Multistrada on the WABDR

[westcoasttrekker]

Some time ago my buddies and I had heard about the WABDR. We looked it up, watched some videos and checked out the website. We talked it over and decided we wanted to ride sections of it. Next we set a date to go and started choosing a route. The plan was to leave our homes in Stanwood, ride to Cle Elum then pick up the trail from there. We would then ride the route up to Hwy 20 then back home from there. We checked in to it a decided three days should be enough. This is our ride report.

The riders and bikes:
“SaltyDave” and his Ducati Multistrada 1200
“Westcoasttrekker” and my KLR 650
“PK” and his DRZ400


Note: SaltyDave and PK currently are not members of ADV but I’m working on it.
(pic)

After all the planning and reassuring the wife I would be safe and responsible it was time to sort out all the gear.



The next day I packed up the gear onto the bike for a test ride and headed to PK's house to put on my new rear tire. We would leave the following morning.


Here I am all packed up the morning we set off. My first stop was back to PK's, then we would ride thru Monroe and on to Snoqualmie along Hwy 203 and Hwy 202. SaltyDave would meet us in Cle Elum later.


Stopped in Snoqualmie for a break.


We then rode along I90 taking different forest service roads. I didn’t get any pics as I was having way to much fun to stop.

We finally made it to Cle Elum and stopped at Sportland Yamaha to wait for the Ducati.


We gassed up, had some lunch at Sahara Pizza in Cle Elum then headed to the start of Section 3 near Ellensburg. The scenery was already impressive.

Here we are stopped for pictures along FS 3500


Some cool rock formations along FS 3500


We finally hit the dirt and conditions were good. The roads were dry with some rocky sections here and there. We rode up past the Lion Rock CG turnoff road and hit some snow. There were tire tracks that went through the snow but the Ducatis tires didn’t grip on the slick stuff and it went down. Nothing broken except the riders pride. We picked up the bike and headed on.

We found a spur road and were rewarded with amazing views.



After a quick break and a few pictures we motored on towards Haney Meadow. We stopped for a few and checked out the cabin and views of the meadow. PK had been riding up here before on his DRZ and was getting ready to check out some single track until he read that it had been closed to motor vehicles. He seemed a bit sad.


So off we went on towards Cashmere.

What happened next changed the plans for the rest of the ride to Cashmere. As told by SaltyDave he was riding along and ran into some muddy ruts. There was a large stick in one of the ruts and he swerved to avoid it, because of his less aggressive tires he lost control and ended up crashing the bike onto the side of the road. He was okay but the bike wasn’t, he ended up breaking off his shift lever. After getting the bike upright we tried to come up with a fix. Since we didn’t have a welder or new lever we decided to make our way back to Hwy 97 to see if we could find a shift lever near Wenatchee. Fortunately he was able to shift with the edge if his boot and was able to make it back to the Hwy.

Since we were taking it easy I stopped to get some pics.




It was getting late as we got closer to Wenatchee. All the motorcycle shops were closed so we decided to camp at Blu Shastin. The place was packed but the host got us in anyways, nice folks there, thanks again. This place isn’t roughing it, but it got us closer to Wenatchee.


While at the CG that night we tried to fix the lever with some quicksteel and see how it held in the morning. We set up camp, ate some MRE's and had a nightcap then went to sleep. The next day we got up and checked the lever, it felt solid so SaltyDave decided to he would try the next section without a new lever. So off we went to Cashmere.

As we were leaving this guy was pretty pissed at the noise we were making. He ended up chasing us out of the campground.

[Comrade Art]

Nice pics! WABDR is on my 'to-do' list.

[DockingPilot]

[DeFens]

Nice report so far. Did this trip take place before the washouts near Beehive? No mention of the big detour to and back from Wenatchee to continue on Mission Creek road....

[asrvivor]

inseam? Auto correct hilarious

[JoshBMW]

That looks like no fun on the Duck with tose tires!

Good report so far. That turky is a good looking bird! Dinner????

[SimpleSimon]

Yeah..those tires on the Multi would be brutal imho.

