Brad decided that he would be joining me again this year for the long ride. He even provided a couple different route options. However, as it got closer to the day, he decided that he was "concerned" about some work stuff and needed to attend some meetings in the morning. So, it was decided that we would do a shorter route north of his place allowing him time to attend his meetings before leaving. Along with that, I would be able to leave a bit earlier from my house and take a longer route to his house, therefore giving me more seat time.
Come Monday morning the day began with me getting the bike loaded up and ready to go.
Once ready, I got a picture and then headed out a little after 7:00.
I headed down Bryden Canyon and to the end of Fleshman way. I turned north onto 15th St, crossing Highway 12, across Red Wolf bridge and onto Wawawai Road. Following that road along the river, passing by several camps. I expected it to be a bit cooler and to be in the shade a bit more, but the sun was already high in the sky and it was already starting to warm up.
I made a quick stop at the first left turn to stay down by the river and made some adjustments to which device I was getting audio from. I then made another quick stop at the Wawawai County Park to make an adjustment to my "back rest".
Continuing on, I came to and took the turn onto the Wawawai-Pullman road. Following this until 195, where I turned south for a mile or so, turning onto S. Grande Ave (highway 27). Taking that over to SE Bishop Blvd which I took around to Main which turns into 270 aka Pullman Moscow Highway. Reaching Moscow, I made my way to Lenville Rd which I followed to the Anderson Ranch.
By taking this route to get to Brads, I was able to get in 67 miles.
Brad was still on the phone, so I sat and chatted with Shelley. Eventually, I looked at the clock and saw it was after 9:00 and I said, "Brad, we're late". Of course, his response was, "I've been ready."
We climbed upon our steeds and headed north.
Our first destination was the Steptoe Butte.
Both Brad and I are pretty sure that the road has not gotten any better since the last time either of us was on it.
We each got a few pictures taken and then headed back down.
Back on the main road, we headed north east through Oaksdale over to Tekoa, intending to turn east. However, we were stopped for road construction with signs saying loose gravel. Brad decided we would go another way to avoid it. When we got to Latah, we stopped and he though maybe we could take the Wheeler Rd back road. I consulted the GPS and said that I was pretty sure it would turn to gravel. Rather than hedge our bets, we continued on.
Reaching Fairfield, Brad saw a sign that said "Plummer" and thought, "surly they wouldn't have a sign on a road that turned to dirt." So we went out on Bradshaw Rd 5 miles where sure enough, it turned to gravel. You know, for someone with such an aversion to gravel, he sure is drawn to it. As I am typing this I'm thinking... "Brad, are you sure that sign said Plummer and not Plumber?" Anyway, we turned around and headed back.
Having been on the road 67 more miles than Brad, my low fuel light has been on for a while. I mean, a trip isn't a good trip if you don't almost run out of gas at least once. So, as we got back into Fairfield, we stopped at an unmanned filling station to fill up.
Now we continued our way north to Rockford where we turned and headed back east by south east. Passing through Plummer we turned and headed for St. Maries.
Going through the windy roads, I quickly found that I had a tendancy to throttle through/out of corners faster than Brad. So, I needed to be careful if we went into a corner too close together. If I was close to him, I was soon taking the outside edge of the corner, giving me the longer distance to travel and giving him more space. Not that this was really much of an issue, as we usually had plenty of room between us.
Reaching St. Maries about 13:15, we once again stopped for lunch at Cabin City Q.
Here is Brad, preparing to dig in.
We took our time and had a good chat while eating.
Before carrying on with the trip, we made some adjustments to our wardrobe, as it was getting pretty warm. Once that was done, we headed south east on our way to Elk River.
Arriving, we headed to the Anderson Ranch Satellite Campus lot.
Brad took and sent me a couple of pictures.
One where I'm standing on the lot and the other I'm riding back down the road after checking it out.
After checking out the lot, we stopped to see if Rob (the land guy) would be at Log Inn, but they weren't open. So, we headed over to Tom's Tavern, where we hung out and chatted with a few different people.
Now, we headed back to Bovill and got on highway 8 and headed back to Brad's. We got there about 18:15, which lines up with the same time (give or take a few minutes) we got there last year. Talk about timing, we probably couldn't have done better if we had tried.
We hung out chatting for a while and then Taylor showed up and joined in. After a while, Shelley got out some chips and a dip type supper and we all ate.
At about 20:15 I said my thank you's and good-byes and headed towards home.
Arriving in Lewiston, I took the back way home so there would be fewer stop lights, arriving at about 20:55.
Brads trip was 272 miles. My trip was about 359 miles.
All in all, a wonderful longest day ride.
Like I said on Facebook, I love your longest day rides!
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