Pacific Northwest - 5 day ride

Looking to possibly do a 4-5 day supported ride either in Wash. Idaho, Mont. for 2012. wondering if anybody had some trips that they would like to share. Would rather have the rides in July/August while the weather is still nice. Don't want to go to crazy with the dollar amount. There would be me my wife and 14 yr. old. Thanks for any suggestions.

In August of this year, we are committed to doing 5 days on the Selkirk Loop. There is plenty of marketing info available about it, but surprisingly little first hand cycling experience that I could find here on BF's. We plan on doing a credit card deal but it actually looks better as a self support camping opportunity. here is a site with plenty of info.
http://selkirkloop.org/index.php/maps

Let us know what you ultimately do...I'll do a follow up post after our ride.

Bill J.

Thanks specbill, I have been looking at the route for awhile. There is a sponsored ride that is called WACANID ride. It looks nice but the ride is not until Sept. Don't want to take a chance on the weather. So have you already booked hotels along the route or are you doing it on the fly. Also, what type of mileage are you looking at each day. Thanks for the link i will take a look at it. Please do let me know how the ride goes. Thanks.

We have just finished all hotel/B&B reservations for our 5 day ride.
We are riding the full primary route counter-clockwise and are including the 'orchards galore' side trip as well. We will also either do the "South Lakes side trip or ride part ways to Preist Lake on the fifth and final day of our ride depending on how well we are feeling at that point.
We got reservations for two reason: #1. We will be riding over Labor Weekend and wanted to be sure we could get the two rooms that we will need each night. And... #2. with our daily mileage goal of 70-80 miles a day, we found ourselves on the night of day 3 with very limited places to stay on the western side of the loop, so again we wanted to be certain of a place to sleep.

In general, there seems to be many places to eat and sleep on the south, east and north sides of the primary loop, but things get very limited in the central portion of the western side's long stretch between Nelson or Salmo BC down to Newport Wa.

We are starting in Sandpoint Id. because that is just how our particular plan kind of came together for us.

Bill J

We are starting in Sandpoint Id. because that is just how our particular plan kind of came together for us.

Bill J

Sandpoint...spectacular area, and one of my sentimental faves for a couple of reasons. You may want to arrive two or three days early and poke around by bike/car. Vacays should also be about decompressing. Enjoy.

is your wife driving? or do you mean you're looking for a 5 day event ride?

if you're having your wife drive a sag wagon,

North Cascades loop starting in Seattle, actually start at the wineries/breweries in Woodinville, Red Hook or Chateau St' Michelle. a short ride to the town of Snohomish, then onto Arlington or Darrington or Marblemount.

for the next day, start in Marblemount in the morning and by days end you will have ridden across one of america's national park scenic highways, highway 20. past where jack kerouac and gary snyder firewatched over the north cascades and the azure waters of diablo lake before travelling some of the most heavily glaciated regions in the lower 48 states.

The western theme town of Winthrop awaits. The next day, some fine hot desert riding towards the beautiful and swimmable resort town of Lake Chelan.

From Lake Chelan its a ride to the historic German themed town of Leavenworth and visits to the beer gardens and soak up the mountain air.

next day either across stevens pass and back to snohomish, or along highway 97 to Old Blewett Pass to stops in Cle Elum just up the road the historic town of Roslyn - the town "Northern Exposure" was filmed in. Then up and over the snoqualmie pass thru the longest tunnel open to bikers and hikers in the united states and back down to snohomish on trails from snoqualmie pass- iron horse trail, snohomish valley trail, and tolt pipeline trail lead RIGHT BACK TO THE WINERIES to finish that loop, for an off road finish from Snoqualmie Pass all the way back on dirt and maybe two miles of pavement.


if you look at a washington map, the route choices are clear. showstopping scenery. great towns to stop in with a teenager. a few good options for variety.

I just wanted to close the loop on one of my postings above where I promised to report back on our self supported Selkirk Loop tour that we finished a few days ago. My wife and I did this ride on our road tandem and my brother joined us on his road bike.
I'll keep this brief but may do a longer version on a new thread when I have more time.
We did the ride exactly as I described above. For day five we did the ride up to Priest Lake (Coolin actually) and we added a half day to ride around Sandpoint some more and to go up Schwietzer Mountain which was worth the extra effort it took to go up that nine mile hill.
Our bottom line view of the tour was simply outstanding on so many levels...the roads in BC and Washington were excellent for riding with generally light traffic and or nice shoulders...particularly BC. The vews we great everywhere, plenty of mountains, streams, rivers and lakes to satisfy anyone. We did no camping. Only did B&B's and found places to eat lunch and dinner each day which did require some very serious planning in several areas.
The only draw back for us were the roads in Idaho on our first day out of Sandpoint. We did some work-a-rounds but Highway 95 was a very scary deal with high speeds and too many cars and trucks with limited or no shoulders. Aside from that it was a great experience.
We would ride this area again for sure...we would do more riding in BC and Washington and probably less on Idaho's busier roads although highway 2 from Priest River to Sandpoint did have a great shoulder...just too many trucks for our liking... We would continue to be very very certain of our sleeping and eating reservations right up to the very last moment....would use Google Earth to be more certain of the exact location of every establishment that is critical to our happiness.

Lastly we did catch the weather perfect the first week of September...some quite cool mornings but great day-time temps.

If anyone has specific questions about our tour you can pm me here on BF...

Bill J