Wandering from my meandering (Latest: NE WA/NWP)

July 21, 2019: IDBDR Section 2 (continued) - Lowman-ish, to Pine

I woke up MUCH warmer than the previous day. A very pleasant and easy morning ensued. I'd been hitting it hard for quite a while and had actually wanted to have a short day or even a full rest day, but the ride times and locations just didn't work out. So I actually got more stuff out and had breakfast and coffee at a relaxing pace before packing up and hitting the trail.

The fire from yesterday was hiding under an inversion in the valley in the distance.


But the camp site was pretty nice.


Nimrod of the day! Today's award goes to whomever decided that building a fire, with new and complete fire ring, in the middle of the road was a good idea.

Especially given that there was a large opening next to the road.


It was another great weather day, though it felt warmer as the elevations were lower in the valleys.


A bit of a challenge here. The culvert had washed out, leaving a pretty good drop into the creek crossing, around three feet.

From the other side.

But I took a swing at it.
(video 32 seconds)

I think that going this way, North to South, made this pretty easy, even with a loaded ADV bike. I don't imagine that I'd have gotten it back up that drop off going the other way.

This sign was for that road, for those traveling northward. No signage or anything from the other way.


The next ways were pretty nice. Clear skies, if a little more hazy due to smoke, and good roads. Not quite as scenic it seemed, at least for a little while.



Maybe it was more sensory familiarity or something.


And still the very frequent burn scar.

Going up towards Trinity Lakes Recreation Area, the traffic increased a lot. Which is really to say there was some. But that just gave me an excuse to stop for pics more often.


The campground was pretty nice. Or I thought so since it had a timely toilet, and good fresh spring water available to refill my mostly empty bottles. Nice view as well.


The ride down from here to Pine was pretty easy. Lots of elevation loss and temperature gain. I did swing through Featherville on the way, or at least not too far out of the way. I didn't find anyone at that town of RV parks if it was called Featherville since the name Tickletown had already been taken.

Pine has a nice café/tavern, though it was camouflaged pretty well. They'd just put fresh "log" siding on and all the signs were still off the building. Only the neon beer signs gave it away. Decent enough sandwich, though once again pesto seems to mean something in Idaho other than what I expect. After fuel and an ice cream bar from the convenience store, I continued south.

July 21, 2019 (cont.): IDBDR Section 1 - Pine into the Great Basin

Needs satiated (a bar in Pine was not exactly where I would have imagined Negro Modelo being on tap) I continued south. It was not cool leaving Pine, being in the mid-90 degrees F. I felt like I wanted to get a few more miles in though, to make the last stretch the following day pretty easy and completed early. A heat warning was in effect for Jarbidge NV, the end/start of the IDBDR, and a whole lot of riding in triple digits wasn't really what I wanted to do.

The route takes the "back way" around Anderson Ranch Reservoir. This is a well maintained gravel road mostly running along the west shore.

For the record, a motorcycle on this road can get down the lake faster than a pontoon boat, even with the curves into the inlets/ravines.

The road crosses the dam that creates the reservoir.


From there, the terrain become less vertical, though still some hills and elevation change. Great Basin is a pretty arid place for the most part. Parts are technically desert, though grass and sage are seemingly omnipresent.

The basalt is pretty common too.

I only did around 70 miles of Section 1 this day, stopping pretty early in Glenns Ferry. To me, this is a very Civil War sounding place. But in reality has more significance due to the Oregon Trail passing through.
I got a room at the Redford Motel, apparently named for a red Ford. It was dated, but extremely clean and well maintained. Laundry, supper, and a light summer beer, some regional wheat ale, capped the evening, along with using the very slow internet to upload pics for this report.

The next day would conclude the stripe down Idaho.

July 22, 2019: IDBDR Section 1 (continued) - Glenns Ferry to Jarbidge NV.

I didn't rush out in the morning, though I didn't mess around too much either. I was wanting to get the ride to Jarbidge completed before the highest afternoon heat. I had a little over a hundred miles to complete, but per the map it's mostly straight lines through the "desert". Having lived in the Sonoran Desert for a while, this area seems more like grasslands than desert.

