day 86, Colville, WA 38 miles

After a hearty breakfast at the "Cabin" diner outside of Ione, we began climbing the long series of switchbacks that would take us west out of the Pend Oreille watershed and into the valleys of the Columbia. This is just a warm up of what is looming ahead of us in the North Cascades!

After going over the hump, we stopped at a general store by a lake dotted with camps. There we conversed with part of a group of a dozen "kid" cyclists (at 50 plus we are probably twice the age of the typical bike tourist) who were headed to Missoula. They confessed of sleeping late and had stopped in for a late breakfast of ice cream novelties.

We also stopped for pictures at the scenic overlook of Crystal Falls, a nice cool, shady cascade which gave us some relief from the increasingly hot afternoon.

Just outside of Colville we found Barry and Shelley's bike hostel, featuring a freezer stocked with 3 different flavors of ice cream (inc. "Tillamook Mudslide!"). Showers, soft mattress. kitchen- and it's all free! These guys rock!