Thursday, June 08, 2006
Bellingham to Libby, MT
Bellingham, WA to LIbby, MT
After yesterday, today was a kind of anticlimax. Got up early and took off about 0630 local time. It was a bit chilly, but I thought it would warm up, so all I had on was my poly shirt.
15 minutes later I stopped to put on the fleece; 15 minutes later I stopped to put on the wind jacket...
15 minutes after that I went full bore - like I should have done in the first place - and pulled out the electric liner. First time I've used that since Maine. I reasoned that since I was headed for the mountains, I was gonna need it anyway, soooooo....
Headed easily up the face of the Cascade Mountains. The road is not nearly as challenging as the Rockies, but still fun. By the time I got to Washington Pass (elev 5477') it was COLD - 41* On top of that, there was a bit of fog in the air making it a damp, chilling cold, not the dry cold - oh, never mind!! There was still snow up at these altitudes, a lot of it in a few places and well as on the mountain peaks. One of the informational posters said that these ranges provide up to 1/3 of all the water for Seattle.
Got to Spokane and stopped to recheck my route on the computer - looks like a very pretty city with 3 universities, some extensive renovations going on, etc.
At Coeur d'Alene I turned north and went up to Sandpoint, another very pretty town, but a bit too far north for me. I'm certain they get just buckets of snow in the winter. On the way to Kalispell, I stopped to see the Grand Coulee Dam - very impressive. It's the largest concrete structure in the world.
Got into Montana, lost an hour and stopped at Libby for the evening.
Daily stats:
Odo: 50380
GPS: 529.2
Driving avg: 56.3
Overall avg: 44.5
Driving time: 9:24
Stopped time: 2:30
Total time:11:54
Cumulative miles: 9266
Later,
Mike
After yesterday, today was a kind of anticlimax. Got up early and took off about 0630 local time. It was a bit chilly, but I thought it would warm up, so all I had on was my poly shirt.
15 minutes later I stopped to put on the fleece; 15 minutes later I stopped to put on the wind jacket...
15 minutes after that I went full bore - like I should have done in the first place - and pulled out the electric liner. First time I've used that since Maine. I reasoned that since I was headed for the mountains, I was gonna need it anyway, soooooo....
Headed easily up the face of the Cascade Mountains. The road is not nearly as challenging as the Rockies, but still fun. By the time I got to Washington Pass (elev 5477') it was COLD - 41* On top of that, there was a bit of fog in the air making it a damp, chilling cold, not the dry cold - oh, never mind!! There was still snow up at these altitudes, a lot of it in a few places and well as on the mountain peaks. One of the informational posters said that these ranges provide up to 1/3 of all the water for Seattle.
Got to Spokane and stopped to recheck my route on the computer - looks like a very pretty city with 3 universities, some extensive renovations going on, etc.
At Coeur d'Alene I turned north and went up to Sandpoint, another very pretty town, but a bit too far north for me. I'm certain they get just buckets of snow in the winter. On the way to Kalispell, I stopped to see the Grand Coulee Dam - very impressive. It's the largest concrete structure in the world.
Got into Montana, lost an hour and stopped at Libby for the evening.
Daily stats:
Odo: 50380
GPS: 529.2
Driving avg: 56.3
Overall avg: 44.5
Driving time: 9:24
Stopped time: 2:30
Total time:11:54
Cumulative miles: 9266
Later,
Mike