The first areas I went through were being used as croplands given that the Snake River was nearby for irrigation.


This quickly became more grazing pasture for ranchers.

Some mountains to the south though.

Sunflowers had been planted along the roads. I hadn't seen this before, but it was not uncommon in the area.

It made the riding a little surreal at times.


It must be a desert. Roads are the same as in southern Arizona. Straight lines till you would hit a terrain or geograpic feature, then turn for another long straight line.


There was burn scar here too, but this one won't be noticeable next year.


Clover Creek wasn't exactly running high.


But the precious water within did make a difference.

Grass and sage was totally taller.

The mountains got closer but the roads no less straight.

I did make good time though.

The snow on the mountains was kind of teasing. It was into the nineties at this point.


And then the ride changed. The last twenty or so miles into Jarbidge are in the Jarbidge River canyon, first on the east fork then the main river.



The temperature surprisingly dropped in the canyon too. It was just over eighty degrees when I rode into town.



I had lunch at the Outdoor Inn. Even though they tout the homemade pie and ice cream, I'd have to say that as far as backcountry community eateries, it wasn't exactly the highlight of the trip. But it filled the void, and gave me the time to consider my next steps.

I had considered continuing south and doing part of the Nevada BDR, but despite feeling amazingly comfortable in the heat (apparently living in 114 degrees for a while sticks with a person longer than a year...) more desert riding just didn't sound cool. Literally or figuratively. So I ended up turning back north. First goal was to get up towards Twin Falls.

Pulling out of the Jarbige River drainage.


The Salmon Falls Dam. Another dam that the road passes over.


I pulled into Twin Falls mid-afternoon to triple digit temperatures, and other than being ready for a little break and some cool water, felt pretty comfortable with the heat. A quick search found a reasonably priced room in Jerome. The reason it was reasonable was due to being next door to the stock yards. But it didn't smell (inside anyway) and the AC was a welcome feature.

Overall a great conclusion to the IDBDR, though a little more adventure awaited for the trip north.

July 23, 2019: Galena Summit and Custer Motorway

Let's just say that there's not a lot to keep a traveler in Jerome. A reasonable start time north on US93 let to making some decent time towards the Wood River Valley, otherwise known as Sun Valley. Not much to report on this stretch north. It was very Great Basin like, with grasslands and basalt piles scattered about. The storm system that had followed me north from Jarbidge had gotten excited and created a little bit of a lightning bust. I saw a handful of smoke columns in the area. These were pretty small for the most part, the largest fire being probably a hundred acres. In these fuel models and this area, that's not insignificant, but not much to write home about.

It was a little hazy from this activity though. The Sawtooth Range crept closer.


I had purposefully neglected to have breakfast or coffee, figuring that I ought to be able to find an un-masculine European coffee somewhere in Sun Valley. I was correct, but it was harder to find than expected. Java on Fourth was a block off Main St. in Ketchum, amazingly enough on Fourth Ave. I will say that the raspberry sour cream muffin didn't disappoint.

After that break, I started north on ID75 towards Stanley.


This passes over Galena Summit, a nearly 9000 foot pass. Riding north, I was struck by how nice it smelled. It was vaguely evergreen, but something else too. It wasn't till I stopped at the summit for pics that I saw the source.

The lupine was blooming wildly. I've never seen this particular one that has three different colors on one stem.

The views at this elevation don't suck either.



Stanley is northward, around the right end of that range.

It's a little hard to see here, but the weather was picking up a little bit, with more precipitation headed this way. Usually not the best time to be at the highest elevation around.

The walk back to my scooter had some distractions though.





Therefore, the rain was closing in fast.
(video 6:15)


After fuel, lunch, and a very leisurely coffee in Stanley (STILL no one in Idaho seems to understand that pesto is supposed to have green stuff in it rather than being a vague mostly white coloration...) which allowed the rain to get ahead of me, I rode thirteen miles or so east on ID75 back towards US93, but turned off at Sunbeam onto Yankee Fork Rd, the start of the historic Custer Motorway.


This was another area that saw a gold rush and extensive mining. It did seem to be a going concern for longer than most, being well developed for a longer time period, well into the 20th Century. It did however leave it's mark.