[northernskating]

Hi-when did you make this ride? And, any problem with the reported washout on 7100 road? Did you get thru all of Section 3?
thanks
Randy

[westcoasttrekker]

Originally Posted by DeFens

Nice report so far. Did this trip take place before the washouts near Beehive? No mention of the big detour to and back from Wenatchee to continue on Mission Creek road....

After the Ducati broke the shift lever we rode out to Hwy 97 on FS 9712. We didn't make it to the washout area

Originally Posted by northernskating

Hi-when did you make this ride? And, any problem with the reported washout on 7100 road? Did you get thru all of Section 3?
thanks
Randy

We didn't finish section 3. We decided we would pick it up in Cashmere after finding a new lever.

[westcoasttrekker]

Once in Cashmere we gassed up grabbed some beverages and then it was off to the trail again. We got an early start and planned on riding all the way to Chelan where we would meet up with a friend who was staying there for the weekend.

Along 7400



There were a few springs along the route. This is one of them.


The views were amazing and there was nobody for miles. We rode up to the top of Chumstick Mountain and took a break. I didn't get any pictures of them, but there were thousands of ladybugs up there.




Here's PK hitting some single track.


After resting it was off to the town of Ardenvoir.

[grinns]

Dam you make me want to go do this now. I did the wabdr last year it was a blast.

[westcoasttrekker]

The ride from Chumstick was hot. As soon as we got off the FS road we stopped at Entiat River to cool down and figure out what the plan was. We headed into Ardenvoir and grabbed a bite and some gas at Coopers Cafe, home of the Swallow Fest!


This is a great place to stop, the food was good and the air conditioning was welcoming. If you stop there ask to see the Swallow Fest picture albums (its not what you think). There's a lot of cool pictures that go back to the 70's when they started the festival.

While eating in Ardenvoir we discovered there was a fire east of the area we were heading. We heard that they had it under control and decided to make a run for it.

After gassing up it was off to Chelan, but first the Ducati wanted to take a nap again as SaltyDave turned onto Mud Creek Road. That's lay down number 3, but who's counting. After getting the bike upright, we were off...again.

Along 8410


Baldy Springs on 8410


View of 8410 below



Things were going great and we were making good time until the Ducati got a flat. No worries we had a plug kit, it will just take a few minutes to plug it and back on our way.

Here's SaltyDave plugging the tire the first time.


The tire was plugged and we were on our way....for about 50 feet until the plug blew out. Bike went back up on the center stand and the plug kit came out again. The tire got plugged and we were on way again. So we thought....another 50 feet another plug.

This time we thought it might be the Green Slime that Salty put in earlier to help with the leak. Somehow it was too viscous and caused the plug to slide out. We needed something to hold the plug into place to just try to limp out of there.

We came up with 30mph duct tape and a plastic water bottle. We cut a piece of the water bottle out and taped it onto the tire over the plug then proceeded to wrap the tire several times with the tape. We filled the tire up and listened for leaks. We didn’t hear any leaks so headed on for about 50 feet and checked it again, no leaks. SaltyDave rode slowly about another 15-20 miles on that duct taped tire with no problems. As soon we got to the hwy we checked it again then made some calls and limped another 25 miles into Chelan.

Backwoods tire repair.




My KLR waiting for tire fix #3. Notice the smoke from the fire on the left side of the mountain closest to us.


FS 8410 overlooking Lake Chelan


Finally we got into Chelan at about 10:30pm. SaltyDave knew his tire was done and decided to stay at a friends and look for a place to patch his tire in the morning. Since it was so late, PK and I found a spot at Lakeshore RV park, made dinner in the dark, had a swig or 2 of whisky then got some well deserved sleep.

[2handedSpey]

Wow... I thought a KLR650 was a heavy bike to be lugging around.... A 1200 Ducati?!

[mlyamkaw]

Love the duct tape repair I carry tire patches now, had a similar incident last year. Had to patch it on the inside and duct tape for reinforcement to get out.

That must have been hot working on the bike in no shade if it was last weekend, so hot in the area.

Good report so far.

[northernskating]

Originally Posted by westcoasttrekker

After the Ducati broke the shift lever we rode out to Hwy 97 on FS 9712. We didn't make it to the washout area



We didn't finish section 3. We decided we would pick it up in Cashmere after finding a new lever.

great. appreciate the recent info
Randy