6 August 2024 * Day 10 * Coeur d’ alene, id
420 Miles Completed
- 6 august 2024
coeur d’ alene, id
day 10
“Throwing in the towel”
When we went to Spokane on Saturday to have the rear wheel looked at, not good news. It had been “bent” and a new wheel was advised. Unfortunately the wheel is a custom size and would need to be ordered/fabricated from the original bike builders in Seattle. We were looking at another week or so delay. The Spokane shop was able to straighten out the bent wheel, but it will likely bend again and even as infrequent bike shops are across the US, not every bike shop would be able to help us if it became unrideable again. We decided to ride for on for a day or two and decide what to do. Hold up for a while and wait for a new wheel? Ride on and hope the wheel holds and if it doesn’t go through the whole tow-truck/adjust spokes as we go to keep on the road? Or throw in the towel and walk away while we were still ahead? This has been very challenging. We completed 420 miles and 12,700 feet of climbing. I realized the cycling as tough as it is, was not the hardest part. Keeping yourself healthy and the bike happy takes just as much time and energy. We have enjoyed our trip across Washington State as much as we have been tired, sore, and uncomfortable . The appeal of continuing for another 60 or days has dwindled. We are buying a truck, throwing the bike in back, and enjoying the easy life again. We thank everyone for their support…but Cat & Mouse are moving on to the next chapter of our lives happy, with some awesome memories of pushing ourselves past anything we have done before, and feeling accomplished in what we have done up to this point. Again THANK YOU!!!
- 4 august 2024
harrison, id
day 9 - 60 Miles
“good-bye washington state”
A break from the sun with some wet weather today. I guess 30% chance of rain means drizzling all day. It was a welcomed break from the heat thus far. However, lot of climbing today, soon after we crossed the Washington/Idaho border we had a monster 600+ feet hill. It was confusing as by eye we were on a flat, but we were going up 5-10% grades. The pay off was a nice 15 mile ride thru the Coeur d’ Alene trail along the lake.
- 2 august 2024
Cheney, WA
day 8 - 55 Miles
“the sun shined upon us today…”
We had a late start as I was still adjusting the rear wheel so it would roll properly. I did my best, but it probably needs to be professionally tuned. A great ride today, more of what we are accustomed too. Paved surfaces and more long gentile climbs vs the steeper rolling hills over loose surfaces we have encountered thus far. I was being a little hard on myself as I thought the road conditions were more favorable but I was still struggling to keep moving forward a bit. When we got to town I realized the temperatures had reached over 100 F on parts of our ride. I have never ridden in such heat. Yes it was a dry heat but, for most of the day we could not find a single spot of shade. The sun shined upon us today that we made it without any major mechanical issues with only one inner tube to spare, but it shined so well it cooked us a bit. We will ride up to Spokane tomorrow and visit a bike shop to pick up some more spares and hopefully get our rear wheel straightened out. I am realizing that as hard as the cycling is…the harder part of this adventure is the logistics and keeping ourselves and the bike healthy. Sorry todays pictures today aren’t as majestic, but this is what lunch looks like from a small country store and the best views of a 55 mile ride across the more desolate parts of Washington State.
- 1 august 2024
ritsville, WA
day 7 - 53 Miles
“Mixed results”
Started off with our new slimmer look and feel. But a couple of miles in we realized the trailer had the last laugh. The spokes on the rear tire have become very loose and way out of balance. I never knew this was a thing until we had the wobbly tire yesterday. It is advised to have a specialty tool and some experience, but all I have is a multi-tool and the will to continue with the knowledge of YTU (You Tube University) at hand. So we spent about an hour doing some self-roadside assistance. Straightened things up to the best I could and pressed. A very challenging ride today with rolling hills and gaining 2,000 feet in elevation. I messed up one turn and we ended up on a railroad maintenance trail parallel to our intended road. We soon felt we were not where we were supposed to be and along came a train passing and honking to reassure us that we needed to find our way back to the main road. Continued on and had a nice stop in Lind, WA for a grocery store lunch. Popped another tire soon after and changed it up and moved on. We might have to take a de-tour thru Spokane to get some more tire spares as we are getting low.