The gravel piles on either side of the road were tailing piles from dredging operations. Mostly from this monster of a machine.




There were other mining activities, including hard rock.


The main activity in here now was some tourists and RV-ers checking out the abandoned ghost towns and mining operations, and some state led work to rehabilitate the Yankee Fork waterway. But once past that, it was truly back into the wilderness.

I think I saw two other vehicles in the remaining forty or so miles to Challis.


It climbed pretty high, going over another pass at nearly 9000 feet, this one a dirt road. The bad part about letting the storm get ahead of me was that at these altitudes it rained relatively hard, so it was pretty wet, muddy, and slick. But fortunately this was only for a handful of miles as the road transitioned from the Yankee Fork drainage to Mill Creek, on the eastern slope. The rain shadow effect was rapidly apparent.


The final drop into Challis.


From there, feeling the need to get home, I bombed up US93 to Missoula, only stopping in Salmon for fuel. And construction on both sides of Lost Trail Pass at the ID-MT border. After a night at a really shitty motel, I got back to the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area pretty early the next day.

This was a nice cap to the IDBDR trip. It did however leave me wanting to do more riding in the Bitterroots, especially between Challis and the Salmon River. I've fought fire in that area a few times and would like to see it not under a cover of smoke, though that always seems to be somewhat temporary in Idaho.

August 12, 2019: Just an observation...

I have some business in Ketchum ID this week and rode down today. I wasn’t going to make a deal of it as all I did was mostly slab it there. BUT, US93 south from Missoula, especially south of Lost Trail Pass, is such a pretty and fun ride.
I went past the turn-off for ID-75, that most take to get to Ketchum, and took the Trail Creek Rd through the Sawtooth Mountains into the back side of Sun Valley.
I wasn’t even in the mindset to stop for pictures, so just a quick note here, but this was such a pleasant riding day! Not challenging at all, though I did have to keep backing off the throttle in the canyon sections along the Salmon River. Mild temps, little wind, light traffic, beautiful scenery... it was a sweet day. Even having done a good chunk of this recently, it’s a favorite route.

I’ve recommended US93 to a couple of folks (including you @simbaboy) and continue to do so.

Beautiful country, pictures and narration.

Imu

We went on up the hill last summer from the Yankee Fork Dredge and dropped into Loon Creek eventually. Was a fun ride with a lot of mining sites. We camped in a FS campground on Loon Creek, which is a tributary of the Middle Fork Salmon. There were a couple of Salmon Biologists checking the river for redds, salmon nests. They found a fair number which is great. Salmon coming up that high in a small stream is just amazing.

There are some really big superfund sites in the area due to mining interests walking away from their problems......I sure hope we are now requiring adequate bonding from the resource extraction firms to pay for cleanup.

August 14, 2019: White Bird Grade

Having finished what I needed to in Ketchum (No, it was not a court appearance. Gimme a little credit.) I went back north via ID75, ID21, Banks-Lowman Rd, ID55, and then US95. Again, not much to report other than a nearly perfect riding day of sunshine, lots of great scenery (though not the entire way), and many sections of twisties, often along a stream or river.

However, there is one short section that was the primary reason for taking this route. Long time readers will remember how put out I was when my friend Brett was a little under the weather (seasonal affective bottle disorder) and wouldn't turn around when we discovered by accident the White Bird Grade. This old route of US95 is on the National Registry of Historic Places as an engineering marvel. More info here. What I really new, even from seeing it from the "new" highway last September, was that I wanted to ride it.

Where US95 veers away from the Salmon River, I turned onto the Old US95 route.

This area is one of the gateways into the Salmon River as it meets up with the Snake in Hells Canyon. So lots of rafting and jet boat vendors in the area.

The US95 bridge, literally running over the entry to the Town of White Bird.


Passing through White Bird. (video 77 seconds - it's not a large place)

The recreation business seems to keep White Bird afloat, as it appears in much better shape than many towns bypassed by the highway in the 1970's.

But the main attraction, for me anyway, is this.


The ride up. (Video 10:31)


After riding to the top of the main section, I went back down a little ways for some more pictures.



