Celebrating an active life on two wheels

When Ron Franklin turned 70 years old, he got an idea.

He would climb on his mountain bike and go for a ride. A mile for every year he’d been alive sounded like a good distance. And so he did.

“There was a guy I knew in the Spokane Bike Club who used to do that and I thought it was a pretty good idea,” Franklin said. “I used to compete with him, but I don’t any more.

“That year we rode the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes from Plummer to Wallace, Idaho. That one was 71 miles.”

This year, Franklin is plotting out a somewhat longer course.

“This year I turn 76 on October 8,” he said. “I’m thinking about riding to Coeur d’Alene and back. That should just about do it.”

Just thinking about such a bike ride is enough to make most people’s backside ache, just from sympathy. But long miles in a bike saddle are nothing new to Franklin.

“I’ve been riding almost all my life,” he said. “I grew up in Kellogg, Idaho. When I was a kid I used to have a paper route. We lived out by the Sunshine Mine and I would ride all the way over to I-90 to pick up my papers so I could deliver them. Of course, in those days there wasn’t an I-90.”

These days, Franklin and his wife, Naomi, like to join family and friends for rides on many of the area’s scenic bike paths.

“I’ve never really done any cross country riding – I’m not into that, but I know that a lot of people do it, even at my age,” he said. “I’ve never been a lone rider. My wife loves to be outdoors and I have a daughter who’s gotten into bicycling lately. It’s usually a group of us that get together and ride.”

A year ago, for his birthday, Franklin and his pedaling friends rode from Coeur d’Alene to Harrison along the lake road.

“That was a great ride,” he said. “Going down into Harrison it’s all downhill so you can relax and look at the scenery. And coming back, even riding uphill, isn’t all that difficult because it’s a railroad grade, only about a 3-percent grade.

“Some of the women in the group didn’t want to ride all that way uphill, so I offered to ride back ahead of them and get the truck. I did pretty well – it was an easy climb.

The Franklins have taken a number of bike tours over the years, riding through Vermont on a recent tour. And they’ve done a good deal of international cycling as well, taking bike tours out of Amsterdam, toured Italy and Ireland and ridden tours in New Zealand.

“We’ve enjoyed those a lot,” he said. “You get to see so much of the countryside on a bike. And the tours are pretty convenient. They give you a map and then move your luggage from place to place for you.”

Always an active and avid outdoorsman, Franklin and family enjoy a variety of activities.

“We have a cabin on Newman Lake, so we’re out there quite a bit,” he said. “And we always take two weeks and camp at Priest Lake every year. In fact, we just got back from there.

“We take our bikes and our kayaks and our motorbikes and just go relax and enjoy ourselves. We like to hike up to the lookout station every year. I had a little trouble getting all the way to the top this year. I don’t know but what that wasn’t my last trip all the way to the top. But at least I was able to make it up there this time with my granddaughter. That was pretty special.”

The couple have hiked the Pacific Trail. They’ve kayaked numerous lakes in the Northwest, including in Canada.

“My wife and I like to play a little tennis, too,” he admitted. “We’re not very good, but we have fun.”

Franklin retired from Spokane Machinery 14 years ago, but he hasn’t slowed down much.

“My boss is still there, and he’s the one who hired me,” he laughed. “He’s got to be well into his 80s.”

What did slow Franklin was a bout with bladder and prostate cancer in 2008.

“That did slow me down pretty good,” he admitted. “It was tough. But I think being active and healthy helped me recover.”

These days, he says, he feels himself slowing down a little. What he used to be able to tackle without a second thought takes a little extra steam.

“That’s bound to happen,” he said. “But I’m not going to stop.”

Nor, he said, will he make big plans for future birthday bike rides.

“No,” he laughed. “I’m not going to look that far ahead. I think I’ll just take it all one year at a time.”