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New Day Cafe - The Bike Saga Continues. Look Out for Lookout Pass! [1]
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Date: 2025-09-11
This is the 16th installment detailing the bike trip that my brother and I took in 1971. Last week’s story is here. Each diary contains a link to the previous one.
July 5, 1971
Today’s ride was a continuation of yesterday’s efforts: Take side roads when they were available, ride on the shoulder of Interstate 90 when necessary. We had barely started riding when the wind turned against us. Having been on the road for a full month, we were used to riding against the wind. That didn’t mean that we enjoyed it.
After 25 miles of riding, we rested at a Forest Service picnic area. It was near this spot that the multilane highway ended. Many miles of construction zones on two-lane road lay ahead.
Historic Savenac tree nursery at mile marker 16. Photo from 2018.
Five miles of tough riding brought us to the town of St. Regis, where we enjoyed lunch. The afternoon was a blur of passing cars and trucks. We found a grocery store in Saltese where we stocked up on food for our next dinner and breakfast. I wrote,
By now it was cloudy, still windy, and we continued the uphill climb towards Lookout Pass. Road was narrow, with heavy traffic.
The climb from Saltese to the top of the pass required 11 miles of low-gear pedaling in the cold wind, all the while keeping our eyes on the cars and trucks coming at us from both directions. The top of the pass saw us entering Idaho and the Pacific time zone. It also saw us shivering in light rain.
Our route July 5-6 (does not show unfinished stretches of I-90). Click to enlarge.
The Idaho side of the summit had a stretch of undivided four-lane highway, which offered a bit more safety. We coasted for five miles, but it was so cold that we noticed bits of ice on our handlebars. Along the way, a 48-ounce can of Hawaiian Punch worked its way loose from Patrick’s bike, and began rolling down the highway next to him. He was barely able to avoid running over it. Meanwhile, cars were whizzing past us.
At the bottom of the steep section, a new stretch of Interstate awaited. A sign informed us that bikes were prohibited, but there was nowhere else to go. A short distance later was an exit to an unpopulated mining district. We scouted out a flat spot that was out of view of passing vehicles, and set up camp for the night. We had covered 75 miles, and most of the mountain passes were behind us. We could breathe a bit easier, realizing that we were closing in on our destination.
July 6, 1971
The night passed without incident. Nobody bothered us at our informal campsite at the mining exit. Once again, the early morning air was cold. Our first order of business was to stop in nearby Wallace for hot chocolate. Then we shivered our way to Kellogg, taking frontage roads whenever we could find them.
Downtown Wallace, Idaho, 2018 photo.
I didn’t know it at the time, not knowing all of my forest history, but we were passing through one of the epicenters of the Great Fires of 1910. Some three million acres burned, and many lives were lost. Much of Wallace burned to the ground.
In this mine shaft south of Wallace, Ed Pulaski saved members of his crew from the 1910 fire. Not related to the bike trip, but a legend in forest history. Charred timbers are re-created. 2012 photo.
Later in the morning we passed Old Mission State Park at Cataldo, featuring a church built in the 1850s. A few miles later was the junction with State Highway 3, a roadway that I would travel many times in later years. Next, another ascent awaited us. Nothing serious, a slow steady climb to 3,070 feet. The pass is named Fourth of July, and we were fashionably late by two days. Of greater concern to us was the weather. We waited beneath an overpass as a mixture of rain, snow, and sleet assailed us from above.
Cataldo Mission during better weather, 2006 photo.
When the precipitation let up, we coasted 3.5 miles towards Coeur d’Alene. We had another mishap with a frontage road that teased us by following the highway until it veered into the mountains. We returned to I-90 and made our way into town. While we were grocery shopping, another rain cell passed through. We ate lunch under the canopy in front of the store. A shopper took pity on us and handed me a six-pack of Pepsi.
Lake Coeur d'Alene, 2006 picture.
Before leaving Coeur d’Alene we found a bike shop. Patrick’s gearshift cable was frayed, and we bought a replacement. At our next stop we oiled our bikes – an important matter when we were alternately dealing with dust and with rain.
Until this point in the trip, I had already been in all of the states we rode through. Neither of us, however, had been in Washington. We stopped at the welcome center to ask about those signs saying “No Bicycles.” The state trooper on duty advised to take Highway 290 which ran parallel to I-90 and on into Spokane. The road was quite busy, and would be even tougher to navigate today because the entire area has been built up.
Spokane River near Riverside State Park, 2006 picture.
We reached Riverside State Park just before dark. The campground was nice, but we had a tough time finding firewood. Our day’s work was 90 miles, which was merely a warmup for the coming two days.
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