Day 10: Sandpoint ID to RV park in MT

We met up with the group at Wal-mart. Morale was low because of the extra miles the ones that went back to the campsite had to log and the dodgy start to our longest scheduled day so far; 81.6 miles. The first 35 miles were beautiful as we continued to travel along the shore of Lake Pend Oreille (pic). Some of the fast riders spotted 2 moose in a marshy area of the lake but they moved behind brush before their pictures could be captured. Traffic was somewhat heavy but the miles ticked off. We were passed by a fast group of riders. They had shared the same campgrounds so most of our group recognized them. We caught up with them in the town of Clark Fork and made a brief video of them which appears on http://starjumpsforjoy.blogstop.com. They are 16-18 year olds from New England biking across America raising money for cancer research(pic). From Clark Fork we took a longer more scenic route away from the traffic we had been encountering that morning. Before we got halfway through the 14 mile scenic route a cold rain started to fall and we got soaked. A nice man named Steve came by and mentioned that he was building a house and had the roof on and we could stay there and dry off and even spend the night if necessary. The road to his house was the first one after the road surface changed, i.e. the first piece of property in MT. We went done to his new house and enjoyed his hospitality for a couple hours until the sky cleared off and we moved on. Now hours behind schedule on our long 81 mile day. The next 4 or 5 miles of road in Montana were rough (pic) but it was worth it, some of the best pictures of the trip were captured along that stretch. Field after field of daisies and wildflowers with mountains as backdrops (pic) made up for the minefield like quality of the road. Soon we were at and intersection and our natural tendency was to continue to the right into the town of Heron. We crossed the RR tracks which was mentioned in the route list and continued on down the road to a beautiful lake feed by a waterfall; clicking of dozens of more pictures. Next the road turned to gravel, this caused pause with our more experienced touring cyclist and the route maps came out and we realized we were 3 or 4 miles off course and on a dead end road. With no other options, we headed back. Stopping for a snack break in front of the Heron Store General Merchandise where I snapped a photo of the way they grow there shingles up here in Montana (pic). I hear the store has a lovely bathroom, sorry no photo of the WC(ask Stillwater Susan for details). Chain/Derailleur problems further delayed our exodus and when we made it back to the main road, SH200, we knew stopping at the nearest campsite was our only choice. Exhausted we showed up at a RV campground near the intersection of SH 200 and SH 56 just in time to set up our tents before another rain shower hit. 25 miles short of out 81 mile destination. All my clothes were soaked, my panniers weren’t at all waterproof and I hadn’t taken care to place my clean clothes in Ziploc bags because they were still moist from washing the previous day. The most miserable, depressing, emotional end to an interesting day full of unplanned occurrences.