Obligatory flower pic.


Some graffiti I can actually appreciate.


The "new" grade nearby, already nearly 45 years old.


Other riders liked the route too.




The actual summit is on another section that goes off the main highway.
(video 3:15)


This section, only a total of 22 miles from White Bird to Grangeville, is an awesome stretch. Alone, I don't think it's probably worth a special trip, but if you're in the area, it's a must ride. The nice thing is that there are many other awesome rides relatively nearby, such as ID14 into Elk City. For me, it was well worth taking this route "home" to finally check this off the list. And I may have to drag Brett down here just to rub his nose in it a little more.

Nothing much to report recently, though actually riding quite a bit. Just no trips.

Have been spending time helping my GF learn to ride. Here's a video showing her progress. She had only ridden a motorcycle across a parking lot (and crashed then) till six weeks ago.

(Video 3:54)

Thats awesome!!! Might invest in some pants with knee protection etc at the speed shes starting to rip!! Haha! Cool beans!

She’s got knee guards on under the jeans. Looking for riding gear but it’s harder to find women’s gear. She’s not real keen on motocross kit, so it’s ongoing.

She keeps insisting she won’t outgrow the XT250 anytime soon, but I’m not convinced.

September 12, 2019: WABDR Section 6 - Canada Border to Conconully WA

It's time for my annual ride with my great friend Brett. We try to get away for at least a long weekend every year, and this year we decided to get as much of the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route in as possible in four to five days. I kind of thought we should be able to get it done in five, even with travel to and from the route and Spokane, but wasn't sure. So the plan as we started was he would ride with me as long as he could before heading back to Spokane for work on the following Tuesday.

We left his house reasonably early, just after 8 am on a crisp but sunny morning. Heading generally northwest, it took us just less than four hours to get to Oroville. This did include a handful of stops, particularly Grand Coulee Dam. The only place we could find open in Oroville for an early lunch was the America's Family Grill, the brewery not opening till 4:30, and the other tavern permanently closed. There were many closed businesses there, but it still didn't seem too run down a place. Lunch was ok.

The Loomis-Oroville Road is a joy through the canyon along the Similkameen River. Picturesque and nice twisties. We didn't actually go the start at the Canadian Border, but were within a couple miles of it. The "ghost town" of Nighthawk didn't look very abandoned, other than a couple of barns. More a working ranch than anything. Palmer Lake was pretty, and the route heads up into the mountains just south of there.

It had stormed pretty well within the last few days, so the two track roads were still damp with some mud and puddles. Mostly this kept the surface firm and dust free, but did cause a couple of issues here and there. Overall the route down to Conconully was relatively fast and not terribly technical, though I'd say it was a smidgen more challenging than the majority of the IDBDR.

Brett is out of practice in riding with me. He really hesitated before pulling onto the sidewalk at the Grand Coulee Dam visitor center.


Palmer Lake


(Photo BA)

Looking back on Palmer Lake from heading up the hill.


Brett still rocking the KLR. The Tractor never lets you down.


Though it's not as fast as the F800GSA.

He keeps threatening to buy a KTM 1090 Adventure just to kick my ass. We'll see.

It climbed into the forest pretty quickly.


Like on the IDBDR, there's plenty of burn scar, though proportionately much less.


We met this couple riding their Honda Trail 110's on the northermost sections of the WABDR from their cabin in Methow.

Neat seeing the posties out on the trail. Though they weren't making fast time, the were putting right along.




The ride into Conconully was fun, and pretty short. We completed the entirety of Section 6 in less than three hours.

September 12, 2019 (continued): WABDR Section 5 - Conconully to WA20

We took advantage of the remaining light to get a little further south. The up and over from Conconully to WA20 was at times more technical, especially the climb up from the Rose town site; quite steep and rocky, though nothing too tough. Camp was at the Washington State Parks campground at Leader Lake.

The first part was a lot drier, though the higher elevations of this short section were quite wet.


We couldn't have asked for a nicer September day. Temps didn't get over 70F, and clear and sunny all day. The shadows were starting to get long at this point.


Some graffiti that didn't bug me so much.

Though the trash did.

