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Sunday 18th August 2024 - From Libby to Sam Owen Campground, near Clark Fork, Idaho, Pacific Time Zone, c. 80 miles on the route, 82 miles cycled.

Woodlands RV Park is very good - clean showers, toilets and lots of wooded picturesque sites so it lives up to its name. We started today at about 10am by visiting Dollar General and buying more food because the route today does not have much in the way of food or water. Then we headed out on route 2. After a few miles we reached the Kootenai Falls where the Kootenai River drops about 20 feet in one big fall then flows through a series of rapids. I walked to the falls and the photo is today's main photo. The walk to the falls is about a mile each way from the overflow car park where we were, so this didn't help our progress much. Then we pushed along State Road 2 to the junction with the 56, where there's a rest area with an unexpected water fountain so very useful, and then took the 56 past the Cabinet Mountains wilderness. About half way along the 56 we passed Bull Lake, a gorgeous stretch of water with a nice gentle breeze (headwind) deserving the flap of sails in the breeze and red sails against a blue sky and no noisy powerboats, of course it had just powerboats this being the USA, and then the road was more downhill, following the Bull River down south. We then reached the 200 but our map warned that this road gets narrower and not so good for bikes so we took a quieter but longer road over to Clark Fork, with an uphill early on, a moment when I chose the wrong road and Guy sensibly made me check on google maps (thus saving time and tyres - it was a gravel road) and a nice downhill in the later stages into Clark Fork. This road goes from Montana, which we've been in for about ten days and ever since we left North Dakota, into Idaho and we also reached our last time zone of the trip - Pacific Time. This put our clocks back by one hour which helped our time keeping by meaning that we reached Clark Fork by 5pm-ish. In Clark Fork we shopped at the Monarchy Market and pushed on towards Pend Oreille Lake because there was nowhere to camp near Clark Fork. We also liked the idea of camping on the lake. There are no showers at the Sam Owen Campground on Pend Oreille lake so after pitching we had a swim in the lake - mild temperature and perfect except for the slippery pebbles under the water. Bears may visit the campground so our food is hung from a tree, not quite high enough but we haven't got a rope - perhaps we'll hear plastic crinkling and then munching in the dead of night - and my toothpaste is outside in a pannier. I clutch my bear spray for occasional reassurance - the safety catch is on of course. But to get here a bear would have to cross onto the Peninsula and then get through another campsite so it seems unlikely we'll hear a bear. Today was a big day of 80 miles, hot and with sufficient hills so we should sleep pretty well. We will soon be in Washington State since Idaho is narrow just here (the Idaho panhandle). This is a wifi and phone 'not spot' so I'll post it out on the road. We are here.

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