Ride across the continent: Part 1

Ocean to Idaho by bike: Weeklong bicycle tour takes northern route from Anacortes to Post Falls.

Glacier-fed Diablo Lake in North Cascades National Park as seen during a bicycle tour ride in early October. (Jerry Painter photo)

After nearly 350 miles of riding my bicycle east across northern Washington I became fixated on getting a hot shower.

It wasn’t just that I had a week’s worth of sweat and grime from pedaling up five mountain passes — I was looking forward to getting thoroughly warmed. The last few days, I’d been waking up in my tent to see frost on the ground outside. I was starting out each day on my bike dressed in nearly all my layers.

The ride began Oct. 2 in Anacortes, Washington. My sweetheart dropped off my brother, Chris, and me at the edge of Padilla Bay and we began riding a pedestrian path across the bay and headed east on U.S. Highway 20 (that same Highway 20 that makes its way through Idaho Falls). It was 9:30 a.m. Sea birds left the remains of shellfish on the path, our wheels crunched over crab and clam parts.