Day 5, Carols to Oroville.

Rolled out of Coeur d'Alene at about 8:30. Definitely catching a cold so I slept in a little bit. 

Ate breakfast in Newport, WA along the Pend Orielle River (pronounced Pondoray), then followed the river up toward Ione, WA. 

I followed a loop out around Sullivan Lake which brought me out at this intersection 10 miles from the Canadian border. 

From here I headed back South, then West over a mountain pass to Colville, WA then headed back North again. I ended up here:

That's Canada just across the river. That river is the Columbia River just as it enters the United States. 

Down the hill below where I took the picture of Canada was an offical looking building. Turns out it's a customs office for cars traveling the little road between countries along with a small rail line that connects the two. 

Down river a bit, just outside the town of Northport I took a better picture of the Columbia River. 

Well a little better anyway. Those dark clouds would let out a few huge rain drops once and a while. Not even enough to see on the ground, but they smack when they hit the shield on my helmet. 

After lunch it was South to Kettle Falls and then back North to Curlew and West to Chesaw and then Oroville for the night. 

The Chesaw and Orovile areas are markedly different from were I've been so far. As you can see by the picture of the Chesaw area, it's wide open yet hilly with a lot less trees. 

I followed a deep canyon from Chesaw most of the way to Oroville. The walls of the canyon were so steep that at times I could see my headlight beams and it was about 4:00 in the afternoon. 

The canyon opened up into more of the hilly, open area similar to Chesaw. As the sun was getting lower on the horizon it created some nice contrasts and shadows across the landscape. The road   down to Oroville was steep and had some great curves. A nice finish to a great day on the road.

Oroville is also just a few miles from Canada (seven I think). They grow a lot of apples here too. 

I'm staying at the Camaray Hotel. Not really very many options here, but it looks clean enough and it was cheap. The two most important factors when I'm on a bike trip. 

The guy at the hotel said I only have two choices for dinner (Sunday). Good Mexican and OK Mexican. I chose the good Mexican which was Trino's down the street. He was right, it was fresh and good and the service was excellent. 

That cold I was feeling yesturday is making me congested. The spicy salsa and Carne Asade helped with that!

Tomorrow it's back down to Hwy 20, through Winthrope and over the pass back into the heavily populated areas. I'll head out toward Anacortes and Deception Pass and catch a ferry to Port Townsend and on to Port Angeles for the night.