Short day today! We rode just under 40 miles today due to previous stayover changes and ended up in Coeur D’Alene. It’s the perfect place to have a long afternoon post-ride; our stayover is fantastic (showers! kitchen! basketball!) and the town is incredibly beautiful and bike-friendly. This morning was a bit iffy, as the AQI was deemed safe to ride, but the air visually suggested otherwise. Luckily, it got much better as the day went on and we all felt good to keep going. Even short ride days can feel long, especially when unexpected things like long gravel downhills, moose, and alpacas show up!

Within the first ten miles we saw the moose across a river from our bike trail, and later on in the day we rode past a farm that had alpacas, goats, and roosters. We took a good 15 minute break to watch the moose family and stopped to chat with the farmer for a decent while, so the ride though short was eventful. The last few hills of the day were stunning, as the air was clear and we rode along the edge of Lake Coeur D’Alene, approaching the town. Bang said that Lake Coeur D’Alene is the Lake Tahoe of northern Idaho… I would have to agree.

There’s so much you can do in a day when the ride is over before noon!! The team did what feels like a million different things, in groups and alone and as a whole. Additional bike rides up the nearby Tubbs Hill, a bit of hiking, reading or swimming at the beach, antique store and thrift shopping, laundry-doing, ice cream eating, BBQ and hoagie consuming, journaling, napping, walking, exploring, and of course sunset-watching. Coeur D’Alene is known for hosting Ironman Triathlons along with some other sporting events, so the town is super bike-friendly. We saw a handful of cyclists on our way in, and a bunch in town! It was the perfect place to have a full day, and I’m sad to be leaving tomorrow.

On the bright side, we cross into Washington tomorrow! It’s also another century, as usually precedes or follows a short ride day. We are also at the northernmost point of the entire ride, so from here on out it’s just south and west!

— Marielle