(Picture BA)
Yes. I stop for pictures frequently.




After meeting many cows, we arrived at Leader Lake in plenty of time for Brett to put his tent up for the first time ever.

It was a nice evening relaxing in camp. Despite the cows wandering through.

(Picture BA)

(picture BA)

Video of the entire day's ride. (video 9:44)

September 14, 2019: WABDR Section 5 - Leader Lake to Lake Chelan

I had a very restful night at Leader Lake Campground. Brett unfortunately did not. He's had some gastro issues and was already pretty wore out from an Alaska trip he got home from two days before we left on this ride. He bucked up and carried on, but it was obvious he wasn't feeling well.
Whenever I'm near Twisp, I like (NEED) to stop by the Twisp Bakery to enjoy one of the best pastries ever: a Cinnamon Twisp. I'd say it's number two on my short list of favorite baked goods, right after the huckleberry bear claw at Polebridge Mercantile. So after debating whether to skip the corner of the route that runs south from WA20 to WA153 The Methow Highway, we decided to run that, then backtrack north to Twisp for breakfast. We got out of camp just before 8(!!) to beautiful sunny weather, and a very comfortable 58F.

Kind of similar terrain as the day before, with not quite as much elevation.


But still some great riding.




It was quite a diverse riding experience in that hour or so. Some rough two track, normal gravel forest roads, packed dirt logging access, and even some old narrow pavement before dropping onto a paved county road.






Then a quick six miles north to morning ecstasy.

The Cinnamon Twisp in all it's glory.

Back onto the route took us west of the Methow Valley, up onto Cooper Ridge.


We spent twenty miles or more on this ridgeline, staying above 5800 feet.


Sooner than I expected, Lake Chelan came into sight.

Still quite a long ways off still.

It also became increasingly overcast, though no rain fell for the day.


Very rugged area.




We stopped at the top of Cooper Peak for a good look see.




The elusive DuPont Owl maintained his vigil throughout our stop.

Not exactly sure what he's looking at though.
(pic BA)

Stays calm, that one.


Brett didn't quite let me fully deploy the ADV Salute.

(pic BA)

What I normally look like when stopped. Taking pics.

(pic BA)

The ride down the hill into Chelan was pretty easy, if longer than one expects. I was pretty stoked after a great morning, with more to follow as it was only a little after 1. Brett's guts had other things in mind though. After waiting a couple of hours to see if it would settle down, he decided to head home while he had good highway access. He was feeling weak and didn't feel up to any sort of challenging riding.

I hated to see him go, as it had been fun riding with someone else for a change. But he insisted I carry on.

OK.

Video of the ride from Leader Lake to Chelan. (video 3:49, with a soundtrack)

September 13, 2019 (cont.): Section 4 - Chelan to Ardenvoir

After seeing Brett off and fueling up, I headed west along the shore of Lake Chelan to 25 Mile Creeek State Park. This is all pretty busy pavement serving all the lake shore homes and resorts. Eventually I turned up Shady Pass Rd. I've been in this area a lot in the past on fires, but had never taken the left at the first wye in the road, where the WABDR goes. Just past the Snowberry Bowl CG, the route turns back north towards the lake. This is also where an alternate "easy" route stays on this main road. The following section was a blast, being pretty technical and challenging. I came across three others on the WABDR, the first on a Husky 701 with his buddies on 1050 and 1100 BMW GS's. Unsurprisingly, the two on the BMW's were pretty gassed. This part is called "The Jungle" on the WABDR map, and rightly so. Very wet on the north face, lush with vegetation in several spots, and the recent rains hadn't done the steep roads any favors.

The remaining of the route to Ardenvoir was pretty standard forest roads, though with several fresh ruts and washouts. I stopped in the community at the Ardenvoir General Store, which as in many small towns is also the tavern. It didn't look too promising for supper, so I figured the safe bet would be something out of the freezer. But I have to say that those chicken strips were the best I can ever remember having, with tasty fresh cut fries. I'd not hesitate to stop in the future to try something else. I wild camped at the first flat spot I could find after climbing up out of the Entiat River valley, along side a very seldom used forest road.

Along Lake Chelan



Relic from logging.



