A 1,063-MILE FAREWELL: Daily Bee reporter’s regional trip a memorable one

SANDPOINT — Many avid cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts talk about doing it, but only a few make it a reality.

Eric Welch, former Daily Bee city and education reporter, logged a 21-day, 1,063-mile solo bike ride throughout the region before departing from the Greater Sandpoint area. The native of Rochester, Minn., mapped the route, which looped through places like Revelstoke, British Columbia, and Banff, Alberta, all by himself. The feat had been on his mind for a couple of years and he finally put everything into motion.

"In 2022, my sister rode from the Canadian border all the way down to New Mexico along the Continental Divide, which is about 2,000 miles," Welch, whose longest ride prior to the most recent one was a 6-day ride from La Crosse, Wisc., to Milwaukee in 2021, said. "Her doing that made me realize a long bike trip was something I could do."

Welch departed from near the Sandpoint Library on Sunday, June 1, on a steel-framed bike with knobby tires that weighed roughly 60 pounds. The 60 pounds accounted for only the "bikepacking" essentials — a small, one-person camping tent, some calorically-dense nutrition, the necessary items for a bike repair, and some items for protection from the elements and wilderness. For such a trip, there is a high level of planning and awareness that needs to be adhered to.

"You really need to think a lot about reliability," Welch said. "If you're spending a lot of time away from paved roads, in timber country, in areas of remote wilderness ... you need to be able to fix your bike or you could end up walking alongside it for a long time."

Welch covered about 50.6 miles per day over the course of nine to 10 hours of riding, a pace he described as "slow-going" despite the 75,300-plus vertical feet of total elevation along the route. The route was on roughly two-thirds of unpaved gravel, some of which were logging roads or decommissioned railroads. Surprisingly, Welch only encountered four non-threatening bears on trip. Those most majestic creature spotted? A Great Blue Heron taking flight on the south end of Sullivan Lake, located in the Colville National Forest.

Beyond critters, Kananaskis Country, the Canadian Rockies and Eureka, Mont., were certainly highlights of the journey, but the town of Nelson, British Columbia, really sparked Welch's interest. He was fascinated that Nelson, which is adjacent to the Kootenai River, is a mostly hydro-powered city, among other things.

"Nelson is built up on a steep hillside of the Valley — it had a lot of cool homes, the downtown had huge trees that were built around the city's infrastructure, and lots of brick buildings," Welch said. "Those are things that I like for historic reasons. It was a cool place to spend an afternoon and have a meal."

While the experiences of new towns, restaurants, and people were exciting, it was the tranquility and sereneness of an extended period of time being alone amongst nature that he enjoyed the most, allowing him to refresh and reset before his next endeavor.

"I didn't go into the trip knowing I would find myself enjoying the ability to have a lot of time, alone, to think," Welch said. "I didn't listen to any music, any audiobooks, I just let my mind wander."

As he reflected on his one-year stay in Sandpoint, Welch described the area as one of the most charitable places he's ever had the privilege of living, something he says many longtime residents may overlook or take for granted.

"I have spent time living in a couple of places in Minnesota and Montana, not a large number of communities, but a handful of places," Welch said. "Sandpoint is the most giving place that I've ever lived in the sense that there are a number of people willing to give their time or their money for the greater good. There's lots of organizations that are set on serving the community. That's something I'll always really admire about Sandpoint — it's one of the best traits a community could have, to be selfless."

Welch says he would embark on a similar journey in the future, and encourages others to do the same. When talking with locals throughout the various communities he visited, residents expressed their thoughts on wanting to partake in such an activity, but never pulled the trigger.

"I would choose some new terrain to experience in maybe a new part of the country or the world," Welch said. "Bikepacking or bicycle touring is an oddity, it's something most people don't see every day. When I was riding through these communities, I was a bit of spectacle, a person of interest. People came up to me and wanted to know where I was coming from and where I was going — so, it's fun to be that person and ask them what they do and why they're there ... It doesn't take a superhuman athlete to ride a bike 1,000 miles. If you're willing to take all day and keep on pedaling, then it's something just about anybody can do."