtime is real, y’all.

I was on mostly lightly trafficked roads today, generally flattish or rolling. I found myself for the most part unbothered by the slow top third of the up-rolls; the fact that I knew they’d be over quickly and not just lead to a switchback and more climbing made them wholly tolerable and even an enjoyable change of pace at times. (Enjoyable: maybe an exaggeration. Fine? Not hateful?) And for long stretches I found myself on the ”old highway”—generally above the water, railroad tracks, and new highway, and as such nearly entirely deserted.

Nothing on the elevation profile intimidated me (!!!!), so I took it slow, with lots of breaks to sit and contemplate the snow-capped peaks to the north and the forested rolling mountains to the south. And to shove snacks in my face: sour strips, bananas and Reeses Peanut Butter cups, and hot and spicy Cheez-Its were some of the selections du jour. Also string beans! Mom!

I love being around all this water–Pace Creek, Bull River–and I know I won’t have it for quite a while through the plains, so I’m getting while the getting is good.

Dorr Skeels was a terrific USFS campground (despite the lack of showers, which is saying a lot!), with a site overlooking Bull Lake and only one other site occupied (by a hydrology student from Marquette, MI who inspected my set-up and pronounced it ”sick”).

Today, I must say, was a good day.