- 30 JuLY 2024
othello, WA
day 6 - 30 Miles
“time to revise our approach”
We started off by packing up camp and crossing the Columbia River. Soon after we hit a very rough spot on the trail. Sand and very loose gravel. We bounced back and forth from the trail and a gravel road having to push the bike almost as much as we could ride it all morning. Around 20 miles in we realized the trailer was causing the rear wheel to wobble making riding dangerous and now at a point where it could damage the bike itself. After 10 miles of pushing we realized it was getting late in the afternoon and we probably would not be able to make it to town before sunset. There would not be a good samaritan this time, and abandoning anything would be even more difficult to recover as we were so far out, about 15 miles. I decided to give in to reason and called a tow truck. What an interesting conversation that was “You need to tow a bicycle? Your bicycle has a trailer? Can you send us a picture?” We were pretty certain we would need to drop the trailer after the second axel break the other day and just needed to make it to the next town. So we are in the process of cutting our gear in half, and will continue bike only. Luckily there is a post office to send stuff off and a walmart in walking distance so we can try to find a duffle bag to tie down to the rear rack to add a little more storage space for our new set-up. Over all, knocked down today, but getting back up the best we can.
- 29 JuLY 2024
Vantage, WA
day 5 - 40 Miles
“the hits keep coming”
Had a great start today. Stopped by our favorite gas station in Kittitas, WA (they have some really awsome bacon on a stick, never found anything like it anywhere else). Had a little bit of a rough ride on the John Wayne Trail as it got very rocky and sandy at times. We almost sat down next to some rattle snakes at lunch (we were not as close as it looks in the video and had the bike between us). But on the home stretch… busted the rear axel again. We had a spare on hand this time but, have come to realize it’s not going to work pulling a trailer. In hind-sight all the reviews done on the trailer were out of the box and just one ride. Now I know why we hadn’t seen a long time user. We get about 100 miles out of an axcel it seems. So we are camped out for the night. Hopefully it will hold until we reach Othello, WA tomorow and we will try to cut down to just the bike. It will be tough as people typically have 2-4 storage bags per bike. With a tandem we are limited to sharing all of our storage for two in the same as a single rider. Not ideal, we are by no means minimalists, but that’s the only option we have to continue we can see.
- 27 JuLY 2024
ellensburg, WA
day 4 - 65 Miles
“Back on the road again”
We got an early start and cranked out some miles today. We were mostly on a gravel trail so I am pretty happy with the amount of miles we were able to get in. Saw some deer, bald eagles, and various critters along the way. We are getting far enough away from the Seattle area we are seeing less and less traffic on the trail. We went through three tunnels today, they can be pretty creepy as the only light is what you produce. Today when things were getting a little tough I thought to myself…well at least your rear axel isn’t broken. We will most likely be camping out tomorrow night, so no updates until Monday night. We have received several messages of moral support and we do really appreciate them. THANK YOU !!!
- 22 JuLY 2024
Snoqualmie pass, WA
day 3 - 30 Miles
“ups and downs”
Ups: We only had a 30 mile ride today, but with almost 3,000 feet in gain. To put that into perspective that is a bicycle ride to the top of the empire state building twice! This is a personal record for us in a single day as far as climbing. A lot of hard work but beautiful scenery and a stop by Rattlesnake Lake. What could go wrong???