Just after the first technical stretch heading towards the Jungle.

With the common qualifier, "It's steeper and harder that it looks!!"



(Video 1:56)


Several areas overgrown like this, but most of them were so muddy I didn't want to stop.





Some nice views of Lake Chelan.




Once up the canyon side, it was mostly rolling around in high meadows and forest.






The road surfaces south of Lake Chelan have a much finer soil. It would at times degrade to the moon dust that always seems to be wherever one fights forest fires.

Thankfully with the rain and lack of traffic, there weren't too many really loose sections.

One last sighting of Lake Chelan.


The undesignated camp site.


It was a nice relaxing hour or so before dark after camp was set up. Even more useful in that I had enough cell service to get text messages in and out, so caught up with some folks, and ensured that Brett got home ok. He got back to Spokane in about the time it took me to get to Ardenvoir. Other than losing my riding buddy, it was a nice day.

September 14, 2019: WABDR Section 5 (continued) Ardenvoir to Cashmere

A very restful night at my secluded point above Ardenvoir was real nice. I skipped breakfast as I expected to not take too long to get to Cashmere, where I suspected I would be able to find an unmasculine European coffee to partake of. The riding was pretty nice, nearly all of it maintained forest roads. There was quite a bit of ruts and other water damage from recent rains, and the clouds felt threatening all day. The weather forecaster did have a correct interpretation of the chicken bones in the bowl and no rain fell.

My basic camp in the morning. You can see about all of the flatish area. Otherwise steep up and down.




The route passes under these high tension lines a few times over a few mile stretch.




The Cascade Mountains get higher and steeper not much further west.




Big difference in looking to the west...

...versus the east.


First glimpse of Mt. Rainer.












As expected, fuel for both the bike and myself were available in Cashmere. Took an hour or so for a late breakfast, then headed out on the next leg!

September 14, 2019 (cont.): WABDR Section 3 Cashmere to Ellensburg

Before leaving Cashmere, I stopped at the Liberty Orchards gift shop for some Aplets and Cotlets. My GF is from Pennsylvania and had never heard of these, so I purchased a care package of mixed flavors for her.

There was a constant stream of picture taking, so you'll just have to deal with the bystanders.

In the Wenatchee River Valley, pretty much any significant flatish piece of land will have orchards (or in recent times vineyards) on it. Here's a pear orchard.

There weren't good pull offs where it would take a nice picture of the orchards. It's harvest time.


The short hop on the back way from Cashmere to Wenatchee was pretty straight forward, though it had a lot of traffic. Saturday and no rain means the mountain bikes are pretty thick.

After heading back into the hills along the way to Mission Ridge ski resort, the views were similar as from the north side of the Wenatchee River.


The roads at first were groomed gravel.


Shortly later, I met Dan (if I remember correctly). He was doing some of the WABDR as a day ride.


He warned me that the next bit had some serious wash outs. He wasn't kidding.

Looking up hill.

And downhill.

There were three or four of these ten foot deep or more wash outs in around a quarter mile.


A lot of the rest of the section ran along this ridge line. The north face was solid rock.


Looking back towards Wenatchee.


The roads were fun.





Mt. Rainier is much closer.




Coming down into the Kittitas Valley, northwest of Ellensburg. It's always windy there.


Video from all along the day (3:02 w/ music).

Someday I'll remember to hit the GoPro when going through the more challenging stuff.

This section was pretty short, timewise. It was only three-ish in the afternoon when I got to Ellensburg. However, the next couple of days forecast didn't look very friendly. Rain for at least two days. Given how tore up this last one had been from the rain, I decided to continue to try to make better decisions, and slabbed it home in three hours, hoping that I can return before the snow flies to complete the last two sections. We'll see.

thanks for sharing your trip

Great stuff as usual you ridin’ fool! Awesome!

Thanks! The unseasonable weather put a damper on Brett and my plans of finishing the WABDR this weekend, as well as the GS being in the shop. Hopefully I can wring a few hundred more miles of riding out of the NW before snow comes for real. Southern climes beckon in any case.

Thanks again for your support. Glad someone gets enjoyment out of this as I’ve gotten so much from others reports.