Stoked for STOKR

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STOKR Day 1 ride in BLUE and Day 2 ride in RED

Now on to the good stuff…

STOKR, or the Scenic Tour of the Kootenai River, is a two-day, 135-mile bike ride around the Libby area in NW Montana to benefit the Kootenai Valley Habitat for Humanity. This weekend was the 20^th annual STOKR, and I fortunately got to be a part of it. The ride is open to a limited number of registrants (a record 475 this year), and Dylan and I found out in March that we were selected in the lottery-style drawing.  I was stoked – until I hurt my ankle a few weeks later and wasn’t sure I’d be ready in time for the 98-mile Saturday marathon followed by a 37-mile Sunday cruise. Nonetheless, I squeezed in as much training as I could once my ankle healed and hoped for the best. What I got was better than I could have imagined.

Day one started on a brisk, overcast morning with 475 neon-clad cyclists, most of whom appeared a bit more “seasoned” than Dylan and I, both in terms of experience and age. This would be our longest ride by far, with neither of us bagging more than 60 miles in a day.  We started towards the back of the pack to avoid getting trampled by these veteran cyclists, or worse – getting caught in a situation where we had to unclip quickly and risk toppling right over. Once the crowd thinned, we settled comfortably into our place towards the back of the pack.  Seventeen miles of rolling hills alongside the Kootenai River warmed us up for the ride until our first food stop at a church, complete with bagels, fruit, and sugar cookies.

Scenic touring along the Kootenai River with Dylan

I quickly came to realize that scenic bike tours are more like progressive dinners, minus the cocktails and add 100 miles and a few hundred bikes. Every 15-20 miles we came across another much-anticipated food stop – pasta, soup and subs, and, everyone’s favorite, the pie stop. Coupled with being completely enamored by the scenery, I found myself thinking more about the upcoming food stop and less about the amount of miles ahead of me. We’d ride another 22 miles, take a picture at Yaak Falls, and then have some pasta salad and a few more cookies. Ride another 20 miles along groves of cedar trees, soak up the sunshine that came out, and enjoy homemade salmon chowder and brownies in the town of Yaak. It wasn’t until I saw that someone had yaak-ed their pasta along the side of the road that I realized I should probably pace myself, in terms of eating, that is. Before I knew it, we were up and over the dreaded 12-mile “big ass hill” that I’d been dreading and on the downhill side towards the pie stop at mile 80.

Pie stop at mile 80

Pie stop. A stop just for pie. There are no two words you’d rather hear when you’re 80 miles into a ride. And to put the icing on the cake (or the whipped cream on the pie, which we did), the stop took place at a lovely farmhouse surrounded by meadows and a babbling brook. Upon walking inside the creaky screen door, an entire table full of pies – blueberry, peach, apple, sweet potato – greeted us. I felt like I had died and gone to some kind of bike ride heaven. Distracted by the homemade goodness, I had forgotten about any tiredness in my legs, soreness in my butt or concern about my ability to complete the ride.  I was eating blueberry pie while sitting next to a log fire, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and hearing the trickle of the creek by my side. Could it get any better?

The answer was yes, because next came the satisfaction of finishing the ride. Eager to achieve my first century ride, I rode around neighborhoods and school parking lots to call it an even 100. Completing a century was more of an accomplishment for my mental training for Bike & Build than my physical training. We’ve got eight 90+ mile days planned this summer, including 3 back-to-back and a 110 mile day in the desert in August. Confident that I can ride 100 miles without feeling nervous or overwhelmed, I can now go into those longer rides better able to support my riders and the trip as a whole. Of course, it might be a little different when there isn’t a pie stop (although we are stopping in a place called Pie Town, NM).

Views of and from the Libby Dam

Day 2 of STOKR was no less fun and filling than the first. With fewer miles to ride (37 total), we got started an hour later and with about half as many riders. The route took us NE along the Kootenai River on a puddle-filled, secluded road. There was new snow on the mountains not far above, and the songbirds were belting their tunes after the fresh spring rain. We later found out that there was four inches of snow on the pass we had summited yesterday. Crossing the Kootenai and climbing up the highway, we reached our destination for the day – the Libby Dam. Controlling flows from Lake Koocanusa into the Kootenai River, the dam is normally closed to pedestrian traffic. Rangers at the gate checked our names on a list and let us through the gate to walk our bikes across and enjoy the stunning views. On the other side we were welcomed by trays upon trays of cinnamon rolls. After gobbling up a few and walking around the visitor center, we let gravity do the worked as we rolled down the other side of the river and back towards Libby. The snow-capped Cabinet mountains welcomed us back into town, and when we arrived at the finish there was none other than leftover pie there to greet us. Not wanting to be rude by rejecting the endless hospitality of the locals, we each gobbled up another piece.

Bike. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. Now there’s a routine I can get used to, in addition to the extra 5,000 calories or so I’ll get to consume every day this summer. This weekend at STOKR not only revealed to me some of the secrets of long-distance cycling (take plenty of breaks, eat lots of food, and enjoy the scenery), but it also reinforced that being on a bike all day is something that makes me very happy. Whether or not there is pie waiting for me at the end of the day this summer, I will look forward to the unmatched sense of satisfaction that comes from making it from point A to point B on a bike.

Kootenai Falls and swinging bridge