Downs: Finishing the day on a closed trail with about 8 miles of climbing to go…our rear axel busted. No crash but an instant stop in forward momentum. We hopped off to do a damage assessment. Not good. We are 6 miles from civilization, cannot pull the trailer, and are riding without a rear axel (don’t tell Mouse but that could be pretty dangerous). What to do? Leave the trailer?? Leave the bike??? Walk to the next bus station and forget the whole thing???? NOPE. Along comes a Parks and Recreation’s truck. We have not seen anything other than a couple other cyclists and hikers on the trail all day. The two gentlemen graciously packed up the trailer and dropped it off at our hotel 8 miles away and we road the bike without a rear axel (again don’t tell Mouse this is not advised). We ordered a new axel and a spare to be shipped to us and will be holding up here for a couple of days. Not ideal as this is a skiing resort town and we are very off season. We will be dining at a gas station mostly, but again this is what this what adventure is all about right :) So give us a couple of days, by later this week we will be “On the Road Again”.
- 21 JuLY 2024
Tanner, WA
day 2 - 42 Miles
“Settling INto our new routine”
Had a great start this morning. Some welcomed cloud coverage and a nice ride along side Lake Washington. Over all we are getting a feel of the daily routine and adjusting as we go. Smooth riding until we ran into an unexpected trail closure and had to back track and re-route on a less favorable busy state road. It was tough going up for several miles on a very narrow shoulder. But so far traffic has been very gracious to us and we really appreciate it. At the top of the climb, we realized were at Snoqaulmie Falls. This was our first visit to the falls, I might have heard about it a couple of times. I am starting to realize this adventure is give and take. Hopefully the give keeps paying out more than the take!
- 20 JuLY 2024
Tukwila, WA
day 1 - 43 Miles
“So it begins”
We took off this morning for our first day. Of coarse we had a restless sleep last night with all the thoughts of this finally coming together. Did a little packing this morning and closed out our apartment and said goodbye to our land lady/friend. We have no home or car…just the bike and our gear. It is really nice to know every mile you complete is behind your vs. the training runs we have been doing. We did blow a tire innertube today, but it was old and not the most durable out there. Replaced it on the spot and went on. That is what this trip is all about, I just hope it was a fluke to happen on the very first day.
- 10 JuLY 2024
“The date is set”
We are planning on taking off on Saturday 20 July. We have put in over 800 miles in training since June. We are about as ready as we will ever be. We have made some gear and mechanical adjustments, but you can’t anticipate every mechanical issue as we have learned in the last couple of weeks of training rides. However no show stoppers yet :) We have been training thru the “Heat Wave” up here, so hopefully we will see cooler temperatures from here on out.
- 18 June 2024
“The Final Delay”
We were hoping to have a firm start date by now, however a situation is not resolving as we would have hoped. We have decided regardless of circumstances to start Mid-July as any later we would be missing the weather window for this endeavor. We might have to take a short couple day break during the ride to fly back and finalize things, then get back to the bicycle and continue on our way. Not ideal, but a solid solution. Again sorry for the delay, but it could not be avoided. However, we are taking this time to continue to improve our fitness levels and explore some local sites and attractions we never got around too over the last couple of years.
- 28 May 2024
“PREP -TIME”
We have a couple of things to finish up and an unexpected delay, but are estimating a start date around Mid-June now. Sorry for the delay but, it couldn’t be avoided. Good news is we will be able to get in a couple more training runs so we will be in good shape to take off a couple of weeks later than planned.
“Before the adventure”
We started planning this adventure after purchasing a tandem bicycle in 2021. Due to our physical sizes (Cat big, Mouse small) we required a tandem bicycle custom made from raw tubing and components to a finished sturdy machine. We are semi-experienced hikers/campers and will be trying out the bike-packing lifestyle. We have ridden over 1,000 miles on this tandem bicycle. We plan on cycling + or - 60 miles a day and are estimating 70 days of peddling to cover the 3,800+ miles and 84,000 feet of elevation gain/loss. With rest days and visits with family along the way, hopefully by setting off in late May mid June mid July we will make it to Orlando, FL before the end of Summer early Fall. We will stay in hotels when available and camp when needed. Several friends and family members have suggested we blog our journey. Please feel free to share with anyone who might enjoy keeping up with us on our adventure.
