Andre, Pat, Alex and I spent a day and a half tooling around the Couer d'Alene National Forest. I'm hoping Pat or Alex will have all the maps and ride report detail. I'm going to skate by with a few pics and some witty commentary.
In no particular order:
The obligatory Alex flat. This was about 15 minutes from camp. We had ridden about 50 miles. It felt like most of it was up hill. Alex picked out an alternate way to the camp. He called it the "Wuss Route" because it looked like it cut a few miles off the planned route. We'd done a bit of the planned route before and it ended with about 6 miles on the one lame road in the entire CDA Nat'l Forest, so Alex picked out the Wuss Route, which was almost all climb. It was a lot of climbing, but it was worth it and it was a pretty route.
We car camped. I slept on a foam mattress that is more comfy than my home mattress. We had beer aplenty. Good food, cooked on one of 5 burners. A proper ax for collecting wood. I went to bed at 8:09 on Friday night and slept like a babe.
Speaking of babes, congrats to Pat and Elissa, of Scoop fame, who had a baby girl early on Saturday. Pat: I guess it was a good call that you didn't come on this one.
The Elephant. Perfect bike for this kind of riding. I can't decide if I like it more shod with Hetres and fenders for city living, or with knobbies for forest riding. It's great in either case. You can see the same pic, but with a different bike and in June here.
Saturday morning we had a couple hours to explore. We found some roads on the GPS that were closed/blocked off. There's so much to explore up there.
I plan on spending some time in the Colville Nat'l Forest next summer. I really like taking long day rides through the forest. It's quiet. The climbs are wonderful and the views at the top of the climbs are huge. The old roads and structures are cool too.
Bird's eye view. Nearing the top of the Wuss Route.
Alex and Andre flew over so they're on borrowed bikes. Alex rode the Rawland. Andre borrowed Pat's new 29'er. No issues.
Fun ride.
Pat post
I'll unload the routes from my GPS soon. Thanks for inviting us over, I had a great ride and the Rawlands fit perfectly (I didn't even adjust the saddle). CdA is a great area, and I hope to make it out for a weekend next summer too. Flying and borrowing a bike certainly made that easier.
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